new to ball pythons

Hello first time ball python owner here. I have a few questions. First though heres my set up. Floyd is living in a ten gallon tank. Hes about a foot long id say. Ive had him almost a week, and the store I got him at said he had eaten almost a week before the day I got him. Im running 78 on the cool side and 86-90 on the hot side. I dont know the hunidity, as I still need the tool to measure it. Im saving fir a better thermostat as I feel this zoo med one is very inconsistent.

On to my questions. Firstly, I tried feeding him a f/t pinky this morning ane he wanted nothing to do with it. I want to try feeding live but hopper mice are the smallest I can get in my area. Any suggestions? Im posting a picture of him alongside this to give a better idea of his size.

Secondly, does anyone have any suggestions as to floyds possible age?
http://i42.tinypic.com/2z9mdj8.jpg
Thanks!

possibly multiple hoppers :)

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Originally Posted by alykoz

possibly multiple hoppers :)

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im pretty sure the op meant that hoppers were too big? I believe the order goes Pinkies,peach fuzzies,fuzzies,then hoppers, weanlings,XL, and Jumbo.

You think they will be ok? Im worried they will.be too big. How big are hoppers supposed to be?

Hi Reaper,

Do you know what the store you got him from was feeding him? what store did you get him from?

I would assume unless you got him from petsmart, or some other chain store that doesnt know how to care for animals, he hasnt eaten pinkies in a while. He could just be waiting for some real food to come along. You could try just offering him some larger FT item before switching to hoppers. Not that there is anything wrong with live feeding but maybe in your area you can find a middle of the road FT.

Also, since animals that small lose heat so quickly it could be that by the time you are done heating the food to when you actually dangle it in front of your snakes face it has cooled down considerably. Just try keeping that in mind and see if it helps.

Good Luck,
Mike

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Originally Posted by norwegn113

im pretty sure the op meant that hoppers were too big? I believe the order goes Pinkies,peach fuzzies,fuzzies,then hoppers, weanlings,XL, and Jumbo.

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oh right haha. x) I'm a noob.
well I have a baby ball and she took a baby mouse like a champ! and that mouse was a pain in the ass too. tried escaping and bit my snakey :( she got her revenge though.

Apparantly he was fed live pinkys. Maybe that's why hes being picky. I might have to order something off the net then.

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Originally Posted by the_reaper

Hello first time ball python owner here. I have a few questions. First though heres my set up. Floyd is living in a ten gallon tank. Hes about a foot long id say. Ive had him almost a week, and the store I got him at said he had eaten almost a week before the day I got him. Im running 78 on the cool side and 86-90 on the hot side. I dont know the hunidity, as I still need the tool to measure it. Im saving fir a better thermostat as I feel this zoo med one is very inconsistent.

On to my questions. Firstly, I tried feeding him a f/t pinky this morning ane he wanted nothing to do with it. I want to try feeding live but hopper mice are the smallest I can get in my area. Any suggestions? Im posting a picture of him alongside this to give a better idea of his size.

Secondly, does anyone have any suggestions as to floyds possible age?
http://i42.tinypic.com/2z9mdj8.jpg
Thanks!

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Rarely with ball pythons is it ever a f/t vs live issue. ( I have 7 ballies and all of them have taken to f/t prey ) I have found that is more about correct size and temp of the food offered. Ball pythons are very sensitive when it comes to the size of the food offered. A mouse that is too small will often be "passed up". On more than one occasion while mine were growing they passed on a mouse , when offered the next size up, they struck. ( having many different aged snakes comes in handy because you will always have a variety of sizes of food available) Probably most important in f/t process is temp. Ball pythons use their heat pits to seek out prey so they are very sensitive to the temp of the mice offered. Mice that are either too hot or too cold are sometimes passed by snakes with a less aggressive feeding response. An IR temp heat gun comes in very handy for checking the temps of the food. Try experimenting a bit. once you find what works for your snake , write down the results. ( one side note, dont offer food too often , this can lead to a stressed situation only further complicating things. if your snake doesnt eat for you then wait a few days before offering more. He WILL eventually eat!)

