Quick Question on Feeder Size

[Bogertophis]

are those weights for the rats correct?
I admittedly have never checked the actual weights of feeders, but knowing that my 20" BP weighs around 130g, a 200g rat sounds like it would be freaking massive!

Ian's BP is about 30", not 20", but still...the rat sounds too big to me as well. A wild & desperately hungry snake might well try it, but for our captive pets, there's just no need to chance it.

[Nutriaitch]

Ian's BP is about 30", not 20", but still...the rat sounds too big to me as well. A wild & desperately hungry snake might well try it, but for our captive pets, there's just no need to chance it.

oh i know he has a much larger snake.
i’m just trying to picture in my head how freaking big a rat needs to be to weigh 200g

[Homebody]

are those weights for the rats correct?
I admittedly have never checked the actual weights of feeders, but knowing that my 20" BP weighs around 130g, a 200g rat sounds like it would be freaking massive!

RodentPro classifies a 100g rat as a medium rat. A 200g rat is a large rat. I know males can thrive on small rats (45 - 85g) for their whole lives. Females grow larger and breeding females, in particular, need to eat more, but still, 200g sounds like too much for a yearling.

[Ian C]

Thanks everyone.

Quick update...my daughter didn't listen to me and gave her the rat anyway when I went to work. She ate it, and it's been 48 hours and no issues so far. I've been nervous the whole time, but she seems to have handled it well. She's even poked her head out of her cave a couple of times, so her behaviour is normal. That doesn't mean I'm not about to try and stick the rest I bought in the deep freezer for a few months down the road, but at least this one time we have avoided disaster (assuming it doesn't compact her bowels which we won't know for a while). My daughter says after she ate it she was moving very slow (no kidding, I wouldn't expect any different after a meal that size), and she immediately went to her water dish and drank from it for 5 minutes or so.

To answer a question.

Yes, they're 200g a piece. There's 2 in a ziplock bag, and I weighed them. 400g total between both. My supplier offers this as her scale for weight and cost (Canadian $)

Rats - pinkies - $1 each
Rats - fuzzies 14-20 grams, $1.20
Rats - pups 25-35 grams, $1.50
Rats - small 40-80 grams, $2
Rats - medium 100-250 grams, $3
Rats - large 250-350 grams, $4
Rats - XL 350-450 grams, $5
Rats - Jumbo 450+ grams, $6

I'll see if she has any in the 150g range, but she told me typically she sells them at 100, then 200+.

Thanks for the tip on weighing her. When she was smaller, I just placed her in a container that sits on my scale, but she's outgrown that.

I'm definitely going to reduce that size for her next feeding, which I'll probably wait 2 weeks to do as that's a large amount in one sitting and I don't want her increasing to an unhealthy weight.

Appreciate you guys as always!

Ian

[Bogertophis]

I'd easily wait 3 weeks before the next feeding, & actually, it wouldn't surprise me at all if she goes into a shed cycle after she fully digests this. And I wouldn't handle her for at least a week now so she doesn't regurgitate this. Digestion will take time.

[EL-Ziggy]

I don’t weigh my snakes, or their food, but that BP looks like it should be on small rats. It can eat a medium rat as well but you’ll want to space out the time between feedings.