new 6-year-old... feeding question

I just got a new 6 year old ball. Her previous owner didn't give me a lot of info, but he did say that he fed her frozen mice.
My other ball I fed live mice from the time he was a baby and I never have had problems with him eating.
I prefer to feed with live mice but I am afraid that my new snake being 6 years old and only have eaten frozen mice that she might not want to eat the live mouse or that it might cause her stress, ect.
I was hoping to get some opinions on what to feed her! She is a little more than 3 feet and a little thicker than a paper towel tube.
Does anyone have experience with this?
Thank you.:confused:

its much easier to get a snake onto live prey than the other way around :gj:

there is no way she is only 3 feet if she is 6 years old... something isnt checking out with that btw... and if she is an adult she should be eating rats not mice..

Since she was just being fed mice, she sounds a bit on the tiny side. She should be eating small rats at least.

It would probably be very easy to switch her to live prey. It is usually most difficult to switch from live to f/t, not f/t to live.

I agree too. She should at least be eating small rats and she's can't be 6 years old and only 3 feet long. My last BP was 3 1/2 feet long and she'd eat a small rat about every 2 weeks.

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Originally Posted by crusher

there is no way she is only 3 feet if she is 6 years old... something isnt checking out with that btw... and if she is an adult she should be eating rats not mice..

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I thought she seemed small for 6 years old as well. He was keeping her in a 55 gallon and I am now keeping her in a larger enclosure. Perhaps the larger habitat and eating live mice(thanks for the advice, btw) will help her to grow a little.
Do you think I should take her to see a vet if she is this small?
She seems very healthy and happy.

also the guy could have been wrong about her age.
she was free on craigslist and he barley said 15 words when we picked her up.

How do you know for a fact it is a her :P

I too would say she definetly should be on small rats, If for some reason you can't get rats she should be eating multiple mice depending on her weight

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Originally Posted by kbiddy

also the guy could have been wrong about her age.
she was free on craigslist and he barley said 15 words when we picked her up.

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the snakes I gotten like that were all more less here you go enjoy and bye.

I emailed the most rescent one back tryingo t find out what they were feeding ( him they claim which might be right since the snake seems small and does have a slight bludge on the other side of the butt ) was 5 years old and only as biig as my 2007 male who isa pickie eater at time ( does not like large prey items) I do keep my snakes in small 41Q tubs to help control the heat and the humidity for them.

Guys snakes grow and different rates just like us as people.

I have some snakes that are 5 years old and still only 6-800 grams. As they will only eat maybe 10 times a year. Each snake is different and there's no set rule saying that every 6 year old snake should be this size and eating that. It just doesn't work like that. When fed mice she could of stunt the growth a bit but it could also be a very slow grower.

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Originally Posted by kbiddy

I thought she seemed small for 6 years old as well. He was keeping her in a 55 gallon and I am now keeping her in a larger enclosure. Perhaps the larger habitat and eating live mice(thanks for the advice, btw) will help her to grow a little.
Do you think I should take her to see a vet if she is this small?
She seems very healthy and happy.

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A bigger enclosure is not what you are looking for.

Ball pythons are secretive snakes and actually do better in smaller enclosures. a 55g is way too big. I would go with a 20g long or a 30g breeder.

Also, you need to be feeding that snake either 3-4 mice or a small rat.

What Kaorte said. A 55 gallon is large enough for a big female, let alone a tiny 3-footer. Cage size has zilch to do with how quickly or how large any animal grows. Including fish. That business is nothing but a myth--the reason some fish don't grow well in small tanks is because they run out of oxygen. Then they die--so it doesn't really count. What controls how quickly a ball python grows, and its adult size, is how much it eats, and its genetics.
I would definitely get the ball python sexed. A 3 1/2 foot snake at age 6 is more likely to be a male. But if it is female, it may just be small because it was seriously underfed.
Once in a while, you'll get a snake that's just smaller than usual, though. Based on the report of how much the snake was fed, I would be very surprised if it isn't underweight, in addition to being small overall.

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Originally Posted by snakesrkewl

how do you know for a fact it is a her :p

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+1

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

How do you know for a fact it is a her :P

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I agree maybe it is a male, that could explain a smaller size snake. And also most people that aren't really into snakes know that they could go once a month on a meal and might take that approach literally. We have no idea how poorly the previous owner took care of this snake.