When is prey size pushing it

[purpleroan]

Hey y’all. So, I’ve been feeding my bp frozen small rats for a long while now, but recently they seem to have gotten smaller at the store where I buy them, and are a good deal smaller than her widest point. She has seemed almost unsatisfied as well afterwards, more nippy and searching than she ever was. So, I decided to try a medium tonight and the rat they gave me is MASSIVE...about three of what she had been eating. Around it’s belly it’s definitely her circumference if not a tad bigger, and the thing has got to be at least 8” long. I know everyone says that it’s safe to feed them their width or a bit larger, but I’m just nervous I guess. Could any harm come from a big rat or will she stop trying before if it’s potentially too big? TIA!


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[Craiga 01453]

How old is she? And how much does she weigh?

I'm sure she'll eat it if she's hungry, but without knowing more info it's tough to say if she should. Just because they CAN, doesn't mean they SHOULD.

[purpleroan]

How old is she? And how much does she weigh?

I'm sure she'll eat it if she's hungry, but without knowing more info it's tough to say if she should. Just because they CAN, doesn't mean they SHOULD.

She’s a year and 8 months, sitting at approximately 850g


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[purpleroan]

She just came off a 6 month winter fast 5 weeks ago too, if that’s relevant.


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[Craiga 01453]

Ok, I would definitely stick to smalls then.

They're plenty big for her still. Feeding her the medium might actually push her into another food strike.

[purpleroan]

Ok! So it would be smarter to not try even the one time and see if i can go trade it for a small?


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[purpleroan]

Some pictures for reference. Also it turns out she’s in blue today so she probably wouldn’t have eaten anyways


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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Smaller is better, BP in captivity are grossly overfed and will fast to catch up so if you want your animal to feed with consistency feed smaller prey and skip a week every now and than, there is not benefit in feeding something that large your BP will be sluggish for days.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ing-Guidelines

[purpleroan]

thanks so much everyone!!


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