Hurting snake by feeding

[Max12069]

I heard somewhere that if you are feeding your ball python something too small and then jump right to something thats way bigger it can hurt the snake. Is that true?

[CALM Pythons]

I heard somewhere that if you are feeding your ball python something too small and then jump right to something thats way bigger it can hurt the snake. Is that true?

Hurt it in what way did you hear this? Are you feeding live? If so any adult rat can hurt a Ball Python.
If your talking about feeding something to large and it cant swallow it then that not good either. Ive had a Ball “what looked like choking” try to spit it out. Took about 3 min for her to get rid of it. Best rule for that is no larger than thickest part of the snake. Balls are not like other larger pythons, their mouth does not stretch like a Burm or Retic. When my Burm eats its as if her head becomes a tube. The balls I have do eat much larger than their head but nothing like the way a Large Constrictor can.
I see a lot of Video’s where people are feeding huge Rats to Balls, its ridiculous and is hard on the snake for a long digestion period.


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[Max12069]

Yea i get that but someone said if your feeding something too small and then you start feeding something way bigger it can overwhelm the snake. For example if you were underfeeding your ball python and you were feeding it pinkies but it was supposed to be eating rat pups if you one day just randomly feed iit a rat pup it will get overwhelmed.

[Bogertophis]

Snakes have evolved without keepers choosing prey for them that is perfectly graduated in size...they have to grab what prey they can get. But that said, in snakes nature have to take more chances to survive than do our pets, & not all snakes are internally perfect, any more than we are. Therefore, some snakes may have a harder time with sudden large differences in prey chosen...so do the best you can to minimize large disparities & you'll have a better experience in keeping snakes. It's never alright or funny to give any snake something so large as to be difficult, just to see them struggle & to see how much they can deal with...that's what children do. Going from rat pinkies (too small) to a rat pup may or may not be accepted by the snake, & if accepted, probably won't be an issue, but as a caring owner with the ability to choose the right prey size, why would you do this? We are here to advocate the best methods for our snakes, but we don't have a crystal ball to foresee every adverse experience you might have.

[Max12069]

If you were a new snake owner and you made a mistake by feeding something too small and then you realized you wrre feeding too small you would have to jump to the size they need.

[Bogertophis]

If you were a new snake owner and you made a mistake by feeding something too small and then you realized you wrre feeding too small you would have to jump to the size they need.

Mistakes happen...we've pretty much all made some & that's the purpose of sharing experience on this forum...so others don't make the same ones & pet snakes get the
best care they deserve. If a new snake owner realizes they've been feeding the wrong size, yes of course they should up-size the prey given. But it's just better to avoid
a drastic size increase...ok? BPs can be fussy eaters, & they might also reject something significantly different from what they're used to.

[Max12069]

Ok thx for the help!