What size should I...

I have a litter of rats coming soon, and I would like to ask for some input as to how large I should let them become before euthanizing them for my snake.

My snake is currently 200g, he has always been eager to eat, never rejected a meal, and has been on a consistent feeding schedule since I got him on the 9th of May, this year. For this reason, I am worried that he may be under weight. He was quite small when I got him, I would even go as far as to call him a runt. :8:

Currently he is on f/t rat pups which weigh in at around 20-25g each, every 6 days. I have been reading around, and the thought has crossed my mind that this might be too small of a meal for him.

BPs are fed 10-15% of their body weight. 20g is 10%, 30g is 15%. Better for the meal to be too big then too small.

I feed based on size appearance.
Works out pretty well and I don't have to get exact numbers and weigh them all the time.

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Originally Posted by abuja

Better for the meal to be too big then too small.

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Maybe you meant the opposite of what you wrote.

If not, then I think you may want to do more research before you go giving advice, as a newb yourself, to other newbs.

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Originally Posted by wilomn

Maybe you meant the opposite of what you wrote.

If not, then I think you may want to do more research before you go giving advice, as a newb yourself, to other newbs.

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I meant better it be 15% than 10%. 30g should be just fine for a 200g snake.

Wee bit argumentative.

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Originally Posted by abuja

I meant better it be 15% than 10%. 30g should be just fine for a 200g snake.

Wee bit argumentative.

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Actually not at all.

However, you seem to have a habit of writing one thing and meaning another OR, getting defensive when someone points out that you have, once again, written one thing and meant another.

It's YOUR responsibility to be correct in any advice you give, not the recievers to know that you have, once again, written one thing and meant another.

While mind reading is an option, I prefer not to use it in general. The stuff cluttering some peoples minds is just no fun at all.

I'm pretty sure you could do better if you wanted to. Maybe if you took two breaths between writing and hitting submit and used the time those breaths took to re-read what you have written to see just what someone else may think of it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by abuja

I meant better it be 15% than 10%. 30g should be just fine for a 200g snake.

Wee bit argumentative.

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He is not being arguementative. He is being critical because your info could be taken wrongly. As a general rule smaller is considered better. Ball Pythons are very skittish and scare very easy. If you put a meal in that is too large it is very possible that it will scare the ball python. If it scares or injures the snake then there is another strong possibility that the snake will go on a fast. So by saying bigger is better you could mislead people. To the OP...you do not need to get yourself hung up one weights of the food. It is not necassary. Feed a prey item approximately the size of the largest part of the snake. When it has consumed it you should be able to see a noticable lump in the snake. Feed that size prey item until the lump is not as noticable and then bump the prey item up to the next size. Hope this helps a little more. Todd

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Originally Posted by wilomn

Actually not at all.

However, you seem to have a habit of writing one thing and meaning another OR, getting defensive when someone points out that you have, once again, written one thing and meant another.

It's YOUR responsibility to be correct in any advice you give, not the recievers to know that you have, once again, written one thing and meant another.

While mind reading is an option, I prefer not to use it in general. The stuff cluttering some peoples minds is just no fun at all.

I'm pretty sure you could do better if you wanted to. Maybe if you took two breaths between writing and hitting submit and used the time those breaths took to re-read what you have written to see just what someone else may think of it.

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What I wrote is what I meant. Now I know you are a good advice-giver on bp.net, and I respect your advice, but I'm disagreeing with you on this. And I just read over my post 3 times before hitting submit.

Edit: Wes, I'm sorry, but I find some of your posts too harsh. It's not your problem, I'm just saying, some, like me, can misperceive your tone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by abuja

What I wrote is what I meant. Now I know you are a good advice-giver on bp.net, and I respect your advice, but I'm disagreeing with you on this. And I just read over my post 3 times before hitting submit.

Edit: Wes, I'm sorry, but I find some of your posts too harsh. It's not your problem, I'm just saying, some, like me, can misperceive your tone.

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In general, what you perceive is exactly what I want you to percieve, harsh or not.

Feed too large, get a regurge, welcome to Problem City. Feed to large, scare or injure your snake, once again, Problem City.

Feed smaller, welcome to Happy Snake Central.

I'm not much for coddling. You wanna learn, fine. You wanna pass on bad info, well, heck, that's the way it goes.

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Originally Posted by wilomn

In general, what you perceive is exactly what I want you to percieve, harsh or not.

Feed too large, get a regurge, welcome to Problem City. Feed to large, scare or injure your snake, once again, Problem City.

Feed smaller, welcome to Happy Snake Central.

I'm not much for coddling. You wanna learn, fine. You wanna pass on bad info, well, heck, that's the way it goes.

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15% of the snake's body weight is NOT too large, in my opinion. You keep your opinion, I'll keep mine.

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Originally Posted by abuja

15% of the snake's body weight is NOT too large, in my opinion. You keep your opinion, I'll keep mine.

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No, it isn't. Nor was it the point of several posts now.

Wee bit defensive eh?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilomn

No, it isn't. Nor was it the point of several posts now.

Wee bit defensive eh?

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Exactly, it was the point. I said "rather too big than too small", and I would rather feed 15% than 10%.

I am defensive, because you accused me of being wrong. Now, you are offensive for a reason I'm waiting to see.

