does he look big enough?

hey guys i have a question. i dont have a scale yet to determine its weight and figure out what size mice/rat i need to get. right now its eating 1 average sized mouse every friday.

so do you think my normal is large enough to start on rats? what about baby rats?


http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...86216627_0.jpg

maybe rat hoppers.hard to say.its hard to find rat hoppers where im at so good luck!

IMO he is big enough to eat 2 mice

wait now that I look at him crawling over your jockies, if he wolfs down a sm/med mouse weekly give him an extra. You really should get a scale though, only you know your snakes, and yours may not feed like someone elses of the same size/weight.

just go by looks bud.somthing a lil bigger than the biggest part of the snake is great.thats all you need to know

Yes it is big enough for switching to some size of rat. We start our balls out on rats as soon as we get them if they will go for them. 60 gram ball can eat a baby rat pinky. If we get a 50 or 40 gram one we give it new born naked rat babies. Naked rats tend to be a little smaller than regular rats and the babies tend to be smaller as well if they are pure bred naked rats.

The big question is will it change over? :)

when i got my lemon pastel, 1 mth old (77grams).. i gave him midsize-mice, a month after (155gram) i gave him an adult mice.

from the pic, its good for 2 mice.

ps. i have a mice colony, so on rats im not sure.. how old is she/he? very nice...

well it turns out he IS big enough. i got the smallest rat they had at the pet store and skippy took it like a champ. here's a video of the aftermath..

http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r...1230081626.flv

is that a rat you fed him or a rabbit :D

The rat in the video is too big. he may have got him down ok, but it is still too big.

Holy Cow!!!! :O
What size rat was that???????
I don't even feed my breeding females anything that big!!!!!!
I suggest (strongly) that you don't feed your snake for a couple of weeks; at least. Take that time to go and get yourself a scale. Try prey that is about 10-15% of your snake's weight. The largest prey I feed my snakes is about 90g.

The easiest method of determining prey size is simply looking at the snake. Feed your snake prey the same size or slightly larger than the largest part of the snakes body. That rat appears to be about 3 times larger than your snake.

Agreed with Fatboy on this one. That rat looks huge compared to the snake, I'd say that is about 3 weeks worth of food in one sitting.

I generally feed my balls according to their girth, sometime a little bit bigger or sometimes a little bit smaller:gj:

Wow! From one mouse a week to that? That's a huge jump. I know you said that's the smallest rat that they had, but I would have said no thanks and gotten two mice instead.

He's not going to need to eat again for several weeks.

If you want to feed him weekly, he should be on rat pups right now. The rat in the video was WAY to big. Give him a couple weeks off from feeding then start again with rat pups.

alright sounds good i did kinda think that the rat was too big but thought id try it anyways. guess ill have to find a different pet store that has smaller rats next time.

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Originally Posted by 84montesc

well it turns out he IS big enough. i got the smallest rat they had at the pet store and skippy took it like a champ. here's a video of the aftermath..

http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r...1230081626.flv

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Just because he can take it, doesn't mean he should...

Feed the same size as the thickest point on the snakes body. That is twice as large, and too much for him to eat. Feeding too much can be very dangerous.

Edit: Didn't see second page! But still, don't handle him for a good while and don't feed him for a couple weeks, that is probably pretty hard on his system. Also, just so you were aware, that is not a 'small rat' that is the smallest 'large rat' they had.. because that thing is huge.
You can find small rats that are much much smaller than that.

Yeah, dittos on FatBoy's post. It's real simple and you don't even need a scale!

Largest part of it's girth is the largest prey you should feed to be safe. You don't want it to explode.

I start my ball python hatchlings on pink rats, so yes he will be fine to start on appropriately sized rats.

i went to a different pet store today to see their selection of rats. they had a momma with some pinkie's but they were so small that the mice they had were actually bigger!

they did have some small rats and the ones they had were smaller than the one i fed but i dont think they are smal enough for me.

i guess ill have to stick with mice or jumbo mice if i can find em until hes a bit bigger

looks like he'd be a go for small rat pups.. if not. you have a really small crotch.

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Originally Posted by llovelace

IMO he is big enough to eat 2 mice

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Hi all

I have a problem when feeding my python, Tequila. The petshops around here only bring the normal white mice or Hamsters. right now I think the hamsters are too big for my boy, however i notice that the mice are too small.

Is it possible to give him 2 mice in the same feeding? If so, how would this be done.

Many thanks!

Live or f/t?

Either way it is possible. It does take longer because you have to watch the snake and make sure you don't wait to long after the first one is finished.

Just wait til he starts flicking his tongue again and offer the second one. The snake may or may not take it but if they are hungry enough they will.

Cheers

hamsters shouldnt be fed to you ball.

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Originally Posted by nixer

hamsters shouldnt be fed to you ball.

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if im correct are there skulls/bones to much for the BP to digest correctly?

They would have to be live.
Unfortunately here they don´t sell f/t mice/rats or anything (just pinkie mice) and I just can´t bang the mouse to kill it myself, so I have to feed him live. But I´ll try it in his next feeding.

As for hamster, many thanx for ur note as I didn´t know they were not good to feed. I haven´t given him any yet as they have been too big, so now I will definately not try them.

Many thanks for your help!! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by selarep

They would have to be live.
Unfortunately here they don´t sell f/t mice/rats or anything (just pinkie mice) and I just can´t bang the mouse to kill it myself, so I have to feed him live. But I´ll try it in his next feeding.

As for hamster, many thanx for ur note as I didn´t know they were not good to feed. I haven´t given him any yet as they have been too big, so now I will definately not try them.

Many thanks for your help!! :)

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an easy and humane way to kill your mice IF the store refuses to kill them for you is to place them on the edge of a table take a ruler and gently pin them by the neck at the base of the skull and pull the tail quick it will break there brain stem from there spine and kill them instantly and pain free. i assure you. in fact this is the way most pet stores will pre kill for you. or so i have seen.