Live Feeder Size

[chocolatepudding]

So my ball python has been fasting since August! I have tried feeding multiple occasions and his humidity and temp are perfect. He just has no interest.
Just recently he has been losing weight and has dropped 100grams. I would really like to avoid live but I might need to try. He's at small rats now, what size prey should I get live?

[cchardwick]

What is the weight of the snake? I tend to go below the 10% rule for feeding live. Actually I go by the head size and width of the neck. I have some ball pythons that grew pretty fast and are still young, so they don't really have the neck power to safely take a rat that's 10% of the weight. I also have some older females that were underfed and thin when I got them, but they were older snakes. They could easily take a rat 10% or even a bit bigger. I guess I'd go by the age of the snake too. But to be safe I'd feed at about 5% of the snake's weight. Some people don't feed live rodents above 70-80 grams. You could try feeding a rat crawler just to get him in the mood, then follow up with a bigger frozen thawed or pre killed. I was feeding all live for a bit until one of my snakes got bit pretty bad, now I tend to feed medium and large rats pre killed just to be safe.

[chocolatepudding]

He's at around 1520 grams now. Also if I were to buy live rats, where can I get them? I am not sure if petco and PetSmart have them

[Dutti]

He's at around 1520 grams now. Also if I were to buy live rats, where can I get them? I am not sure if petco and PetSmart have them

At that weight your BP can eat a large rat. But its not advisable to feed him large rat because after a while he will go off food again. Get him small or medium rat.

[chocolatepudding]

I've read around this website that BP's should not eat larger than small rats? and just to give multiples?
It would be easier to give one medium rat over 2 small ones.

[maausen]

Mine has been doing the same. I finally got my male to eat again when I put a f/t rat in his cage on the warm side overnight. I put a dark towel over the entire cage and he actually ate it. I would keep trying before going live, like you said it can be dangerous even with monitoring the feed. If he was on f/t previously, he will go back to f/t.

[Eric Alan]

Adult males his size do great on one small rat per week and even then they will skip the occasional meal. More than that and you're just setting yourself up for more fasting, more poop, or both.

When they go into fasting mode, the first thing I do is go down a feeder size the first week after a refusal. If they still refuse, I back off offering that same smaller size to every other week for awhile. If still fasting, every 3rd or even 4th week until they pick back up again. When the husbandry's on point, here's no sense in trying week after week and reinforcing their pattern of refusal. A well-fed BP can easily go months without eating with little to no ill effects at all.

[SiXandSeven8ths]

I've read around this website that BP's should not eat larger than small rats?

That's what they keep saying.

and just to give multiples?

Don't know about that.

It would be easier to give one medium rat over 2 small ones.

Yeah, but everyone keeps saying males do just fine on 1 small rat per week.