Please help with feeding size and frequency - 28 inch BP

I would really appreciate some advice on when to get my snake on something bigger than hopper mice. She is 1 and 1/4 inches in diameter at the widest spot. She eats every Sunday morning and alternates between one hopper per week and two per week. The weeks she only eats one, by about Thursday, like right now, she starts yawning a bit more, and to me she seems a bit more exploratory. She just shed yesterday but even with that her every other thursday activity was in full force. I wonder if she is hungry a couple of days early when she eats only one on Sunday.

I really have two questions.

- should I try and feed her early or keep on the every Sunday cycle?

- when I hold up a hopper up to judge it by eye against her diameter, it appears a little smaller than her widest part and it doesn't leave a lump. Should I go to an adult mouse and do once per week?

Thanks in advance!

You could probably feed your snake 2 adult mice every 5 days. Would have to see a weight first to know for sure but you definately need to upgrade the prey size to at least 1 adult mouse every 5th day.

Th golden rule in BP feeder size is to feed it a prey item that is 10-15% of your snakes weight in grams and that is slightly larger than the girth of your snake. Follow that and you can't go wrong. 4-5 days for younger snakes and 7-10 days for adults.

My BP is about 28 inches and she takes a rat pup about once a week. The rat pup is a step up from a rat fuzzy according to my pet store. I'm actually thinking about bumping her to something even larger because she's really bulked up.

Something to consider is that the girth of the mouse usually doesn't include the fur. A mouse or rat might look bigger than it actually is because the fur is poofy.

Weight is the best method of determining prey size.

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Weight is the best method of determining prey size.

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See my post about 15%.

BUT, if you haven't invested in a set of scales yet, or cannot weigh your food item for whatever reason, the girth is a reasonable rule of thumb, from what I've heard.

X3 15% is a great rule of thumb a scale is almost as important as a Thermostat in my opnion and you can get one relatively cheap $15 or so if you look around I got mine at Harbor freight for $12 works great :)

I had a sense these hoppers weren't big enough. I don't have scales but I will pick up a scale tomorrow and weigh her so I have a good measurement. The girth is how I always heard to do it, but I like the weight idea a lot better. Makes sense that this would be a more accurate measurement.

Thanks for the feedback.

So tomorrow morning we are going to a reptile "swap meet" which is held twice a month not too far from where I live. I was told there are vendors that sell prey less expensive than does the pet store. The pet store prices aren't really outrageous or anything so I am wondering if there are pros and cons in regard to purchasing from a big pet store and factory packaged prey vs private sellers. I don't want to save a couple bucks at the expense of feeding my snake less quality. Quite the opposite I would rather spend a little more and get her the best. Opinions?

Tell you right now With snakes length is nothing, Toss that out the window and go by weight.

hatchlings to 100g Hoppers
101g-200g Sm Adults
201g-300g Adults
301g i switch to wean rats.

If they dont switch i just keep feeding adults or Retired breeders which are same size as wean rats.. Some feed larger prey items, but i feed every 3 days so i do slightly smaller meals.

I couldn't wait until tomorrow so I went and bought a scale. She is 241g. I will start with the adult mice and offer her two every five days. If she eats that much I'll be really happy. I guess she will be too.

You could easily feed rat pups, even small weanlings as for mice you could feed adult mice depending on girth. Again for a young snake you could feed every 5 days or so. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by willieg

I couldn't wait until tomorrow so I went and bought a scale. She is 241g. I will start with the adult mice and offer her two every five days. If she eats that much I'll be really happy. I guess she will be too.

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2 Adults is too much for him right now, thats totaling 40-50g a meal which is a small rat. At 241g a adult mouse or large fuzzy rat as their both in the 20g range is plenty.

The large adults at 20g still looked way to small IMO and it's less than 10% of her weight. I also spoke with a number of other breeders and keepers and everyone was consistent with the 10-15% range which would be 24 to 36g. I went with XL adults that range from 30 to 40. Even the biggest one at 40g was just exactly the size of the widest part of her body, so while it was a few grams over the 15%, since she's been eating hoppers for so long I felt comfortable giving her a little extra and just kept my eye on her the whole time to make sure she didn't struggle in any way. She took it and ate it in about 20 minutes.

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Originally Posted by willieg

The large adults at 20g still looked way to small IMO and it's less than 10% of her weight. I also spoke with a number of other breeders and keepers and everyone was consistent with the 10-15% range which would be 24 to 36g. I went with XL adults that range from 30 to 40. Even the biggest one at 40g was just exactly the size of the widest part of her body, so while it was a few grams over the 15%, since she's been eating hoppers for so long I felt comfortable giving her a little extra and just kept my eye on her the whole time to make sure she didn't struggle in any way. She took it and ate it in about 20 minutes.

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They can eat large prey items, But just because they can dont mean they should. Large meals is wasted food and money. You will notice if your feeding too much if your getting massive poops more often.

I been doing this a long long time and I get females up to breeding and laying eggs before their 2 years old. I dont power feed and i never feed a rat over 50-60g per week. Smaller meals more often gets you better results and keeps a consistent feeding than one large meal a week.

This 10-15% rule is a forum thing That surfaced, why I dont know but its not to be followed for every snake. If you want the snake to grow fast and fat, feed large meals, but keep in mind the snake will also slow up on eating later on to catch up to the larger meals.