how much and how often to feed

[claireree]

I have two ball pythons, a male and a female about 7 and 8 years old I have only had them a couple of weeks and have managed to get them both to eat 2 adult f/t mice each, I was wondering if it is ok to feed them mice instead of rats every couple of weeks.

I breed my own mice but once the pythons are in their new homes I can either use their old viv for more mice or I want to know whether it would be better to breed rats for these instead, I also have 4 eggs in the incubator as well.

[ChrisBowsman]

I fed my BPs multiple mice for awhile. It worked very well. After awhile, it got to where I was taking about an hour to feed two snakes, so I switched them both to rats.

I won't say that one is better, but my smaller snake started growing like crazy once he was pounding rats rather than 3 adult mice.

[Rapture]

Rats would be easier because they can eat one or two small rats every week or two instead of 3 or 4 mice. But it's all up to you, either mice or rats are fine.

[claireree]

my mice are between 20-26g so how many of them should I be giving them every fortnight. It does take a while they are not very fast eaters.

[kc261]

Most people feed their BPs once a week, although I have seen quite a few people post that they feed their adult males less often than that.

Mice or rats will work. With mice you'll have to feed multiples. With rats, since you are talking about breeding your own, you'll have to do quite a balancing act to have the right size available because rats quickly get too big for BPs. Unless you are planning on feeding f/t.

From what I've read, it is easier to get BP hatchlings started on mice, so at least at first you'll want those for the babies when they hatch.

[SatanicIntention]

How does it take you an hour to feed TWO snakes live mice?

It takes me one hour to feed 50 Ball Pythons live mice. Once you have a system down, it doesn't take the snakes long at all to recognize that pattern and get into feed mode very quickly.

All of mine eat mice, most eat multiples. I give them one, go on to the next snake, until I have given everyone a mouse, then I go back to first snake and give them another one. This repeats until I feel everyone has had their fair share.

[claireree]

well after reading this I think I am going to stick to mice, luckily for me I only have 2 to feed and they are quite happy eating f/t mice as well, all of my mice seem to be breeding regularly every 3-4 weeks so I have a nice constent supply.

I think as they are happy eating the mice I dont want to rock the boat and change over to rats.

[defuze]

I would never feed mice, but thats just me. Rats are easier, and all a mouse is, is bones.

[Spaniard]

I would never feed mice, but thats just me. Rats are easier, and all a mouse is, is bones.

If by "all bones" you mean they're not nutritional; then you should know there is no proven benefit in feeding either rats or mice.

They both get the job done; rats offer the convenience of being larger in size only.

[TimmyG]

This may be a good place to post my question rather than make a whole new topic, I just fed my ball and i was worried the mouse was too big for him, infact i was ont he phone with the pet store asking if i could return the feeder for a smaller size when he decided to strike. He managed to eat the mouse without injury but now im worried if i pick him up he might get an upset stomach, so my question is how long should I wait after a feeding to put the snake back in his home? i have pictures incase they may help