I think i switched from Mice to small rats too quickly

So I Bought my ball at the beginning of the year and have been feeding it 1 small mouse once every 1 week for the most part (once every 2 weeks occasionally) Last month i was beginning to notice that even the biggest small mouse didn't seem to be the size of the thickest part of my snakes body. I took a vacation recently and I hadn't fed my snake for about 3 weeks so last night I went to the pet store and got the smallest small rat they had partly because of my observation from last month and also because i knew my ball was starving by its cage behavior .When I placed the rat in the cage after pre-scenting the room he quickly killed and begin to swallow it, my concern comes in here though it took my ball a considerably long time to swallow the rat and this morning when i woke up he was still in the same spot as last night usually he would be in his hide for the whole day after a feeding and his stomach is unusually larger that the rest of his body its not ridiculously huge but it kind of got me wondering was the prey to large for him. :( oh and hes about 24 to 28 inches not sure of the weight.

in no expert so i'll leave this to the people that know
but i would recoment keeping an eye on him for a bit and if theres no regurge in the next couple of hours i recon he'll be ok dont worry and im sure someone with experience will spot this and offer up some help my bp is about the same size and hes taking large weeners every week and from what ive seen large weeners arnt much smaller than small rats

You just want to make sure the prey is no bigger around than the largest area of girth on the snake. It sounds as though you are probably fine....as the other stated just keep an eye on him. Plus it is better to stay on a every 5-7 day feeding schedule. Rats tend to have a little more "ump" for the snake than the mice. I would say he is probably pretty satisfied especially after not eating for 3 weeks.

By the way congrats on easy switch to rats!!

Thank you both for your input im hoping when i get home from work that everything will be ok.

He'll be fine - he's simply digesting. A significant looking lump won't hurt him. :)

most commonly once they switch to larger meals after the work they put into eating they just wanna lay still and recoop, i have a few that eat and move around like crazy and some that will eat and wont even get their whole body in a comfortable looking position

What can I say, I tend to feed big. I have two brand new 2010 balls that I feed hopper rats. I don't even waste time with mice. A couple of my 09s, when they eat big smalls or medium rats they tend to lay in one spot until they rest up, because it takes a lot of energy to swallow something that large!

Same thing with my burm. When I feed her her weekly pig :O she has a tendency to stay stretched out for at least a few hours before she curls back up in her hide.

I wouldn't worry about the snake, if it is too much for him, he will regurgitate it. Congrats on getting him on rats!

lol yeah this happened to me once when i feed my female a xxl rat, she laid streched out for like 2 days and didnt eat for like 2 1/2 weeks, i dont do that anymore, so he could be just tired and full and dont feel like there is any danger around him. kinda sounds to me your a good ball keeper:gj:

Like others said, a lump will do no harm. I like seeing my girl with a lump in her, actually. It's definite satisfaction. Just make sure your BP is sitting on the warm side so it doesn't take too long for that large prey item to break down in his stomach, and possibly turn rancid.

However, like others didn't point out (and I don't mean to start an argument here), but if you went on vacation for 3 weeks, who did you have to drop in every few days to check water bowls and spot clean for you? If you had someone to do that, they could have easily fed the snake for you as well. Provided they didn't mind mice.

I have noticed other people have commented, but I noticed the same thing with my snake when I gave her, her first rat. I thought it was to big for her because she took so long to get it down that I thought she was choking on it. But after some time, she got it down fine. When I put her back in her tank (because I do feed in a different box) she didn't move to much. I let her be for the whole 48 hour recommended period, because I knew it was a bigger then normal prey. But when I gave her, her second rat, she got it down faster and is taking rats great for me now.
From my own personally experience, I would say don't worry about it. And a lump in the belly is just fine. I love seeing the lump in my snakes belly. It show's to me she got down a nice sized meal. Congrats on the first rat!

This last week I had to feed my snakes small rats when they normally take weaned because where I normaly get em was closed. Theres no problem nor do I expect any. If nothing else skip a week of feeding to allow extra time for it to digest.

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Originally Posted by Moofins07

Like others said, a lump will do no harm. I like seeing my girl with a lump in her, actually. It's definite satisfaction. Just make sure your BP is sitting on the warm side so it doesn't take too long for that large prey item to break down in his stomach, and possibly turn rancid.

However, like others didn't point out (and I don't mean to start an argument here), but if you went on vacation for 3 weeks, who did you have to drop in every few days to check water bowls and spot clean for you? If you had someone to do that, they could have easily fed the snake for you as well. Provided they didn't mind mice.

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( no argument here i understand your concern as a fellow snake lover) I had my best friend come by and replace the water and spot clean 2x a week but I couldn't get him to feed Guillermo because he has a thing about small rodents.

:bow: Good News when i got home yesterday the lump was noticeably smaller and Guillermo was sticking out of his warm side hide (the lump prohibited him from getting in all the way) and when i awoke this morning he was completely in his usual cool side hide. I read the care sheet again and it stated that after a larger than usual meal sometimes balls will go into those dreaded non feeding periods that i hear so much about well so ill keep you all updated since im going to try and feed again on Friday and hopefully ill have some more good news. Thank you all for your comments and input.

The simplest answer to your question, is that if the snake did not regurge, then the meal was not too big. With that said, too large of a meal, could make the snake not eat for about 2-3 weeks (I saw someone comment on this already). If done enogh times, you may get a snake that will only eat once a month when it reaches adulthood. It doesn't help when trying to get a snake on a consistent feeding schedule to feed them large meals.

Hope that helps,

You should not have any issues. I would just suggest not handling for at least two or three days, just to allow the snake to keep it's meal down. As long as the snake keeps the meal down, there should be no issue, but handling could make the snake uncomfortable, and possibly regurgitate, which is why I suggest not handling for a little while. Other than that, you should be good to go.

P.S. You can try to feed the snake next week your usual prey item, but don't be upset if it does not eat.