size of prey

I know this has been discussed before, but what size rat do you think my bp could take? His girth on the biggest part of his body is about 3 1/2 inches. Right now I am feeding him rat pups but don't know if I should step up to weaned or small rats because i'm not really sure what the girth of them are. They only give the length and weight of them on the feeder sites.

-Troy

general rule of thumb is the size of the prey item around is generally the same size girth as the snake

others go by the prey should appx be 25 % bigger than the fatest part of the snake

I go just a tad bit bigger than overall girth , however its all in moderation


Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chong_python

general rule of thumb is the size of the prey item around is generally the same size girth as the snake

others go by the prey should appx be 25 % bigger than the fatest part of the snake

I go just a tad bit bigger than overall girth , however its all in moderation


Chris

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Chris I know this, the problem is I don't know how much bigger a weaned or small rat is compared to a pup.

Oh, my mistake

Where do you buy your rats?

If you have a local pet store close by drop in and ask to see the feeder rats.... If they dont have feeders check out the pet rats.
Then compare the size of the rat to the girth of your snake. And then just ask if it's a pup or weaned. That should give you a general idea

I dont order off feeder sites so i dont have first hand expirence, mabey some one eles here does

Chris

I get them from rodentpro.com He seems to take the pup pretty good but I don't want to try to feed him anything too big.

-Troy

Does he have a lump afterwards? If he does, then no need for bigger prey. If not, I would bump it up a notch :) You would be surprised at what they are able to take.

I prefer to feed ball pythons smaller prey items than you would feed a similarly sized snake of another species. Ball pythons are much less likely to fast if maintained on smaller than normal food items. I don't like to see anything close to a "lump" when feeding my ball pythons. I really prefer them to take smaller food items and eat more consistently.

-adam

At rodent pro they have pictures of some of the animals in comparison to a quarter and a dolalr bill, so what you can do is compare the size of the animal you already give him to the size of a quarter and figure it out from their.

There is a lump but it's not a huge noticeable one. If someone didn't know he had just eaten I don't know if they would really notice.

My bp is 5-6 inches around at her thickest part, and takes weaned or small rats already(I still remember when she was on those dinky little adult mice...*tear*). If your bp is 3-4 inches around, I'd keep it at rat pups for a bit longer. :)

I went ahead and ordered some weaned yesterday, I figure once I get them if they look too big he will be ready for them eventually. Today is feeding day (I think he knows it since he has been cruising his tank all day) I'm going to offer him 2 pups and see if he will take them both.

-Troy