Question about feeding vs size....

[nitsuj]

Right now our snake is 19 inches or so and fairly young. It's on a diet of small pinkies right now. The pet store feed her live, but me and Tati feed its first frozen mouse today, after convincing her for 15 minutes.

Anyway, now that we can get her to eat; if it's willing to eat every 4 days, will that help her grow better? Right now the little bp is a bit skinny and I would like to get it rounded out and a bit fatter asap. It isnt quite round yet and its spine shows slightly under its skin.

Is there any big issue with feeding your snake whenever its hungry, even if that is more than once a week :?:

[Tigergenesis]

My understanding is that they need time for their gut flora to recover from a feeding to stay healthy. That's why the feed once every 5-7 for young and every 7-10 days for adults. Overfeeding can be bad to health - just like with humans. But since your's sounds underweight possibly, I'm not sure. I'm sure others will chime in on this one.

What does he/she weigh?

[RPlank]

I would give it adult mice or fuzzy rats......get away from the pinkies ASAP. It'll starve to death on pinkies!!!
I would go every 5-7 days, with a rat fuzzy. That will fatten your snakie up pretty quick.

[Marla]

Pinkies are mostly fat and your bp needs protein. Generally speaking, the closer the rodent is to adult, the higher the protein. An adult mouse has more protein than a rat fuzzy, but feeding fuzzy rats now will make it easier to feed it rats when it's an adult instead of 3 or more mice at a feeding. Your snake should be able to eat a rodent that is as big around as the biggest part of its body, but may be reluctant if it's only eaten pinkies, so I would get something a little smaller than that to start with, but definitely bigger than it's eating now.

[pimp_n_python]

like marla and Randy said pinkies are way to small a prey item even as a first meal for a BP
I would suggest rat fuzzies for now for a couple of meals then switch it to adult mice
and feeding it every 5 days should fatten him/her up nicely

[nitsuj]

Are rat fuzzies much bigger than pinkies? At this point is it to early to feed my snake a full sized mouse?

[Wizill]

many will contest that it is okay to feed even a hatchling hopper mice. use your best judgement, by taking the size of the snakes head and the girth of it's body into consideration.

[pimp_n_python]

Rat fuzzies are a little bigger than fuzies
your snake will handle rat fuzzies just fine
just like will said judge the prey item by the girth of the snake
one thing is for sure though up the size of your prey items your snake is malnurished
a few rat fuzzies will fix it up nicely
goodluck

[Marla]

Are rat fuzzies much bigger than pinkies? At this point is it to early to feed my snake a full sized mouse?

Rat fuzzies are going to weigh considerably more than rat pinkies on average. You can see comparable sizes at rodentpro.com. It is definitely not too early to feed a small to normal-sized adult mouse to your snake, but a big mouse is probably too much. I'd step up a little gradually since your snake has never faced anything as large as an adult mouse yet. Rat fuzzy is probably your best bet and weighs as much as a small mouse.

[Wizill]

rodentpro.com sure is a great company from just a glance at their website.