Food

[ben463]

Yesterday I went to petco and asked for a small frozne thawed mouse, but instead they started asking questions about how big my snake was ( 4 mounth old female ball python) they told Thad that was to big and instead they gave me 3 pinkies. (She ate them all) but I think that isn’t enough though. Should I go get the proper mouse or should those 3 pinkies fill her up?

[Regius_049]

Petco people are notorious for not knowing what they are doing. It won't hurt to just give your snake the pinkies this week and give her a "real meal" next week, but nor would it hurt for you to go and get her a proper sized rodent.

[bcr229]

Find a local private feeder breeder. You will get the proper size rodent at a much better price.

[sparky767]

This is why I don’t go to Petco. Granted, I’m lucky enough to have reptile shops in the area that sell feeders (live and frozen). If Petco is all you have, next time go with what people here tell you and tell them, “The customer is always right!” Lol.


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[Craiga 01453]

More often than not the employees at those big box stores are clueless.

Pinkies are primarily water and offer almost no nutritional value to a BP.

[Regius_049]

Pinkies are primarily water and offer almost no nutritional value to a BP.

I don't believe this is true. If you look at their nutritional breakdown, they aren't insanely different from larger rodents: https://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

While they are extremely small and not practically useful for larger animals, if one were to compare equivalent weights of pinkies vs an adult mouse the nutritional breakdown would be indeed different, but comparable and definitely offer more than "almost no nutritional value". The major knock against pinkies tends to be calcium, as their bones are not fully ossified, but this can be rectified by either feeding pinkies frozen with a full meal of their mother's milk or via calcium injection to help bring up the Ca ratio.