Feeding transition?

Greetings from Lurkerville. ;)

I've been feeding Severus 1 live mouse every week for a while now, & he's eating well & gaining weight (yay!). From the information I received when I bought him, he's now approximately 2 years old, and will be growing as he gets older (as most bp's do).

My question is this. How will I know when he's ready for rats? Is it a matter of his age, or relative size? (ie, I should start feeding him rats at age 3, or when he's 4 feet long, etc)

And in light of that, here's my issue. I can handle giving him live mice. I'll admit that it took me a little while to get used to it, but I'm more or less "ok" w/it now. (I know, if I was so squeamish, why did I get a snake? Well, I didn't know that I was until I fed him. But like I said, I'm fine now.)

In your opinion, would it be ok for his health & well being if I kept feeding him mice (I'd be willing to feed him more often if necessary.) as he grows?

Thanks,
LC

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Originally Posted by LadyCrow

In your opinion, would it be ok for his health & well being if I kept feeding him mice (I'd be willing to feed him more often if necessary.) as he grows?

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Absolutely!!!

Ball pythons do not "require" rats in any way and will thrive just the same being fed mice their entire lives. There is no evidence anywhere to the contrary.

If you'd like to increase his feedings, two mice on feeding day (one at a time) is just fine.

I have a bunch of adult ball pythons that have been raised on mice and are doing just as good as the rat eaters!

-adam

Like Adam said, feeding mice their entire lives is fine. My ball pythons usually get 2 mice a week(sometimes an extra :)). I choose to feed mice because thats what my bps seem to like and I can get mice 10x easier than I can get rats. Good luck with the feeding.

the only time u should change ur BPs diet is if something is not going right so for example in my case Monty would not eat mice regularly he would eat one week then when ide try to feed him the next week he'd completely ignore it for a week or so


anyways when i switched to rats Monty started eating regularly and is now doing beautiful

also if ur not buying in bulk like for example adam is the sometimes its cheaper to buy one rat than multiple mice at least it is for me;)

We just asked this very question recently in an email. Sometimes the mice we get locally (we feed pre-killed) are a bit on the smallish side and our snake seems still hungry after 1. Basically we are going to try 2 next week and see how it goes. Also we were advised that sometimes when transitioning to multiple prey it's a good idea to offer 1 one week and 2 the next so as not to overdo it too quickly and allow the snake to "catch up" with the new feeding.

If the snake is doing well and will take the extra mouse fine and dandy, if it doesn't want it I'd just try again next feeding day and let the snake show you what it wants. If it's healthy and it's temps and everything are good, it'll eat what it needs to I would think.


~~Jo~~

I feed makeeda 4 mice at a time

Ive heard of some balls only striking once though so if thats the case with yours then i would probably feed it a small rat

I get nervous feeding makeeda rats though ive tried it and it takes her a lot longer to kill them than mice and they make more noise which kinda makes me sad....and a rat is more able to fight back then a mouse

Just to add to the mouse/rat thing, feeding a pet ball python mice is totally ok. It would be advantageous to feed a ball pythons rats when, for example, you breed them and you want to get a female back up to weight after producing a clutch of eggs. Just easier on the keeper, thats all.

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

Just to add to the mouse/rat thing, feeding a pet ball python mice is totally ok. It would be advantageous to feed a ball pythons rats when, for example, you breed them and you want to get a female back up to weight after producing a clutch of eggs. Just easier on the keeper, thats all.

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For what it's worth, each year I can get my mousers that lay eggs back up to weight just as easily as my rat eaters ... at least in my collection, it doesn't make a difference.

-adam

i'm pulling up this old thread. dexter is almost 6 months old... over 24" and 3" in diameter at his thickest spot. after he ate today he was looking around for another mouse... is it a good or bad idea for me to increase his feeding at this age. i don't want to end up overfeeding him.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

i don't want to end up overfeeding him.

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He'll let ya know if you're overfeeding him. As has been brought up many times before... they're very oportunistic feeders in the wild, and they'll eat until they fill up... then they'll fast and use up the stores until its "time" to eat again... At that "size" I would say two mice a week wouldn't be a problem at all...

Do you have a scale? It would help a lot more if you had a weight to go along with the size. At 6 months, I would GUESTIMATE that he could be eating rat pups or rat weans.... but I can't be sure at all... My 400g females all eat weaned rats, and my 900g male eats smalls... everyone under 400g gets rat fuzzies/pups.

Sorry to be so vague... but I really can't tell ya...

I've been feeding my 0.1 ball one mouse per week. I tried feeding two for the last two feedings. She kills and eats the first one no problem, then kills but doesn't eat the second one. Is it because she is full from the one mouse, and just constricts the second one because of instinct?....for reference she is about 28" long now.

Quick example of our male BP whose 8 months old and about 410 grams empty weight (though they all grow at different rates and eat differently but just an idea...)

Malachi has been on two rat pups every Thursday since late December 05. Mind you these are 13 to 14 day old pups (just out of the fuzzy stage). He takes them just fine with no huge lump. This week since he's a good size and girth for it we tried one pup of about 20 days old. Took it beautifully with his usual amazing feeding response. Since a 20 day old rat pup is significantly larger than a 13 day old one.....he should do just beautifully on one of this size for quite awhile. At some point he'll likely move up to either 2 of this size pups or one small weanling rat and so on as is appropriate for him. The 20 day old rat pup was basically the same size as a nice sized adult mouse or thereabouts.


~~Jo~~

dexter has been taking a full sized mouse since i brought him home. he's never had a problem feeding at all. (he's 5.5 months old)

i don't want to switch to rats, plan to stay with mice. they are much more available here than ratties and my daughter has decided she will only let me breed her ratties IF she can keep all the babies LOL - so that won't be happening any time soon LOL

he seems almost "too excited" when i put the mouse in with him. he used to be patient, waiting for the mouse to be within range etc... but now he just goes for it in a frenzy of "OMGoddess, I gotta eat NOW"

i don't have a scale but will go to wallmart and pick one up today. that should assist us...

adam... any comments from you???