Help.

I bought my female ball python 6 days ago and tommorow is feeding day, My problem is i have never experienced in feeding f/t rats. Please tell me how i feed him it. Also what kind of rat would a 4 week old rat be? (fuzzy, pup, medium, jumbo etc.) Thanks, help appreciated! :sweeet:

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Originally Posted by PythonFan8

I bought my female ball python 6 days ago and tommorow is feeding day, My problem is i have never experienced in feeding f/t rats. Please tell me how i feed him it. Also what kind of rat would a 4 week old rat be? (fuzzy, pup, medium, jumbo etc.) Thanks, help appreciated! :sweeet:

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An adult BP does not need anything bigger then a small rat so jumbo are out of question.

You need to feed your BP a prey that is slightly smaller then the girth size

Now do you know what your BP was fed before you got her? It help to know because there is 2 important things here if your BP was feeding live she might refuse F/T and if she was eating mice she might refuse rat

So you need to be consistent with the meal as switching can be tricky

To feed F/T all you have to do is thaw the prey and then warm it up so the BP can get the heat signal from it for that here are your options

Putting the prey in a baggie and submerging the baggie in warm water for 5 minutes or

Putting the prey under a heat light or

Blow-drying the prey with your hair dryer

Then offer the prey holding it with some tongues or hemostats and dangling it in front of your BP

Switching to F/T if the BP is not used to it yet can be tricky and even more with BP that are adjusting to their new environment but with patience it can be some

That would be a fuzzy, I think. And to feed him f/t you should put the rat in some warm water and let it sit for ~30 minutes. When that time is up, feel the rat to make sure he's nice, warm, and soft. Then, what I do is dangle the rat by the tail in your BP's tank until he snaps him up.
Good luck! :sweeet:

Thanks for the help, I do know that the pet store was feeding it F/T rats
the owner told me when he sold me the snake. But he did not tell me how to feed the rat when i get it (you just told me) and he didn't tell me what the name of the rat kind was, all he said was 4 week old rats. What kind of a rat is a 4 week old one?

EDIT: Fuzzies are 4 weeks old? i thought they were younger but, im just learning. Thanks for your help.

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Originally Posted by PythonFan8

Thanks for the help, I do know that the pet store was feeding it F/T rats
the owner told me when he sold me the snake. But he did not tell me how to feed the rat when i get it (you just told me) and he didn't tell me what the name of the rat kind was, all he said was 4 week old rats. What kind of a rat is a 4 week old one?

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Weanling or small/small rat depend on the place you buy your rats from

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Originally Posted by Sausage

That would be a fuzzy

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:colbert: Fuzzy rats are only 10 to 13 days old

Here's a month old rat
http://www.rodentpro.com/images/size_r_weaned.jpg
(Thanks rodentpro.com!!)

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

:colbert: Fuzzy rats are only 10 to 13 days old

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Thats what i thought.

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Originally Posted by Sausage

Here's a month old rat
http://www.rodentpro.com/images/size_r_weaned.jpg
(Thanks rodentpro.com!!)

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Thanks. But still, what kind of rat would i ask the pet store if i was buying for that rat.

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Originally Posted by PythonFan8

Thats what i thought.

Thanks. But still, what kind of rat would i ask the pet store if i was buying for that rat.

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The ideal prey is a prey that is slightly smaller then the girth size (widest part of your snake's body)

It will be a weanling or small/small rat, it depends on the place where you buy your rats from

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Originally Posted by PythonFan8

Thats what i thought.



Thanks. But still, what kind of rat would i ask the pet store if i was buying for that rat.

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You want to ask them for one that's still nursing but has opened eyes - a rat pup.

a rat pup is 4 weeks old?

Rat pinks - from birth to about 8 or 9 days old - eyes closed, ears flat to skull, no hair, you can however see their pattern in the skin, exist soley on mother's milk, will die without her to feed them, keep them warm and lick their butt ends so they can eliminate waste.

Rat fuzzies - from about 8 or 9 days old to around 14 or 15 days old, eyes closed, ears still flat to skull, have a fuzzy quality to their new coats (almost pelt like), may start to wiggle out of the nest to blindly follow the mother rat, still fully dependent on her milk supply though some will try her food supply as well here or there.

Rat pups - from about 15 days old until weaned, eyes are open, ears are fully upright and their full coat is now in, they will start to eat mom's food and try the water bottle, usually by day 20 they are eating and drinking this way but will continue to nurse from the mother as much as they can and she will allow (by this time most female rats are sick of their offspring LOL)

We usually wean our rat litters at about 4.5 weeks of age (about 33 to 35 days average). I give them one month plus 5 days from their date of birth, then they go into the feeder grower tubs (seperated by gender) and the mom gets a well deserved rest before re-breeding her.

As far as getting the right size, here's a handy trick. Take a shoestring, wrap it loosely around the largest girth of your new snake. Put a knot in it. Take it along to the pet shop that breeds rats. Check it against the butt/hip area of different rat sizes. You want a rat that is no larger than or better yet slightly smaller in it's largest girth than your snake. Eventually you'll be able to eyeball it, but for now the shoestring trick will help you bring home the perfect size.

Also I should have mentioned, there can be a huge difference in size in each stage. A rat pup of say 15 days of age is much smaller than one almost at weaning age (say about 25 days or thereafter). Even in the fuzzy and pink stage they are growing almost before your eyes so a few days makes for a lot of growth. Also you have to take into account the mother's supply of milk for them, their own genetics and the size of the litter. Some litters produce fuzzies that are significantly larger than another litter. Some rat young at weaning age are twice the size of others so the words pink, fuzzy, pup, weanling, etc. are just guidelines to age and average growth really.