over feeding?

[CeeLee]

hi i'm a new BP owner i've had mine for about a month. they told me he was 9-12 months old. he was in bad shape when i got him, not eating, skinny and constipated and he couldn't shed. but he is all better now and has a monster appetite. he ate a fuzzy friday and another one monday. he still seems hungry. i can't decide if i should offer him another fuzzy, i'm afraid of overfeeding him. is that possible? thanks for reading

[stratus_020202]

Do you know how much he weighs? A fuzzy seems really small for a yearling. Even a male. He should be getting 10% of his body weight, or a rat just smaller than the widest part of his body.

I think a small rat would be better for him, depending on his size. Probably about once a week. When his appetite tapers down, you can do one every two weeks.

[CeeLee]

no im not sure how much he weighs but i guess i could bust out my kitchen scale and find out!

[Adam Chandler]

I am a strong believer that you cannot overfeed a Ball Python. They are notoriously very picky eaters and they will stop eating if they are not hungry.

His prey items should be about the as wide as your BP's widest point on his body.

[angllady2]

Yeah, even a fuzzy rat is going to be waayyy to small for that guy, so yeah he's still hungry.

Get yourself a rat or mouse that is at least as big around as he is, and offer one every five days. He'll eat like an elephant for a while, then he'll level off and only want to eat every 7 - 10 days.

No matter how big he eventually gets, don't go bigger than a small rat, about 60 grams, because he doesn't need anything bigger than that, no matter if he weighs 2000 grams.

Gale