Feeding

i have a normal bp and he is about 8 months old the person i got him from was feeding him twice a week. Would it be ok to take him down to one medium mouse a week instead of 2 smalls a week?

Yes. That will be fine.

An 8 month old eating small and medium mice? Sounds like it needs more food in general. Do you have a weight on him? You want to be feeding him food that is about as thick as his widest part unless you have a scale. Then go for something around 10-15% of the snakes weight until hes about 500g. Then drop it down to a maintenance feeding schedule.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sauzo

An 8 month old eating small and medium mice? Sounds like it needs more food in general. Do you have a weight on him? You want to be feeding him food that is about as thick as his widest part unless you have a scale. Then go for something around 10-15% of the snakes weight until hes about 500g. Then drop it down to a maintenance feeding schedule.

---

I don't have a scale but the former owner was feeding him a mouse pup that was like 2 days old without its eyes open so I went up to a small he does great with it I tried medium one feed and he seemed to be having trouble getting it down so I went back to small. He is not that big around just long he is just a little over a foot long and he is big around as maybe a half dollar I don't know if that helps any with his size

Mouse pup is too small. You could do a small for a few weeks then bump him back up. About as big as their girth is normal for feeding. It should leave a reasonable bulge after consumption

Mouse pup? Do you mean rat pup? Usually a newborn mouse is referred to as a pink or pinky while a newborn rat is a pup. They are much different in size.

It was small with brown hair on it she said it was 2 days old I asked what to feed and she said mice so I just assumed that is what that was. This is my first snake so I am still learning all the words and stuff that goes along with it

I don't even feed mouse pups to hatchlings. I start them with either smalls or hoppers, depends on their size. I am curious to see the size of your snake as I feel you may be underfeeding it. I currently have a hatchling who wants nothing to do with rats so she's on medium mice.

I kinda misspoke earlier. In actuality a newborn rat is also a pink or pinky just like with mice. At two days old either a mouse or rat is considered a pinky. A rat pup in more on the same line with a hopper or sub adult mouse.

Here is a great picture to show rats compared to mice.
http://thebrassgecko.com/images/Imag...s/feeders.jpeg

I cant get my pic to upload of him the biggest part around of him is about the size of a quarter not yet half dollar I got him out earlier to hold, I give him bigger then what she was so I thought that would be ok but I am wondering too if he is getting enough but the medium size frozen/thawed mouse I gave him that one time he seemed to have trouble getting it down. Do u think I should just go on up to mediums and do twice a week for a little while and see how he does?

There is no reason to over feed the snake and if its eating at all that is good. I would stick to a weekly feeding of small mice until it can easily take a medium. You can overfeed a snake, especially a captive snake. If you feed it slow and grow it slow it will be healthier in the long run.

It looks like she gave me a rat fuzzy. I bought small frozen mice and medium at petsmart since that was the only place close to get them at the time

Well just feed the small and keep the mediums until your snake is ready.

Like many pet stores it sounds like the lady that helped you didn't know what she was doing. Once you get more seasoned you will become very frustrated at the bad advice and information you hear when you are in pet stores.

If he is the diameter of a quarter and about a foot long, yeah stick to either small mice or if you have a reptile shop in your area that breeds their own, try rat fuzzies. That's is what I fed my little girl when she about a foot long and she ate them no problem. Some places will call anything between fuzzy to pups all fuzzies. Just eye ball the size. The place I buy my rats from, she goes pinkies, fuzzies, weaned, small, medium, large, jumbo. Then you can just ask for a small large or small weaned or large weaned etc. But if he is eating good, now would be probably be a good time to try and switch him to rats while hes young as when he gets big, its much easier and cheaper to feed one small or medium rat every week or two than 4-5 mice every week or two.