Feed size

So my ball is up to 570 grams. Thus far she has been getting adult mice in the 40 gram range. I think this is a bit small at this point tho. The problem with rats is i have yet to try and transition her to F/T so i dont want to order a 25 pack of rats that ultimately doesnt get eaten. Especially after i just saw the shipping rates for this stuff. So if im going to feed her more mice in the mean time how is that done? As in do i give her two mice at the same feeding or do i just decrease the number of days between feedings like 3 instead of 5?

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General rule for young snakes is 10-15% of it's body weight or a little larger than the thickest part of the BP. You can bump up a bit. It's try twitching to rats at this point too.

Dave

When I was giving two mice to my girl I would put one it, let her eat it. Then I would give her a min or so to realign her jaw and drop in the second one. Both my snakes switched over to rats without a battle, one day I just gave them rats and they instantly took them.

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Originally Posted by AKA Dave

General rule for young snakes is 10-15% of it's body weight or a little larger than the thickest part of the BP. You can bump up a bit. It's try twitching to rats at this point too.

Dave

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I plan on switching. Bot to rats and to F/T because unless i breed them myself i dont forsee having consitent access to the right sized rats all the time. As i stated tho im not going to drop $50 on F/T rats before i know if she will even transition to both those mediums. So just wanted to know if in the mean time i should feed to mice at once or one mouse every 3 days as opposed to every 5 days.

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Originally Posted by Rikoku

When I was giving two mice to my girl I would put one it, let her eat it. Then I would give her a min or so to realign her jaw and drop in the second one. Both my snakes switched over to rats without a battle, one day I just gave them rats and they instantly took them.

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Ok. Next feed I am going to try a F/T mouse as i bought some for the eventual transition. Hopefully she takes it and if so i will offer a second one shortly after. Really think i may just start breeding rats. Just a couple pairs. Frankly I just prefer feeding live but my pet store generally only has full grown rats.

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

Ok. Next feed I am going to try a F/T mouse as i bought some for the eventual transition. Hopefully she takes it and if so i will offer a second one shortly after. Really think i may just start breeding rats. Just a couple pairs. Frankly I just prefer feeding live but my pet store generally only has full grown rats.

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I would really try to switch to rats ASAP. A hatchling BP can easily take a rat fuzzy.

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Originally Posted by Neal

I would really try to switch to rats ASAP. A hatchling BP can easily take a rat fuzzy.

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I dont have any hatchlings lol

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Every three days is a lot. Are you power feeding to get up to breeding size?

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Originally Posted by cletus

Every three days is a lot. Are you power feeding to get up to breeding size?

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I feel like people are not reading my original post lol. No i am not power feeding. I just think she has out grown adult mice however i dont have consistent access to small rats AND i have yet to try her on frozen thawed. So while i attempt to make that transition i wanted to know if for the mice im feeding her currently should i just bump to two mice in one feeding or one mouse every 3 day instead of 5 since they are likely smaller than what she should actually be taking. Long as i can make the transition she will go to small rats every 5 to 7 days.

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I can't help you with the frequency of meals for smaller feeders but I started feeding my 2yr old male f/t small rats when he was about 550g (I say about because I didn't weigh him until a few weeks later and he was 573g)

The small rats I got at box store Petco were perfect size in girth to his body girth. He took it like a champ. I feed him once every 7 days with the small rats. Unless you have multiple snakes or have a big enough freezer I haven't seen a price advantage to getting feeders online. I buy a 3 pack of frozen small rats at Petco for $12 (I don't have a second freezer yet and the wife is barely comfortable with me storing 3 rats in our food freezer LOL)

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Originally Posted by noodlestsc

I started feeding my 2yr old male f/t small rats when he was about 550g (I say about because I didn't weigh him until a few weeks later and he was 573g)

The small rats I got at box store Petco were perfect size in girth to his body girth. He took it like a champ. I feed him once every 7 days with the small rats. Unless you have multiple snakes or have a big enough freezer I haven't seen a price advantage to getting feeders online. I buy a 3 pack of frozen small rats at Petco for $12 (I don't have a second freezer yet and the wife is barely comfortable with me storing 3 rats in our food freezer LOL)

