Can I feed my ball python 2 hoppers every 6 days?

In the title. I fed my 18 inch or so, 3/4ths inch thick ball python a hopper 5 or 6 days ago, and it pooped 3 or so days later and immidiatly was active again. I looked around and it seems it's okay to feed it 2 hoppers every 6 days, 1 makes no lump and 2 makes a nice lump and the snake is much more full.. is it bad that I feed it 2? It very aggresively ate the second.

That's fine :)

Okay thanks... What should I move up to... And when?

If it'll eat 2 hoppers you most likely can just feed a small adult mouse. I'd try and find a small adult. Most of my hatchlings are already on small adults. So I don't think you'll have any issues.


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Yea problem is I bought 30 hoppers and fuzzies... thats what the guys at the herp show told me to get... should I just feed them all off for 15 weeks or w/e or what? I can't waste 35 bucks

Yeah just keep feeding those until you run out, then move up in size if you need :)

Edit: if he/she grows quickly, then start feeding every 5 days instead of the 6 or 7.

I would feed off the way you are for the next 15 wks and by then you might even want to forget about mice and move on to rats. Heck, about 1/2 way through you might even be moving on to 3 at each feeding.

You can feed your animal multiples, but for the sake of economy it's better to get him onto one appropriately sized prey item. Multiple small items will cost you more to feed the same amount. This is one reason I keep my pythons on rats. 130 gms of medium rat (about the middle of the range for medium) costs $1.50 or less f/t from the source I use. Same wt of hopper mice would run $3.90, in large adult mice it would still be close to $3.00. Even when comparing rats to rats the smaller size are more expensive to feed than the larger per gram, so it makes good sense to feed the correct amount by giving the correct size of rodent.

I want my snakes to be well fed, but I do not want to waste money. I can't see any sense to spending double or more to feed them mice or multiple undersized rats when there is no nutritional benefit in doing so. That is money I could otherwise spend for better housing, a fund for vet care when it is needed, and for purchasing more snakes.

Wow thanks alot. I will take this into mind. I do realise I need to move to one item, much less confusion and stress if she ate enough. is it true they eat as much as they need, or will they make themselves pop

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Originally Posted by samy109

Wow thanks alot. I will take this into mind. I do realise I need to move to one item, much less confusion and stress if she ate enough. is it true they eat as much as they need, or will they make themselves pop

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Ball Pythons and most others will typical refuse food when they are no longer hungry.

i feed my hatchlings right out of the egg small adult mice. occasionally a hopper if they are a small hatchling. feed off what you have and then go up to a more appropriate size. it will be about 1 and a half times the biggest part of the snake.
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