What do you feed your ball pythons?

What do you feed your bps?

Whatever they'll eat! :)

ha ha.....

I feed mice because rats are hard to get around here and I breed my own mice. My bps do really well on multiple mice too. I could not ask for better feeders :)

Kashmire's on live mice, similar to your situation, Daniel, rats are hard to find around here. But I'm NOT breeding mice, not gonna do it! LOL I might buy a couple to fatten up a week before feeding, but he normally just takes one a week. He's a great feeder too!

i feed mine rats cuz around here the rats are way cheaper than mice, and it would be way too expensive to get 2 or 3 mice every 7-10 days for me. my BPs seem to do fine, i dont know what my adult male was fed before i got him but i fed my female mice every ten days cuz i heard theres this argument that mice have more calcium or are more nutricious or somethin.

Multiple mice until last week, rat weans now (rat --- the other white meat!), pre-killed usually.

With the new WC...it'll be anything she'll eat however she'll eat it LOL.


~~Jo~~

Just incase someone wants it, here is the nutritional value of feed items:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=38

The nutritional content really does not matter though.....no one knows the exact nutritional requirements of ball pythons. All I know is that they grow, breed, and lay eggs on both mice and rats :)

Small rats...cheaper, meatier, less stinky. I'll throw a medium rat in every now and then to my female to keep her nice and buff, the male just gets small rats though.

Haha Jo, that's what I tell the people who happen to look in our freezer. "What? You've never heard of people eatin' rats before? It's the 'other' white meat!" Hehe...

Mine gets fed small rats, never misses a meal and snatches it off the hemostats before I can blink. I lurvs her :)

how big around is your male?

i'm not exactly sure....maybe say silver dollar size at his biggest point.

btw he was eating small rats when he about 6 months old...dude who had him before me really stepped it up on feedings. Huge meal sizes resulted in huge bowel movements and I don't feel he's grown any faster than other males his age that I've seen.

Rats rats rats - we have a burgeoning rat population.

If anyone goes off feed this winter we'll wind up having to sell some off to the local pet store or be overrun!

Weaned rats and JAMs (jumbo adult mice). Dandylion started off on the thin side, but she has become the most aggressive feeder! :eek: I can barely get the mice in the cage! I've just upped her to two mice, so hopefully I'll have her on weaned rats soon.

Geeze Smulk, move to Michigan would you LOL. As far as I can see we don't have a single commercial rat or mouse breeder in this whole state! Local supplies at the pet store aren't always as consistent as they should be so it's off to shop around online for a bulk order very soon (oh and buy a used freezer too!)


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Geeze Smulk, move to Michigan would you LOL. As far as I can see we don't have a single commercial rat or mouse breeder in this whole state! Local supplies at the pet store aren't always as consistent as they should be so it's off to shop around online for a bulk order very soon (oh and buy a used freezer too!)


~~Jo~~

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This is why I breed my own rats and mice, keeps costs down, but keeping a level population takes alot of work! It's either to few or to many it seems...but things have worked out well for me over the years. I don't even have pet related shop in my town! closest is probably 40 minutes. I used to go to Petco when I needed extra mice when they where selling them for under dollar but now they are all like $2+ for a scrawny mouse. In fact I think some of my mice lineage may be in fact from petco LOL.

Sorry Jo lol - ours here are nuts - about $4 per sml/med rat. Gad-farking-z00ks.

I hear ya Tek - and it takes a lot of work REGARDLESS.

The rats have daily maintenance needs - more demanding than the snakes but not too bad - minus the periodic changing of he bedding and cleaning of the tanks I maybe spend 10-15 minutes a day watering/feeding. They are MUCH less "aromatic" than mice for sure.

Rats smell less than mice? My mice breeding operation is in our extra bedroom. The smell is not bad.....but it is there. How much difference is it?

HUGE difference. i never believed the rumor that rats don't smell until i had some of my own. if you can smell them at all it's probably because you haven't kept up with the cage cleaning and you just need to keep up with things a little better. even with frozen ones though--some of the mice just plain stink but the rats have much less odor.

breeding rats is looking better and better.... What size enclosures would I need for a rat or a pair of rats?

Well put it this way Daniel, we have 4 adult rats that are pets. They live in our living room in 3 cages. One large one for the two females, then two smaller tanks for the two males. Normally the males would live together quite happily (unlike stupid male mice, rat males generally enjoy each other's company), however, our one male is very old and just can't keep up with the younger male's rougher play. They really have almost no smell at all as long as their cage is clean. They are easy to handle and quite friendly, though mom's with litters can be quite protective so Becky tells me.

Our two females are with the younger male right now hopefully they will both breed. They can stay together apparently until just prior to giving birth then they will each go into 10 gallon tanks to give birth and raise their babies until weaning, then they will become cagemates again.

I'm not sure how one goes about breeding rats in larger quantities but personally I like them far better than mice anyday. They also have the reputation of being very good mothers generally.


