how much and how often to feed

I have two ball pythons, a male and a female about 7 and 8 years old I have only had them a couple of weeks and have managed to get them both to eat 2 adult f/t mice each, I was wondering if it is ok to feed them mice instead of rats every couple of weeks.

I breed my own mice but once the pythons are in their new homes I can either use their old viv for more mice or I want to know whether it would be better to breed rats for these instead, I also have 4 eggs in the incubator as well.

I fed my BPs multiple mice for awhile. It worked very well. After awhile, it got to where I was taking about an hour to feed two snakes, so I switched them both to rats.

I won't say that one is better, but my smaller snake started growing like crazy once he was pounding rats rather than 3 adult mice.

Rats would be easier because they can eat one or two small rats every week or two instead of 3 or 4 mice. But it's all up to you, either mice or rats are fine.

my mice are between 20-26g so how many of them should I be giving them every fortnight. It does take a while they are not very fast eaters.

Most people feed their BPs once a week, although I have seen quite a few people post that they feed their adult males less often than that.

Mice or rats will work. With mice you'll have to feed multiples. With rats, since you are talking about breeding your own, you'll have to do quite a balancing act to have the right size available because rats quickly get too big for BPs. Unless you are planning on feeding f/t.

From what I've read, it is easier to get BP hatchlings started on mice, so at least at first you'll want those for the babies when they hatch.

How does it take you an hour to feed TWO snakes live mice?

It takes me one hour to feed 50 Ball Pythons live mice. Once you have a system down, it doesn't take the snakes long at all to recognize that pattern and get into feed mode very quickly.

All of mine eat mice, most eat multiples. I give them one, go on to the next snake, until I have given everyone a mouse, then I go back to first snake and give them another one. This repeats until I feel everyone has had their fair share.

well after reading this I think I am going to stick to mice, luckily for me I only have 2 to feed and they are quite happy eating f/t mice as well, all of my mice seem to be breeding regularly every 3-4 weeks so I have a nice constent supply.

I think as they are happy eating the mice I dont want to rock the boat and change over to rats.

I would never feed mice, but thats just me. Rats are easier, and all a mouse is, is bones.

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Originally Posted by defuze

I would never feed mice, but thats just me. Rats are easier, and all a mouse is, is bones.

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If by "all bones" you mean they're not nutritional; then you should know there is no proven benefit in feeding either rats or mice.

They both get the job done; rats offer the convenience of being larger in size only.

This may be a good place to post my question rather than make a whole new topic, I just fed my ball and i was worried the mouse was too big for him, infact i was ont he phone with the pet store asking if i could return the feeder for a smaller size when he decided to strike. He managed to eat the mouse without injury but now im worried if i pick him up he might get an upset stomach, so my question is how long should I wait after a feeding to put the snake back in his home? i have pictures incase they may help

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

This may be a good place to post my question rather than make a whole new topic, I just fed my ball and i was worried the mouse was too big for him, infact i was ont he phone with the pet store asking if i could return the feeder for a smaller size when he decided to strike. He managed to eat the mouse without injury but now im worried if i pick him up he might get an upset stomach, so my question is how long should I wait after a feeding to put the snake back in his home? i have pictures incase they may help

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Put him back now.

So long as the mouse was not INSANELY larger than the snake is around, you should be fine. Just be gentle if youre worried, but generally its not too much of an issue.

ok thanks, I guess seeing my first python feeding has me in shock is all thats totally amazing to watch

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

ok thanks, I guess seeing my first python feeding has me in shock is all thats totally amazing to watch

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Isn't it so cool to watch? I just fed my python about 5 mins ago from writing this post at the moment he's working on gettin the head and body aligned how he wanted it.

it is cool to watch all of my snakes I love it especially now they are on f/t, the pythons my partner just tapped the mice on the bottom of the feeding tub a few times and they both struck at them.

Claieree you have babies or Adults BPs?