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I have two snakes now, working on a 3rd purchase and plan on being up to 4 by years end. The pet store prices are ridiculous. I refuse to buy anything from Petco as they left their animals in the store years ago even tho there was a flood warning and over 100 animals died. In any case that 3 for $12 isnt awful but i want to say the price i saw at my petsmart was higher than that. Ill have to check again. I think with 4 snakes id be able to have a rat breeding program without too much left over. Can always sell the excess. Perhaps ill just try the transition with some purchased from petsmart. Are yours the arctic mouse brand? Oh and along with Rikoku thank you for paying attention to my question and answering what i asked LOL

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

I feel like people are not reading my original post lol. No i am not power feeding. I just think she has out grown adult mice however i dont have consistent access to small rats AND i have yet to try her on frozen thawed. So while i attempt to make that transition i wanted to know if for the mice im feeding her currently should i just bump to two mice in one feeding or one mouse every 3 day instead of 5 since they are likely smaller than what she should actually be taking. Long as i can make the transition she will go to small rats every 5 to 7 days.

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I hear you. Give those scenarios I'd go with 2 in one feeding.

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

I dont have any hatchlings lol

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Exactly. But I think you missed my point. A hatchling could easily handle a rat fuzzy. You have one that's eating adult mice. You should of tried to make that switch a long time ago.

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Originally Posted by Neal

Exactly. But I think you missed my point. A hatchling could easily handle a rat fuzzy. You have one that's eating adult mice. You should of tried to make that switch a long time ago.

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Maybe but the problem is access to other than adult rats and as i stated above frankly i prefer feeding live. The only reason i plan on swtiching to F/T is because of size access. This is to say nothing of the fact that she may not switch to F/T and or may not switch to rats. In which case my original question still remains the important one of two mice at once or one every 3. Telling me what you think i should have done a long time ago really isnt helpful. But thanks lol

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I would go with back to back like I did. If you feed one every 3 days, your windows to handle your snake is going to be limited. Not sure how important that is for you but for me, not being able to handle my snake for 48 hours after feeding sucks lol I love chilling with them.

It is a lot of stress on a snakes body to digest food, feeding every 3 or even every 5 days the snake would be in a constant state of digestion which they are not really designed to do. I'd feed her a mouse or two every week until you get in frozen-she's not going to starve, being a bit hungry will help you switching anyways. I just switched a five year old bp that's been on live mice until now and he took a f/t rat first time offered, if they are a good feeder anyways it probably won't be hard.

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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

It is a lot of stress on a snakes body to digest food, feeding every 3 or even every 5 days the snake would be in a constant state of digestion which they are not really designed to do. I'd feed her a mouse or two every week until you get in frozen-she's not going to starve, being a bit hungry will help you switching anyways. I just switched a five year old bp that's been on live mice until now and he took a f/t rat first time offered, if they are a good feeder anyways it probably won't be hard.

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So full grown only eating mice how many were you feeding at a time? And he was only taking once every 7??

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Well while he is around five years old, he's actually about the same size as yours, was 540 grams when I got him about a month ago. I know he was eating live mice, assuming it wasn't real often and while I breed mice for my hognose it's very small scale and I don't have a ton to go around, the majority of my collection eats f/t rats. I gave him 1 live mouse 1x per week the first couple times and the 3rd time offered a warm f/t weaned rat about the same size as the mice he's been eating and he snatched it right up so from now on he gets offered f/t rats only.

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

Maybe but the problem is access to other than adult rats and as i stated above frankly i prefer feeding live. The only reason i plan on swtiching to F/T is because of size access. This is to say nothing of the fact that she may not switch to F/T and or may not switch to rats. In which case my original question still remains the important one of two mice at once or one every 3. Telling me what you think i should have done a long time ago really isnt helpful. But thanks lol

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I just didn't chime in on that because others had already answered that. I would not feed more often than 5 days. I used to rotate what I fed my balls if they went on a 5 day schedule they got the proper item for three feedings and the fourth was a bit smaller.

Every 7 works out better though especially if you're not trying to get size quicker because bps can get fat quick which can relate to health issues.

IMO I would start to switch over to live rats first then work on F/T. At 570g they can eat a small rat. Once switched to small rats then work on F/T. It took about a month for my pied girl to make the switch. It will take patience to do both. If you opt not to switch then try feeding 2 mice on feeding night, once the first is done and they crawl around put the 2nd in, if that doesn't work try every 3 days like you said.