~~Jo~~


~~Jo~~

I have to say rats are better also. After getting back into breeding them for my reptiles I am really going to try and move mostly to rats. I'm at just one pair right now and the female is about to burst again already..perfect! I am down to two daughters from the last litter and will keep one or both as another breeder and hopefully move away from mice or at least down to just a pair if I am still needing pinkies.

I voted for both mice & rats...and depending on weanling rat availability (very limited) I feed rats, as I'll be moving exclusively to rats once he can take a small adult rat. But when the weanlings aren't available, I feed two adult mice. Is there anything wrong/bad with flip/flopping foods? He's taken both mice and rats veraciously so there doesn't seem to be a preference for the snake :) Although... when I feed only 1 weanling rat, he seems very upset with me that he didn't get his "second mouse".

Rats all the way. I hate the mere smell of a mouse, now that I am used to feeding/breeding rats.

I would like to know as here in Finland its easier to get mice, can you let me know how many mice an adult female might eat a week.

thanks

steve

email me on stevoe@hotmail.com

Sigh...... Mine is a picky cuss and will only eat mice.

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Originally Posted by jotay

Sigh...... Mine is a picky cuss and will only eat mice.

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there is nothing wrong with that...as long as they are eating ;)

Hi, I am new here. My son talked me into a ball python three weeks ago and I fell in love. He eats really well and I handle him almost every day. He shows all the signs of adjusting well. I am looking forward to getting at least 1-2 more.


He has grown to 45 inches long (measured by positioning a string along his spine and then measuring the string) and he seems to still be growing. We bought him as a sub-adult at the local exotic pet shop. DD eats two small rats per week, is that too much?

Two small rats sounds fine to me. Alot of people will just feed 1 small rat year round to try to prevent the ball python from fasting. As a keeper that decision is up to you. Either way the bp will do just fine.

I know how the 'string method' of measuring length can be a pain so if you have a camera feel free to use this snake measuring program....it is alot easier.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....viewfile&id=28

as said above u do what works no way is any better than any other thee a lot of variables involved and wahts important is that ur herp is happy

Hey, I just measured, DD is 44 inches.

I feed rats (or I will) and only rats

Actually HP, you do NOT feed rats as you do NOT own a snake to feed said rats to. Blanket statements outside the scope of one's experience are ill advised as well as possibly dangerous should you speak to a topic you are not experienced enough to be doing so and your advice taken as "gospel".

Now, what will you do HP should you have a snake that will not eat rats, some never do take to rats. Will you let the snake go hungry and lose condition due to a stubborn mind set. I suggest, and try to do so with kindness, that you ask pertinent questions about things you need to learn so that you can one day be the best owner you can be. You will note that it seems the more experienced breeders and owners rarely make "blanket" statements as most things are not exact with living creatures (other than basic husbandry), they have learned this by experience.

Some day you may come here with a question about multiple mouse feeding. I'd hate to have someone remind you of this thread.


~~Joanna~~

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Originally Posted by HelicopterPilot

I feed rats (or I will) and only rats

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WHY??? this site is here to discuss why we do certain things in the care of our wonderful ball pythons. I feed mice only for a certain reason....why do you plan to feed only rats?

everyone here is entitled to an opinion. We all know how bps are picky eaters like any caring pet owner if the bp wasnt eating rats i would hope they would seek help through an outside source ie. vet, www.ball-pythons.net, herp expert, etc.

You are right - everyone IS entitled to an opinion.

It IS however important to differentiate between a hypothetical opinion of a potential BP owner and the opinion of someone who has kept BPs for any appreciable amount of time.

(apologies if this is indeed what you meant lol - I am operating on a coffee deficit)

who voted other......and what do you feed? ha ha ha

Well, according to another thread, Jo's going to try mouse stuffed twinkies! ;)

to all statements related to me it is easier to feed rats for me. More available . If they don't eat it then I will try other stuff. I would never let my bp go hungry.sorry for all the noise and confusion

hey daniel
why do you feed your bps only mice??

Already answered that one. But here it goes again ;)

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

I feed mice because rats are hard to get around here and I breed my own mice. My bps do really well on multiple mice too. I could not ask for better feeders :)

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....like I said before, we are all here to get each others input. So, when you answer polls like these it is always good for all the members if a reason is given to explain why you do certain thing in the care of your animals. I try to do this in every post I make on this site. If everyone makes posts like that, alot of information will be shared and new inexperienced members(and even some experienced ones) will check the post and perhaps see all the reasons why they should care for their reptiles in a certain manner. So, that why instead of making a post just saying you use this substrate or feed this way or feed this item.....give a reason why you do the things you do so we can all learn from from one another :)

sorry for the ramble :)

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

who voted other......and what do you feed? ha ha ha

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I feed both mice and rats regularly. Occasionally I feed gerbils. In the past, I've fed ball pythons several different species of mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, pinky rabbits, quail, finches, and Ensure. ;)

But I'm not the one that voted "other".

-adam