Is my young BP eating unusually large prey?

[Felidray]

Hey there!

I have a 4½ month old male BP. He weighs 288 grams empty (as of yesterday) and he's currently on Small rats and they actually seem a little too small for him. They're definitely not the same thickness as his body, they're a little bit smaller. I weighed the rat and it was 46 grams. All my Small rats are between 35 and 50 grams.

Now, I live in Denmark and we might have different labels for the feeder sizes? Cause I feel like Helix (my snake) should be moving up to bigger rats soon, and from what I've found here on the forum, people don't recommend Medium rats until the BP is at least twice the size Helix is now. Could it be that my country is simply labelling the sizes differently?

Cause I find myself very confused when a person on the forum says their adult BP is eating either small or medium rats and Helix already seems too big for them.

I added a picture of a 'danish' Small rat. (I am a girl and my hand is not that large)

[DennisM]

This is an appropriately sized meal for your snake. The U.S. sizing for this would be a weaned rat. 50 grams is leaning towards a large meal for a 288 gram snake, it's not time to move up.

[redshepherd]

Your small rats are weaned rats in the US. Weaned rats are something around 30~50g here.

A weaned rat for a ~300g ball python seems like a very appropriate (if not still a little large) meal to me though. I don't think you need to bump up the size anytime soon at all. My 430g ball python is on weaned rat size, still leaves a bump in him, and It'll be awhile before I bump him up to the next size.

[Felidray]

Oh, really? :0 These rats seem about half his body thickness and they don't leave a bump on him. He starts searching for food again after 5 days, so I have him on a 5 day schedule, which is why I thought they might be too small. But if you guys say they're fine, then I'll keep him on that size!

[DennisM]

Oh, really? :0 These rats seem about half his body thickness and they don't leave a bump on him. He starts searching for food again after 5 days, so I have him on a 5 day schedule, which is why I thought they might be too small. But if you guys say they're fine, then I'll keep him on that size!

a five day schedule is very popular for BPs of this size.

[redshepherd]

Oh, really? :0 These rats seem about half his body thickness and they don't leave a bump on him. He starts searching for food again after 5 days, so I have him on a 5 day schedule, which is why I thought they might be too small. But if you guys say they're fine, then I'll keep him on that size!

Maybe wait for more input... I wonder if there's something wrong with either my weight scale or yours LOL. A weaned rat, at least in my care of my BP, definitely leaves a rather large lump in a 300g BP. I wonder if it has anything to do with gender though. Mine is a male.

[SmoothScales]

I personally use the 10-15% rule of thumb. Of course, sometimes they receive a meal that falls outside of that range but some variety is good.
If your scale isn't broken and you are accurately measuring your snake, a 43g rat would be at the high end of the range and just fine for a 5 day feeding schedule.

Also, for reference -

[Felidray]

Thanks guys! I got the same size rat for him when I went and refilled my freezer a few days ago.