Quick feeding question

[Midwest]

Our male BP has been home for just over 2 weeks. The breeder was feeding live rat pups and I have feed him live rat pups the last 2 weeks. My plan was to feed one more live rat pup before trying to switch him over to F/T. I wanted to avoid the stress of switching. I went to my source for rat pups today and they were out. They had one that had just weened and weighs 36 grams, just over the recommended size. When I brought the BP home two weeks ago he weighed 214 grams. I don't wont to feed something too big but based on the larges girth of the snake the rat should be OK. Should I feed the live rat pup I have or go pick up a frozen pup somewhere and start trying that today? Curious which option would be best. We haven't handled the BP any so I haven't weighed him since we brought him home, we were planning to start that this week after the 3 successful feeding.

Thanks for the thoughts.

[Bogertophis]

Toss a coin.... I doubt that a few grams "over" recommended will matter, & he just might accept f/t now too. I'd probably just go with the live.

[Midwest]

Thanks

That's been my thoughts. I looked at the rat and it is not much, if any, larger in diameter then the BP is in the middle. I had read in the past it is not good to feed them something too large but it is not like this rat is 50% bigger around. I went to the local place to get some frozen pups they had and turns out there were the same size as the live one I have. There is a lab nearby that breeds feeders and has them sold by weight/size so I am going to pick some up from them tomorrow to have on hand but will try the live tonight and just keep an eye that it doesn't bite scratch him.

[Midwest]

Well he took the rat down like a champ. Quick squeeze and then it took him longer to figure out where the head was. Once he got that in his mouth is slid down pretty quickly. Hopefully next week he takes the F/T, my son is excited that he can hold him later this week.

[Bogertophis]

F/T (or fresh-kill) is definitely safer, better for both (& kinder for the rodents). If he doesn't take the f/t when first offered, try doing fresh-killed to help him transition.
Glad it went well..."nature" rarely provides the exact sizes either, lol.

[Midwest]

I know I was being the newbie stressing too much.....Hopefully the transition to F/T is easy. So far he has been a very good eater. His first meal was only a couple days after we brought him home and he struck it very quickly. Today was the third and each one has been very quick. Hopefully I can get the F/T the right temp so he goes right after it before he realizes something has changed.
And thanks again for taking the time to answer. It is refreshing for beginners to get advice we can trust.

[Bogertophis]

No sweat...we were all "new" at one time.