What size prey to offer?

[silverbill]

I've been feeding my 4 month old ball python rat pups. He's currently around the 200g mark.

In my last order of frozen rat pups, one was significantly larger (~28g) while the others were 17-20g. I decided to feed the larger one last and he ate it up just as eagerly as the rest.

Now I've ordered some more but I'm afraid the rat pups are too small for him?

On the site I bought them from, it says the next step up is weaned rats at 30-40g, which I think is too big.

Will he be okay on the pups until he reaches 300g?

[Insane]

I think he will be fine for a bit longer on pups, but rule of thumb is typically no less than 10% of their body weight when they are young. I just bumped up to a 31g weaned rat for my 270g male and he takes it with no problem. Worst case scenario is you can try offering a second pup as he gets up there in weight to get through your pup stock.

You may also try calling the place you order them from and asking if they will package you smaller weaned rats. I order in bulk so I just opened the smallest weaned rat package I had and weighed them. Had quite a few 29-35 gram rats to help transition my boy. I order from Perfect Prey and Jim was very helpful in setting up my order.

[EL-Ziggy]

I agree the rat pups are fine until you're ready to move him up to weaned rats. I also order from Perfect Prey and they're great to work with.