Edit: Sorry to the OP for getting off topic.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Wes on this one. Erring on the side of too small is better than erring on the side of too large, for reasons already mentioned. Regurgitation with too large a meal being a primary reason.

My adults all get much less than 15% of their body weight a week for meals.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Wes on this one. Erring on the side of too small is better than erring on the side of too large, for reasons already mentioned. Regurgitation with too large a meal being a primary reason.

My adults all get much less than 15% of their body weight a week for meals.

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Totally agree Robin. I have two females that weigh in well over 2,000 grams and probably closer to 3,000 and I still feed them medium rats. They could easily take large ones but I know how finicky and skittish they can be so I just offer them mediums and they eagerly take them as well as any that dont get ate by my other snakes.
ABUJA, it is not so much that what you said was wrong but you did not go onto to explain yourself very well in the first post where you said bigger is better. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation and if someone that is looking for good solid advice reads that they might not understand what you were initially trying to imply. When giving advice ensure that you are descriptive in it and that the message you are trying to portay is actually portrayed. Just some simple advice. Todd

I feed my girl small rats. Shes prob around 400-500 grams? The rats weigh around 40-43 grams each and I def wont be going up in size for a long time. She doesnt have much of a lump when she eats, but I believe this is a good size for her.

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Originally Posted by MsPrada

I feed my girl small rats. Shes prob around 400-500 grams? The rats weigh around 40-43 grams each and I def wont be going up in size for a long time. She doesnt have much of a lump when she eats, but I believe this is a good size for her.

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Balls don't have the quickest of metabolisms, so I think that's the way to go. For the poll, I say 10% :gj:

Smaller is better than too big! 10% of the body weight is perfect! This is just my option! LOL!

Now that our snake has reached 200g, I'm seriously looking into the proper size to feed it, read this entire thread, and don't see what's wrong with what Abuja said about a bigger 15% being better than a smaller 10% or why he was jumped on. I think I'll start a separate thread for my question.

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Originally Posted by Patricia

Now that our snake has reached 200g, I'm seriously looking into the proper size to feed it, read this entire thread, and don't see what's wrong with what Abuja said about a bigger 15% being better than a smaller 10% or why he was jumped on. I think I'll start a separate thread for my question.

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Basically what I got out of it was that its better to take your chance with a smaller prey because if it is too large it can cause a regurge, and that will just cause a lot of other problems. This is why I made this a poll so I could really see people's opinions in a graph like image.

My rats are approaching feeding size, I have 17 of them(my pet rats are pros, lol). I think that is enough rats for about 14 weeks at the rate of 1 per 6 days.

Obviously I can't euthanize them all at the same small size of 30grams, because my snake will have grown a lot in those weeks.

How should I plan this?

Also what is the best way to measure a snake's girth? And does "as wide as the snake at its widest point" mean at the rat's hips, or its fat?

I have 3 09 Babies That i feed adult mice. Not sure if this helps you any but basically what i did (being noob myself) is picked out 3 mice that looked approx. The size of my snakes largest mid section. I wasnt really specific about measurments and such im not sure if that really matters. I mean you will obviously be able to tell if the prey item is too large. But id say choose something that looks too small before you choose somethin you think looks a bit too big. If it was too small and you find it was later idk why you couldnt feed maybe that snake on a 5 day break. Idk im new to this and its just my opinion. My real question is when do i need to step up to rats and how fast. My snakes fed on adult mice last sunday. Should i feed them adult mice again or when is the proper time to up there prey?
Thanks
Steven

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Originally Posted by Strtaylor

I have 3 09 Babies That i feed adult mice. Not sure if this helps you any but basically what i did (being noob myself) is picked out 3 mice that looked approx. The size of my snakes largest mid section. I wasnt really specific about measurments and such im not sure if that really matters. I mean you will obviously be able to tell if the prey item is too large. But id say choose something that looks too small before you choose somethin you think looks a bit too big. If it was too small and you find it was later idk why you couldnt feed maybe that snake on a 5 day break. Idk im new to this and its just my opinion. My real question is when do i need to step up to rats and how fast. My snakes fed on adult mice last sunday. Should i feed them adult mice again or when is the proper time to up there prey?
Thanks
Steven

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My original problem was solved, my new problem is I have nearly 20 rats (1/3 a year supply) that I need to euthanize in a staggered pattern to allow for my snake's growth.

You should probably switch to rats now, I was told its a good idea to get them on rats as soon as possible because they are more nutritious.

I am curious where this idea keeps coming from, that rats are 'more nutritious'. It's long been argued, logically, that since adult mice have fully calcified skeletons, they are more nutritious than baby rats, that don't have fully calcified skeletons.

The reason people switch ball pythons early is that it tends to be easier if you get them on rats while they're young, before they are too set in their ways. Ball pythons can be stubborn about switching to new prey items. It's very hard to keep an adult ball python well fed on mice, because they're too small, and the ball would have to eat a whole bunch of them at once. Nutrition isn't the factor there--it's food volume.

I suspect the same thing is at work when people discover that their ball pythons grow faster on rats than they do on mice. A baby rat that looks the same size as a mouse actually tends to be noticeably heavier. So, it's still greater food volume at work, not nutrition.

I take them out everyday now to check on their size, they grow so fast...here is a picture xD

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...4b11956a5b.jpg