Should I start feeding rats yet?

[clizardb]

My Ball Pythons are now a few days older than 2 months, and today they ate their first medium sized mice. Should I start trying to feed some smaller rat sizes yet, or is it too early still?

[new2BP]

my bp is only 17" long and i have had him for almost 3 weeks and everyone is telling me that i should be feeding him adult mice instead of fuzzies. so going by that, maybe so u should biggie size that order lol.

[Simplest_Mistake]

My BP is 17" too, and he won't eat mice. He just strikes, but won't eat. He will only eat fuzzies.

[new2BP]

My BP is 17" too, and he won't eat mice. He just strikes, but won't eat. He will only eat fuzzies.

are these pre killed fuzzies?

[highendball158]

my baby ball i just got a couple days ago just got done pounding down an adult mouse and he is around 17" too

[clizardb]

Hey Adam, if you read this I would like to know your opinion on this subject (no offense to the other answerers).

[Adam_Wysocki]

I only feed my mouse eating hatchlings hopper mice for the first few meals ... after that they are almost always ready for small adult mice. I've never fed a ball python a fuzzy mouse.

What's the rush to "switch" to rats? Your ball python can live it's entire life eating mice. If mice are cheaper and easier to get than why change?

-adam

[clizardb]

Thanks Adam. I wasn't really in a rush to switch to rats, but thought it would be appropriate to switch sooner or later. So as they grow, go to larger mice and/or more mice?

[Adam_Wysocki]

Yup ... i like to feed my snakes much smaller meals than most, but mice are fine forever with a ball python.

An adult male ball python will do fine on 2 adult mice a week for the rest of it's life.

-adam