Max food size for carpets?

I just got my jungle carpet python today. Just taking her out of the bag she looked so tiny and thin (not underweight). The breeder had told me before I ordered that she should be able to eat small rats soon. She’s currently eating large mice. I was ordering food for my snakes anyway so I got both large mice and small rats in case she didn’t want to switch to rats right away.

I weighed the rats and separated the smallest ones for her. But seeing her in person I just don’t know if they’re safe to feed her anytime soon. I weighed her and she’s ~142 grams. The smallest of the small rats that I weighed are 42 grams. So this would be about 30% of her body weight. So I’m just wondering based on those weights if anyone can tell me when they would be okay to feed, and am I okay with waiting to switch her to rats until then or should I get some smaller sized rats before then?

Just an edit: By when I don’t expect anyone to give me an exact date, I meant in terms of what would be an okay weight for her to eat a rat that size, if anyone knows how to determine based on that. Ive heard 20% as a max percentage for other snakes but then people also say carpet pythons can handle bigger meals than other species.

I have never gone by weights. I simply go by size and try to match the feeder to the size of the snake at its widest part. My Carpet eats small rats but has taken a medium without issue, but he is an adult. They are thin by design. My GTP, ETB, and Carpet all eat small rats regularly.

Congratulations on your first carpet. They’re awesome snakes to keep and probably my favorite snake species. I think you’ll be fine if you feed the smallest prey items first just to see how your snake handles them. You can also alternate between the mice and rats to offer a variety of prey types and sizes. I do this for all my snakes. I don’t feed my snakes based on weight ratio formulas either. I do weigh my snakes on arrival for baseline information, but once I believe the animal is healthy and thriving in my care, meaning it’s eaten, pooped, and shed a few times I see no reason to weigh them anymore. I got my first carpet in 2015. It was a yearling 2014 male coastal. He weighed 125g on day one. I asked the breeder, Nick Mutton, what I should feed the snake since it was my first carpet and he told me the snake could easily eat a jumbo mouse or equivalently sized rat. I had adult kingsnakes and young bullsnakes that were eating jumbo mice at that time. I thought there was NO WAY this skinny python could handle a meal that size. According to the Big Cheese website jumbo mice are 30-50g. Since Nick literally wrote the book on carpets I trusted his advice and watched that skinny python effortlessly smash that jumbo mouse. I was shocked and amazed. That snake eats large and jumbo rats these days and he could eat even larger prey. Don’t push the envelope too far but don’t underestimate your carpet either.

MM4L

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Thank you everyone, I think I’ll feed at least a couple mice meals before trying one of the rats. I kind of wanted to do that either way just to make sure she’s eating (if I fed her a rat and she refused I wouldn’t know if she didn’t want to eat at all or just doesn’t want rats).

Also, I like going off of weights because I’ve always been bad at estimating by visuals. When my hognose was a baby I thought there was no way she could eat a fuzzy but my brother convinced me to try and once she was actually eating it I realized even the fuzzies were too small. And I had thought they were way too big.

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Originally Posted by widget

Thank you everyone, I think I’ll feed at least a couple mice meals before trying one of the rats. I kind of wanted to do that either way just to make sure she’s eating (if I fed her a rat and she refused I wouldn’t know if she didn’t want to eat at all or just doesn’t want rats).

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That's what I'd do- it's always better to feed on the small side, than to cause a regurgitation, & like you say, this way you can better judge her appetite too.

Carpets, are very capable eaters. In the wild they will take very large prey. Smaller sized family dogs and cats have been taken (mostly by coastals), larger wild prey is also on the menu.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/s...49bd825de46bc8

Use your judgement and feed what is reasonable. KMG made a good point about visually matching the size. Weight isn't much of a factor in my opinion.

A heavier boa isn't as capable as a lighter carpet of the same length.

I wouldn't push anything to extremes but once you get your carpet out of the juvenile stage, upsizing the prey size is certainly OK.

One thing I've noticed is that feeding a chick that weighs less than a rat challenges them more in terms of gape.

Variety is important and recognizing that a larger lump in a carpet isn't a major concern when comparing them to boas.

Keep it reasonable.

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Originally Posted by widget

Also, I like going off of weights because I’ve always been bad at estimating by visuals. When my hognose was a baby I thought there was no way she could eat a fuzzy but my brother convinced me to try and once she was actually eating it I realized even the fuzzies were too small. And I had thought they were way too big.

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The guy at my local herp store taught me a good trick for this - wrap your hand around the thickest part of the snake, or if it's to thick you take a strip of paper and mark it. Then he has people bring the paper strip into the store and drop frozen rats through the loop - the biggest rat that can fall through without touching the sides of the loop is the right size, no guesstimating. When I got my first BP he was eating small rats and when I saw them I was like "there's no way that's going to fit" but once he showed me how it would fit through my hand when I held it at the size of the snake it made more sense.

Folks,
Don't make this more complicated than it is. While I certainly appreciate and understand wanting to do the right things for your animals you should not have to look at weight percentages or exact sizing measurements when feeding a carpet python.

The FIRST step you should take is to ask the breeder what they are feeding the snake before you get it. There are some breeders that will never feed mice (to carpets), they start out with the smallest of rats. However if you have a snake that is established on mice, look for the rat equivalent and start making the transition.

I mentioned earlier that chicks are a good way to get the snake's gape size to increase. Small chicks are very light but the shape of a chick VS a rat makes them more challenging to eat.

"Guesstimating" is fine, if you are off, it won't be an issue. Unless you have problems telling the size difference between a marble and a bowling ball you are not going to screw things up.

