girth size

my bp's girth size at the largest point is about 3 and 1/4" diameter. she is about 20" long. does anyone think she is ready for rat pups? here are a couple pics

http://photobucket.com/albums/e82/gmmuscle91/Animals/

the two in the middle are the best comparisons

I would give that snake a nice rat fuzzy or crawler.

so do you think a rat pup is a little too big? just wondering because i might split an order of frozen rat pups w/ another guy on this sight, but if they are too big, then i wont.

thanks for all and any help

Well I don't know exactly what you mean by 'rat pup'. A pup could be anything from fuzzy to hopper in my mind. As long as it isn't bigger around than your snake's girth, then it's fine.

ok but im still not sure. here is the pic of the rat pups from rodentpro


http://www.rodentpro.com/catalog.asp...el=frozen_rats

go down to where it says pups.
thanks for all the help April. you are a very smart person

Oh yeah a pup should be fine. Those don't even have their eyes open yet.

And I'm not always smart. :P

well by the looks of your picture i don't think that snake is ready for anything more then a regular sized white mouse. My snake is 36 inches long and wider and she is on 2 mice every 7 days. have not had the use to feed anything more then yet yet.

Well a regular sized mouse(I assume you mean an adult mouse) is about the same size as a rat pup, so yeah I'd say it could take one. Easily. :) He looks like a little chubbo. ;)

Yes adult mice/rat pups are comparable in size. I would go for it.

Only reason i was thinking of a moust is because rats tend to have more of a attitude. But if ur not feeding live then i don't think that matters too much hehe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrEwTiMe

Only reason i was thinking of a moust is because rats tend to have more of a attitude.

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Large and jumbo rats maybe, but in my experience, a stressed out mouse is way worse than any small rat.

-adam

hmm interesting, well maybe ur right. When the mouse get stressed the usually just tent to cower in a corner. Or they are they are the active type they start jumpng all around heh.

But i have never seen one that has good after the snake with intentions to bite or protect its self.

By the looks of the picture you provided, one or two rat crawlers would be a perfect sized meal. Don't be one of those people that are afraid to up the prey size! Stretch him out and feed him right!

edit: that's meant to be read with an enthusiatic tone, hehe

I agree with Adam. Mice tend to be way more nasty than rats.. and a rat pup doesn't even have it's eyes open!

I'm not an expert, but I wouldn't worry too much about feeding it too big of food, especially if it's only so often. I would recommend not feeding them food too much bigger than their girth, but I have seen a few picture of a snake, (can't tell what kind it is) eating an impala.

The snake eating an impala was an African rock python.. just because you see snakes eating huge things, doesn't mean it's the best to feed them that. Young snakes especially if they are fed something that's really too big, can regurgitate, which is something you really don't want to have happen. But, it is amazing what they can keep down. :)

ya it really is...did any of you guys catch that thing on the news where a burmise( sp) python took on a gator down in florida and won. Sad part was he exploded after getting the gator down. But ya it was pretty crazy

he did get the gator down, but the gator was still alive and was ripping him apart from the insides.he didint explode because he was too big. the gator clawed him open

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gmmuscle91

he did get the gator down, but the gator was still alive and was ripping him apart from the insides.he didint explode because he was too big. the gator clawed him open

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Do you really believe that a python was able to swallow a live alligator?

-adam

I was just wondering that same thing Adam.

I saw that news article, from the details no one is really sure what happened to those poor guys!! I mean, the snake's head was gone....which obviously could have been a post-mortum thing, but it seemed to have the experts pretty baffled!

I wondered about that picture at the time too. No way that snake swallowed a live gator.

I must have read a different article, the one I read stated it ate the alligator that was too big and when digestion started gases built up and caused the gator to die and popped open from the heat.

Well guy's I live 10 mile's from the everglades , the media down here blew that story up. I read a couple different theorie's one the burm ate the gator then was so slow to get to a safe spot and or hide that it was attacked by another gator and that explain's the head missing .Another explanation was the gator's nerve's were tearing away at the burm's stomach with it's claw's .the pic's clearly show the gator inside the python

ya well the one that i was talking about on the news the gater was dead. There is not way that a snake would have swallowed a live gator. No way he would even get it close to eaten with him being alive

LOL Adam, only if it was the world's dumbest gator! Those are top predators aren't they? Don't think they get taken down live a lot other than if dear ole Steve Irwin is wandering about with a camera crew! LOL I've always figured that story was the typical media junk that one sees so much lately.

As far as rat pups. I have a bunch of them right now in my rat breeding group. They are in no way able to be a problem for a ball python of appropriate size. They are little, basically defenseless and quite yummy as far as Malachi is indicating. They are still nursing at that stage and until they get close to weaning at around 3.5 to 4 weeks of age they aren't even yet eating the dam's regular rat food yet. My pups generally seem to start leaving the nest and trying mum's food around 2.5 to 3 weeks but still continue to nurse as well till I remove the mother (who by then is happy to go and basically sick to death of the little leeches!).


~~Jo~~

I judge my snake's prey on their girth. I am not using mice at all; then again, I breed rats and am able to feed "custom sized" rats that I euthanize at the right size, hehe. I think that rats/mice can't generally be judged and compared on temperament; I have had mice that'd LEAP into the air like they were spring loaded!! Now I just feed only rats; much easier and smells less bad.