What size prey do you feed your adult BP's?

I'm curious, what size prey (by weight or by snout-base of tail length) do you give to your adult ball pythons in general, once they are several years old and have basically stopped growing? Also: Do you feed them once a week or less frequently?

The reason I ask is that I have some 60-gram rats and some ~120-gram rats, and a 1300-gram female ball python. The 60-gram rats seem too small for her, but the 120-gram rats seem like they're pushing her limit? What do you think?

I feed my larger snakes 80g prey once a week :gj:

It depends, I generally give my biggest girl about an 80 to 100g rat each feeding. She's around 1600g and that seems to suit her just fine.

I don't know the weight but I feed smalls to everyone.

Well, now that I'm buying rats to supplement my production, and my rat guy weighs them - my very biggest girls are getting about 130 gram rats. The other adults are getting about 100 grams.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Well, now that I'm buying rats to supplement my production, and my rat guy weighs them - my very biggest girls are getting about 130 gram rats. The other adults are getting about 100 grams.

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do you feed them all every seven days, or do some of your snakes go for a longer period between feedings? cause my two largest females, floating between 900-1050g each, if fed two large adult mice will eat weeklly, but if fed small/med rats will go every two weeks. Just curious if its just my girls that are being picky....

i don't know weiht wise. but all my yearlings and huge adult females eat, small rats. i feed every other week. but i give them double's. the yearlings were on rat weanlings, but are now on smalls. i'll give them one wait an hour and give them another. my big girls eat two or three at a time. but for my males. i usually only feed them one everyother week. except for the baby's they get fed twice a week. on hopper mice or rat pups.

Small rats (4 weeks old 65-85 grams)

Once a week most of the year, every 5 days for breeder females (from September to January)

all of mine like smaller prey even my 3600g female likes one adult asf, med to large rats spook her & she won't eat them.They eat smaller prey better. I think at least mine do.

My large male (approx. 5' 5", 3200g) takes medium rats. Although he could take a large. I just don't want to risk overfeeding.

My smaller size female (approx. 3' 6", 1200g) takes small rats.

My female (~1200g) eats 3 adult mice a week. Used to eat small rats....but has become a princess as of late. As others have mentioned...BP's seem to like smaller prey...I've tried feeding medium rats but they seem to "scare" her. My boa on the other hand will eat anything.

My biggest girl (3000 grams) eats large rats. I do not know how much they wiegh but they dont leave a noticable lump in here. I feed here every other week when I feed here a large rat. This girl is awsome. She eats f/t but the the only way she eats its is if I drop it in and walk away. No wiggling or nothing. She dosen't even constict. It dont get much better then that. Oh wait it does she's locked up with my Mojave right now.

im curious as to when to upgrade the prey for my ball python. I know it can only be the width as the widest part of her. What i am unsure of is if shes 383grams currently how many grams should i aim to feed her? does it matter if its two rats or one to equal that? when would u know to upgrade from the small rat to medium rat etc.

I breed my own rats I have snakes that way from 800g - 1600G right now so I freeze my rats off at about 90G or so and everyone gets one small rat a weak. I really had not planned on feeding anything larger as all my snakes seem to eat fine and are growing nicely :)

Once my male normal reached 1600g, he started taking medium rats. Below that weight, I'm feeding smalls, weaned, hoppers, etc..

i guess everybody just have different preference, i feed my 1000G male medium rat weekly and he eats it like a champ. never refused a meal and strikes as soon as i drop the live rat (100g-120g). and for my 400G male, i give him small rat and takes it no problem. a lot of times the rats seem bigger than my snakes biggest part of the body, but after the rats get constricted they seem to get a lot thinner.

I feed my adult females between 100&200 grams. Every 7 days.

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Im feeding my het albino female 2250g with 180g rats and you cant see it in her next day. Males for breeding are feed with 60g rats every other week so they stay in 1000g range. Also have bumble bee female 2000g that is feed with 110-115g and she looks fat.
I have only 15 bps and i measure them every 15 days and then you can see is rat to big for snake that you feed.