I posted the above picture link and now this video to show just how much the species can handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpG4SsFd05U

That said I'm not advocating that you find the largest prey item your snake can handle and feed it that, but I am stressing that moving up to something that may be a challenge isn't going to hurt the snake.

The frequency of feeding as the snake grows is more of an issue than the size of the prey.

Normally, a snake will back out of a prey item that is oversized or it simple won't take it at all. While they may not have the intelligence some other animals posses, they instinctually know how to figure out what they can handle.

I know there are stories of small snakes trying to eat humans, the King snake comes to mind. They go for a finger and think they've got something special until they figure out it is attached to somebody that weighs 100 plus pounds.

I typically move my carpet pythons up in prey size as soon as they'll take something larger. Each time I do that, the frequency they are offered food decreases. I may go to something smaller than normal on the next feed and come back with something a bit larger after that.

If that sounds how a wild snake may feed, you are thinking correctly.

A lot of the stress and worry over proper feeding comes from wild animals that were brought into captivity long ago. Boa Constrictors from Suriname come to mind. There is a long story that goes along with BCC regurgitation issues that you can research at another time if you'd like, I won't get into it here.

Carpet pythons are more hardy in general and they can handle and digest a lot. Unless you are completely unreasonable and feed something large enough to cause a problem: Your snake will either not attempt to eat it, try to eat it and then back out, fully eat it and regurgitate it, or it will eat it and succeed. If you happen to feed something quite large and you are a bit uneasy, raise your temps a couple degrees while it digests.

A big food lump in a carpet python is not the same as a big lump in a boa.

That is a lot of words to simply say, this isn't rocket science.

I trust most people here have common sense and will eventually get to know their animals.

You would really have to do something ridiculous to mess up a carpet. Don't fret over weights and measurements, enjoy your snake.

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Originally Posted by Gio

Folks,
Don't make this more complicated than it is.

"Guesstimating" is fine, if you are off, it won't be an issue. Unless you have problems telling the size difference between a marble and a bowling ball you are not going to screw things up.

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One. Hundred. Percent.
Trying to use a “recipe” for feeding animals, which are all individuals with different needs, is nonsense. Train your eye to recognize the relationships in size between different things and become a more “intuitive keeper and student of the serpent” than “robotic manager of ophidian nutritional intake units.” You’d be amazed what you’ll learn by being attentive and observant rather than just blindly following formulas.


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Late to the game here.

I am amazed at the meals my carpet python (Yafe) can easily take down. I've heard they prefer larger meals and even will refuse smaller ones and not recognize as prey. I have yet to see this with Yafe, but also offer food big enough to leave a bulge.

As mentioned, know your species. BP's aren't as stretchy, and the same with some colubrids (king snakes come to mind). Smaller meals are better. This is especially true with Boas like BI's and BC's - speaking from experience and research.

You asked about % of weight. I agree that you should eye it and that's more important, but I will feed 15-20% of my Carpet's body weight (usually closer to 15% as I feed regularly - every two weeks - and all year round). My boas average about 5-7% of their body weight and never more than about 10%. Different metabolisms, body type, etc. I should note, all my boas are growing still (at different rates). Once full grown, the CP will still get larger meals just more spaced out. The boas will still get smaller meals and also more spaced out.

Finally, and this is important, if you are feeding large meals to any snake (relative), make sure your temps and humidity (less important) are dialed in. You want ideal conditions for digestion. Give a gradient, and make sure it's warm enough for that species.

Depending on where your CP is from (I have researched IJ and Darwin because Yafe is a hybrid of the two), they can generally handle more heat than a BP, for example, and need it to digest. On top of Yafe's perch it is around 92-94F and the ground below is 90-92F. He moves around when digesting, but ultimately spends the 2nd-4th days after eating on the 85F +/- spot. However, he's eating medium rats now and he's about 1,100G. So only about 13-14% of body weight. Additionally, he absolutely will spend the first 24 hours on the warmer spots.

This is Yafe tonight taking down a medium rat like it's nothing. He is about 1,100G and the rat was probably about 120G. He's growing on this regiment and getting closer to full size/adult size and there is not need to push him to large rats. Having said that, I am sure he could take a 180G large rat. He was taking medium rats from the time he was 800G and without much fuss. He eats every two weeks as well. Some people push larger meals less frequently, but this is what I do.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/rIwRMgj.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/zMSGMjl.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/Byos0fQ.jpg

Thank you everyone for the advice. I think both going off just looking at her and weight the rats are too big for her right now, but I think after a couple mice meals she should be able to eat them just fine.

I fed her last night, she ate but she seems picky about the temperature, which makes sense because of the heat pits. She grabbed the mouse but I guess in the time it took her to coil and make sure it was dead it cooled off and she wouldn’t eat it. I reheated the mouse and she ate it after that. She was trying to bite me when I was grabbing the mouse back out, so I think she was plenty hungry but was looking for something warm.

How do you guys heat up food for your carpets? I use warm water once they’re thawed to heat them up, but they seem to cool off really quickly after that. None of my other snakes care. I think them being wet makes them cool off faster so I might try thawing hers in a ziplock to keep them dry.

I feed all of my snake the same. I put all the feeders in a small tub and add warm water to thaw them. When thawed I replace the water with hot water to heat them up. I then take the entire tub into my snake room and serve straight from the hot water.

I have one carpet that is hungry 100% of the time but won’t eat the prey unless she nails it directly on the nose of the prey item regardless of the prey temperature. They’re all individuals and don’t necessarily fit their care sheets as written. Best of luck learning the specifics of your animal.


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