Try fuzzy mice. I fed fuzzy mice the first two feeds with me, and mine looked a lil thin like that. Now I feed 9-12g hopper mice or 10-15 % of snakes weight.

Sent from my N861 using Tapatalk 2

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Originally Posted by the_reaper

You think they will be ok? Im worried they will.be too big. How big are hoppers supposed to be?

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This is for MICE only. Pinkies = 2-2.5 grams .5-1 inch , peach fuzzies = 3-4 grams 1-1.25 inches , fuzzies = 5-7 grams 1.25-1.5 inches , hoppers 8-12 grams 1.5 - 2 inches , weanlings = 13-18 grams 2-2.5 inches , large = 19-25 grams 2.5-3 inches , XL or Jumbo = 26-45 grams 3-3.25 inches. Hope this helps a bit?

I noticed you have only had him a week. we generally recommend to our customers that they don't attempt to offer food or even mess with the animal for a week. Then offer food. If they refuse wait a week leaving it alone and try again. a ball python will not eat if it feels insecure. It takes time with some to get acclimated to the new environment. Also we start many of our new hatchlings on hopper mice or rat fuzzies. Just look at the girth of the snake and feed something about the same size. Hope that helps

Is there a chart somewhere here that shows the progression of rats? Like approx weights for them as they grow? My newest Cheddar is a year old, 450 gram bp. He's getting ready to shed so not feeding him just yet but it's coming and I need to be prepared. He'll be at 3 weeks with no food as the seller had fed him a week before I got him. Between that and getting his tank set up and waiting for a thermostat and him now going into shed, poor guy has got to be getting hungry.

Based off of all the input im going to try feeding him frozen fuzzies next week if I can find some.

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Originally Posted by MsMissy

Is there a chart somewhere here that shows the progression of rats? Like approx weights for them as they grow? My newest Cheddar is a year old, 450 gram bp. He's getting ready to shed so not feeding him just yet but it's coming and I need to be prepared. He'll be at 3 weeks with no food as the seller had fed him a week before I got him. Between that and getting his tank set up and waiting for a thermostat and him now going into shed, poor guy has got to be getting hungry.

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Ms Missy, There is not a chart as far as " if your snake is 300 grams then feed him a 30 gram rat as far as I know , because everyones snakes are different but as rule of thumb I believe its 10-15% of your snakes weight. I personally use the girth method. I feed my ball pythons rats that are about as round as the thickest part of their bodies and it has worked great for me.

Rat progression by weight and size
Pinkies = 3-8 grams 1.5-2 inches
Fuzzies = 9-19 grams 2-2.5 inches
Pups = 20-29 grams 2.5-3.5 inches
Weanlings = 30-44 grams 3.5-4.5 inches
Small = 45-84 grams 4.5-6 inches
Medium = 85-174 grams 6-8 inches
Large = 175-274 grams 8-9 inches
XL or Jumbo = 275-374 grams 9-11 inches
XXL or Colossal = 375-474 11-13 inches
XXL or Mammoth = 475-600 grams 11-13 inches

I found this handy chart on another forum, and have it printed and in my herp room for reference.
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/attac...mice-image.jpg

Perfect!!

Thank you very much, I'll be adding that to my snake files. I'm going to switch my female to rats since my male already needs them, no sense in having to do both. Once I get this all taken care of and I settle into a normal schedule with the snakes, it might just be time to start a small rat breeding set up. Only one store here does them. Given that I have several friends here in need of a good supplier, I figure it will pay for itself in no time. :D

A hopper mouse or a fuzzy rat should be fine. There are pretty much no ball pythons that should be fed pinkies, they are way too small. You want to see the lump in your snake after it eats.

The only exception for feeding pinkies if you are assist feeding a hatchling or feeding a hatchling that is extremely underweight to help avoid overloading their system.



Here is a picture I took for size comparison. He already has a rat that size in his belly. The thing I learned with these guys is to feed them a prey item that looks slightly too big. That should be about the perfect size. I did not feed him two,I only put this one in for the picture. The snake was about 75 grams in this picture.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps9892e449.jpg

http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/...psb873d309.jpg