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Hmm, I'm a bit confused, I thought everyone just used the 15%-20% rule? For 600g-800g females that would be a 90-120g size rat (medium) right?

I thought it was 10% - 15% but yea, that is what some folks do, others feed a prey size that is the same as the widest part of the ball.

I myself feed 1 small a week to each of mine that are of appropriate size and bigger. Of course hatchlings and little bigger get pinkies and fuzzies and weaned until the reach size to get small, then they stay on small the rest of their time.

10-15% is usually a guide for a growing snake. I don't see many people (I've read a lot of these threads) feeding ball pythons anything more than 120 grams or so. 120 grams is the highest end of the weight range of their staple 'natural prey' - the ASF rat. They CAN take larger, but that usually results in feeding strikes. I'd rather feed 8x 100 gram rats at one a week than feed a 160g rat and have them go off feed for 2 months. I had to experience this first hand for it to sink in. I plan to stick to 80-120g rats once a week because of this.

10% - 15% only applies to hatchlings and juvis. Not for adults.

My adults eat small rats weekly. Some big girls may get a medium or two smalls depending.
Anything larger than a medium rat isn't necessary.

Does the same 10-15% rule apply to growing boas? Just to double check, the recommended size prey to feed my 1300 gram female is one small rat every 5-10 days?

I'm not sure about the weights but my adult (about 6 years old) female eats small to medium rats every other week. Usually just one but sometimes she'll take a second the next day, it depends.

I've always thought the best rule was go by the fattest part of his body measuring food size.

I feed 15% up to 500 grams then after that males get a 50ish gram rat every week and females get a 100ish gram rat, so long as they are good about taking. If they're more comfortable with smaller, I'll offer smaller prey items in multiples. But if they're good eaters and they're taking f/t, that's the plan. I feed weekly because I work afternoons and evenings five days a week, so it's easier to just offer every week.

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Originally Posted by chosen2030

Does the same 10-15% rule apply to growing boas? Just to double check, the recommended size prey to feed my 1300 gram female is one small rat every 5-10 days?

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Boas <> Ball Pythons, the boa metabolism is slower. My boas get a feeder that is no bigger around than they are. Once they're eating small rats they get fed every 7-10 days depending on their body condition, if I plan on pairing them, how much "hunting" behavior I observe, etc. If they're big enough for mediums the interval goes to 7-14 days.

I have been following the 10-15% rule mainly because I was always coming home with rats that are too big. Now that my girls are around 1200g I am finding my best feeder hesitant some weeks and even refusing occasionally when that rat is 150-170g. I think they want to make sure it is prey they can over power and the head has to fit too.

Based on the last few weeks I think. Am going to stop with 120g rat so I don't have refusals.

I have been afraid of under feeding mainly because I had one go off feed for 6 months and then we bad mites and that meant another couple month before everyone was feeding again.


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I only have two adults. My pastel gets smalls. My big normal girl gets smalls most of the time but every once in awhile I give her a smallish medium.

I feed 10-15% while they're hatchlings. Once my males reach the point of being able to take a small rat that's the largest I offer. My girls get medium rats when they're big enough. I don't plan on feeding larger prey.

I have 2 breeder females both around or just over 2200g and they eat med. rats from 120g-200g every 5 days or so and that's the largest size rat I'll feed them. They usually let me know when their hungry, they will roam their tubs looking for food or my het pied female will try and jump out and grab me by the face or hand which ever is closer lol. When she's not hungry she's a sweet heart but when she is you gotta be on your toes when opening her tub. I feed my 1000+ gram Vanilla Pastel male one small rat ( 90g-120g ) every 5 days. You can more or less just eye ball the rat after a while and know what size is appropriate for your snake. Sometimes I'll have to feed my smaller snakes a meal a little larger than I would like so when the the next feeding day comes I try to give them something a little smaller.

My adult females get medium rats(weight varies by supplier) every 7-10 days now, my adult males get small rats same feeding schedule. I will start my females on smaller rats for the first couple meals after they lay though.