Prey Size

I'm feeding my BP every 7 days, 1 live adult mouse and 1 f/t fuzzy (partially cause I want her to continue being exposed to f/t and partially cause the mouse doesn't seem to be enough to sate her).

Don't know her age or weight. She was hatchling sized in January when my daughter impulse bought her, so I'm assuming she's a yearling. She's around 28 to 30" long.

Should I switch her to small rats? She has a very strong feeding response so it shouldn't be a problem, I'm just unsure if I'm on the right size.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...d&id=785733059

Hm, posted a link to a pic but it didn't seem to work. Let me try again.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...4&id=785733059

you should probably have that snake on small f/t rats not a mouse. Find a scale to mass your snake, it should be consuming about 10-15% of its body mass every week

Wish I had the foresight to take her to the pet store with me, they have scales there. As it is, after I got home, I snuck her down to the grocery store and weighed her on their highly inaccurate produce scales. She's approx 400 grams. (slightly under 1/2 a kilo, about 7/8 lb).

The frozen small rat is defrosting, I got it cause the live ones looked *huge*. Tho I take it they are comparable in weight? Oh well, this seems to be my week for upsizing, I'm bumping my little boa from fuzzies to small mice her next feed.

[QUOTE=zantedeschia;1211334]Wish I had the foresight to take her to the pet store with me, they have scales there. As it is, after I got home, I snuck her down to the grocery store and weighed her on their highly inaccurate produce scales. She's approx 400 grams. (slightly under 1/2 a kilo, about 7/8 lb).QUOTE]

LOL i love it, i take my snake the store with me in the summer. and its funny if it were a dog people would be all over you tellin you to get it out. But if you got a snake wrapped around your neck people tend to leave you alone.

Im in the same boat as you right now. Only I have bought a live rat cuz he has only ever eaten live mice. Got home with the rat to find Jerry in full blue. Now im trying to onvince myself this rat named lucky is not very cute and is still food for when he sheds. and ya im with you the live small rats look huge. but lucky is still smaller then Jerys widest girth. i think ill thumpthe rat onte head before feeding since this is his first rat

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Originally Posted by zantedeschia

Wish I had the foresight to take her to the pet store with me, they have scales there. As it is, after I got home, I snuck her down to the grocery store and weighed her on their highly inaccurate produce scales. She's approx 400 grams. (slightly under 1/2 a kilo, about 7/8 lb).

The frozen small rat is defrosting, I got it cause the live ones looked *huge*. Tho I take it they are comparable in weight? Oh well, this seems to be my week for upsizing, I'm bumping my little boa from fuzzies to small mice her next feed.

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You could just feed multiple mice for a while until she is big enough to take a rat. But, the small rat is probably a good size for her. As long as it is around 10-15% of the snakes body weight, she can probably take it just fine.

As for the boa, you might be under feeding it. My friend has a boa and we were feeding it similarly to how I feed my ball pythons. Well apparently that is way off. That tiny snake could take huge rats no problem after about 6 months. I am not a boa person though, I really don't have a clue about them!

Enigma, my boa, is a Nicaraguan boa, a dwarf type. She was tiny when I picked her up first week in September, I could cup her in one hand. Talk about underfeeding, the pet store was giving her pinks - she was thin! I immediately switched her to fuzzies and stayed with that cause she was a very blase feeder. It's only been the past 2 feeds that she's started striking (yay!). And she's grown tremendously in 2 1/2 months, more than the python or my corns.

To get back on topic, Paradox dispatched the small rat with gusto. Man, she scarfed it down fast. Now I got bigger poos to look forward to, huh?

Picked up a pack of small mice cause I thought it was time to upsize my boa's prey. She refused the small mouse but took a fuzzy.

Looks like Paradox is gonna get 5 small mice her next feeding. :P

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Originally Posted by zantedeschia

Enigma, my boa, is a Nicaraguan boa, a dwarf type. She was tiny when I picked her up first week in September, I could cup her in one hand. Talk about underfeeding, the pet store was giving her pinks - she was thin! I immediately switched her to fuzzies and stayed with that cause she was a very blase feeder. It's only been the past 2 feeds that she's started striking (yay!). And she's grown tremendously in 2 1/2 months, more than the python or my corns.

To get back on topic, Paradox dispatched the small rat with gusto. Man, she scarfed it down fast. Now I got bigger poos to look forward to, huh?

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I share your excitement! I have noticed my animals have been growing and they are looking more and more stunning.

And I *had* to reply because I hear you on the "big food = big poops" - lol... one reason why I do not miss keeping the giants!

Did you feed the boa f/t before or was this the first time? She might need more presentation done to initially accept f/t. i.e. hair dryer warm up of prey :)

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Originally Posted by CA cowgirl

Did you feed the boa f/t before or was this the first time? She might need more presentation done to initially accept f/t. i.e. hair dryer warm up of prey :)

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The pet store I got her from was giving her live pinkies, I started her immediately with f/t fuzzies. She's a funny feeder. Usually I have to put her in the tub and cover it with a towel and leave her alone for her to feed. But she has struck a couple times, the first time she struck, she immediately dropped it, kind of like she surprised herself! Tho this latest feeding was the third time she's refused food.

She may have refused the f/t small mouse cause it was black. I do think it's the right size for her, but she doesn't, and since she's still being a finicky feeder, I'm not gonna argue with her.

And to put this back on ball pythons, Paradox got the rejected mouse, which she struck at twice and missed twice before she hit it the third time. All my snakes seem to do better with white mice for some reason.