I have 2 adults and 4 eggs in the incubator

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Originally Posted by defuze

I would never feed mice, but thats just me. Rats are easier, and all a mouse is, is bones.

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I disagree. Check this out: http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp.

Also, I have one hypo female who will not eat rats! Since I started her on mice she has gone from way too thin to really packing it on!!

For me, rats are easier as well, and my other snakes all eat f/t rats. However, it is not easier for me to struggle with this female who just won't yet eat them. Easy to pick up several live mice, feed one of them to her, and then grow the rest up to a chubbier size. I have four mice in a cage right now munching happily away on their yummy food and becoming very well fleshed!

I always said I would never be a rodent farmer, but the little hypo reminded me to never say never :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

This may be a good place to post my question rather than make a whole new topic, I just fed my ball and i was worried the mouse was too big for him, infact i was ont he phone with the pet store asking if i could return the feeder for a smaller size when he decided to strike. He managed to eat the mouse without injury but now im worried if i pick him up he might get an upset stomach, so my question is how long should I wait after a feeding to put the snake back in his home? i have pictures incase they may help

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Well, the rule of thumb is to feed a prey item the same thickness as the thickest part of their body. Since you seemed worried about this situation, I suggest you don't feed your snake outside the enclosure. Moving the snake after feeding can be hard and possible cause a regurge, and not really worth the risk. There is very little actual risk of feeding inside an enclosure. It's also a lot less stressful on a bp.

I need to start breeding mice for my corn snakes, because they are more proportionally perfect for corns as ASFs or small rats are perfect for balls.
I wouldn't suggest more than 2 pieces in a meal. :]

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...wsnakes034.jpg

This is my 2 they are still waiting for their new viv to be built at the moment we have built it all up but waiting for the glass doors to be done.

One last question from me, if a ball python did consume a meal that was too big could it die or would it just regurge?

It would most likely regurge; but I'm sure a lot of people remember the picture of the burmese python that pretty much exploded trying to eat an alligator in the everglades.

There's no need to offer your snakes a large meal though, better to err on the slightly smaller side than the larger side IMO.

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Originally Posted by claireree

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...wsnakes034.jpg

This is my 2 they are still waiting for their new viv to be built at the moment we have built it all up but waiting for the glass doors to be done.

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Are you planning to seperate these sexually mature snakes once the new viv is complete?

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Originally Posted by TimmyG

One last question from me, if a ball python did consume a meal that was too big could it die or would it just regurge?

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"Just regurge" is a bit of an understatement. Regurging is something that you want to avoid at all costs. Snakes can regurge if the prey is too large, if their home is not warm enough to allow them to digest (remember they are ecthothermic creatures) or if they are handled or stressed too much right after eating.

Regurging their prey can cause burning inside their bodies from their intense stomach acids as well as external burning if they lay on bedding soaked in this acid that came up with the undigested prey. Generally after a regurge you have to do specialized feeding routines to avoid triggering another regurge and to allow the snake to heal properly. It's not as simple as you or me throwing up.

yes we will be seperating them both, I think it will be best for the both of them if they get seperated. All going well they will be in their new homes by the weekend.

I dont know how long they have been housed together they are 7 & 8 years old do you think they will mind being seperated, dont want to stress them out.

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Originally Posted by claireree

yes we will be seperating them both, I think it will be best for the both of them if they get seperated. All going well they will be in their new homes by the weekend.

I dont know how long they have been housed together they are 7 & 8 years old do you think they will mind being seperated, dont want to stress them out.

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They won't mind being separated; all they care about are temps, humidity, food, and giving you plenty of poop and pee to clean.:D

ok cool, sure they will both love their new viv it is a lot bigger then their current viv and got heat mats etc all ready they had a heat rock when we first got them and that was the first thing we threw away.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...wsnakes037.jpg

This is going to be their new homes, it is 4 deep so room for some of my corns when they get bigger as well.