food size for my bp?

My snake weighs over 300 grams. she currently eats once a week a frozen adult mouse. she still acts hungry when i put her back up since i feed in a seperate tub. would it be to much to give her 2 adult mice or should i just continue with the one a week. she has a great appetite and is always willing to eat when it is feeding day. i am not sure how old she is since i just got her in april 08 but when i got her she weighed 152 grams. any advice would be helpful as i still am new to this. thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oncebitten

My snake weighs over 300 grams. she currently eats once a week a frozen adult mouse. she still acts hungry when i put her back up since i feed in a seperate tub. would it be to much to give her 2 adult mice or should i just continue with the one a week. she has a great appetite and is always willing to eat when it is feeding day. i am not sure how old she is since i just got her in april 08 but when i got her she weighed 152 grams. any advice would be helpful as i still am new to this. thanks.

---

If she weighs 300 grams you could probably feed her a larger prey item. Go by the rule of thumb: the thickest part of the snake should be about the size of the prey your giving to it.
It's ok to be a bit smaller, but that sounds almost too small. ;]
My 200g ball python is eating large adult mice easily, and will be moving up a size soon enough.

the food she is eating is 19 grams each as per what the package says. i guess i need to see about getting bigger food or feed her two of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oncebitten

the food she is eating is 19 grams each as per what the package says. i guess i need to see about getting bigger food or feed her two of them.

---

What's the comparison like if you look at the thickness of the mouse next to the thickness of the snake?
I'm pretty sure a good up for a size is XL mice or weened/small rats.
Edit: Also, I don't really see a problem in feeding two mice every once in a while if they take it, but they could be overfed and start to fast to catch themselves up.

i can tell that they are bit smaller than her mid body. i wish i could post a pic but she just ate tonight and i know i need to leave her alone for awhile. i will see if i can find a small rat for her after i finish the food i just bought.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oncebitten

i can tell that they are bit smaller than her mid body. i wish i could post a pic but she just ate tonight and i know i need to leave her alone for awhile. i will see if i can find a small rat for her after i finish the food i just bought.

---

Alright, just make sure the food size isn't too big (because obviously I don't know how big she really is) but 19g is also a bit small for an adult mouse, I know I have some 24g mice in my freezer. :]

I'm in the exact same boat as you....bp just over 300 g, taking one large adult mouse a week. I tried to upgrade her to a small rat but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. She also won't eat more than one prey item at a time so I'm still kinda stuck.

Where do you get your mice from and do they have a brand name? I was getting the Large Adult Mice by Gourmet Rodents from Petco and they were weighing in at about 25g. Tonight I had somebody pick up more large mice because she wasnt interested in the rats and I thought I would again try to offer two. These were from Artic something-another and even though they were labeld at large mice, they were just under 20g and looked much smaller girthwise than the other ones I was getting. I can't wait until she is on a prey size that I can stick to so I can order in bulk and get some nice quality prey!

She took the first one, with some problems (couple of missed strikes) but once she grabbed it took it down with no problem. The second one though she acted like she was scared to death of it. I also feed in a seperate tub and since I don't have a secure cover for it, I put her back in her tank with the other mouse and so far it's been about two hours and she still hasn't taken it.

I've heard that you want to go by girth size and other say to judge the prey by 10 - 15% of your bps weight. Well, the rat that I got was the right size as far as girth goes but it weighed almost 60g!

Sorry to ramble on! I hope you find a solution soon and when you do, could you fill me in. I think Foster is getting thin so I've got to do something soon!

i get mine from petco also and the bag i get says they weigh 19 grams. they are quite small but she eats them. she eats in less than 10 minutes and looks for more. i am just afraid that if i up her size in food she will not take it but i just dont know what to do.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oncebitten

i get mine from petco also and the bag i get says they weigh 19 grams. they are quite small but she eats them. she eats in less than 10 minutes and looks for more. i am just afraid that if i up her size in food she will not take it but i just dont know what to do.

---

The worst thing that can happen if you offer two prey items is that the 2nd one is refused. I might be worth a shot. Just let the snake readjust its jaw before feeding the second prey item.


I have a 275gram Ball and am feeding live prey between 25-30grams.

I found the big cheese rodent factory out of Ft. Worth Tx on google the other day i have not used them yet but the will ship live or frozen or if your from the area you can go pick em up but they charge a min $25 for live :( so any way if anyone has used this place let me know. but they have a huge variety in thier stock and they have everything in house so i guess they are a good place they look like a really good company

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oncebitten

the food she is eating is 19 grams each as per what the package says. i guess i need to see about getting bigger food or feed her two of them.

---

I feed my male 2 large adult mice once every 7 days and for now he seems fine. Sometimes he takes the 2nd mouse...sometimes he doesn't, but I always offer the second mouse and let him decide ;)
When I weighed him a couple weeks ago he was at 429 grams on empty.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lenastorms

I feed my male 2 large adult mice once every 7 days and for now he seems fine. Sometimes he takes the 2nd mouse...sometimes he doesn't, but I always offer the second mouse and let him decide ;)
When I weighed him a couple weeks ago he was at 429 grams on empty.

---

How do you offer the second prey? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

i will try two next week when she eats again. thanks for all the advice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TanyaL

How do you offer the second prey? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

---

Wait 10 minutes and repeat...lol

Mine usually trek back into their hides, re-adjust their jaws and then poke their heads out like they are hunting again and I offer the second mouse same as I did the 1st...sometimes they take it, sometimes they don't. It's all good as long as they are eating :D