Peanut saying hi.

[Hoomi]

Sounds like close to the same size as Phil now, and Phil will be 5 months old this week (according to the breeder I bought him from).

Those of you who have raised BP's to full maturity before, does their growth kind of alternate between putting on girth and putting on length? As I commented on another topic, it doesn't seem like Phil has gotten any longer, but he sure has "bulked up" since I've had him. I'm wondering if this is going to precede a "stretching" where all his growth will go to length, and then another stage of "bulking", and so on.

[pimp_n_python]

thats an interesting question!!

[Ironhead]

Monty Joe is approx. 36 in length, but not very big in circumference. I blame this on his prior owner only feeding him 2 mice once every six weeks. I dont really think he could eat a medium rat. Am I wrong thinking this? I know they can eat critters much larger than thier head, but he has such a small head.

[pimp_n_python]

every 6 weeks!!!
that guy better not know what he's doing
if he does and just doesn't care he should be charged with cruelty to animals!!
in rats the biggest thing is itsn't head so as long as its head isn't over three times bigger than the snakes head he'll eat it and have no problem
how much do you feed it now???

[Ironhead]

He is getting 2 large mice weekly. He has never had rat, allways been mice. So im worried that he would not take a rat. Since I only feed live prey im worried that he wont eat it and i will end up with another pet rat. I dont need any more rat's though my daughter would argue that.

[pimp_n_python]

he could eat it a medium i'm pretty confident
there's 2 problems that i can see
will he change over to a rat!!!
will he eat a frozen thawed
sometimes BP's get very set in their ways and its hard to change them over
you have to try some time because once your BP's full grown you'll have to feed it like 6 mice a week! it can get very costly
another worry with live rats is they can be aggressive towards the snake and cause huge injuries. you might want to get an all ready frozen rat and see if he'll take that
then you won't be stuck with another pet rat

just a couple of things to concider

[Ironhead]

That's the problem.....Will he eat a rat? I am the third and LAST owner of this BP. And he has never ate anything but live mice. I am raising my own mice so that wont be a problem. I am the one to blame though for not wanting to try the f/t. I just dont like the idea of frozen rat's or mice in the freezer. I will probably have to eventually go to the f/t. But dont think I am quite ready. He loves the mice. You can see the excitement in him when the little booger's set their paw's in his cage.

[Wizill]

Just a little fyi... your snake can eat something bigger than it's head no problem. Peanut is living, breathing, insanely growing proof. And ironhead, don't bother with f/t if you don't want too. Snakes eat live rodents in the wild, what makes a controlled enviornment any different? Eventually, though, it would be smart to pre-kill the rodents because as they grow they can be potentially dangerous. I've never had a problem, but have heard of a few nasty rat bites here and there.

-Wiz

[Hoomi]

I've been told one of the best "gauges" to how big of a rodent to offer your snake is to look at the girth at the widest part of his or her body. Anything that size or smaller is just fine.

That, of course, is just a guideline. Seems to me that last rat Phil downed was a bit bigger around than the widest spot of his girth, too, and he had no problem with it.