Hey! I rescued a ball python from where I work (petsmart). My managers werent letting me feed him appropriate sized rodents and were making me feed him fuzzies/pinkies (He's about 12 inches long). So He was under weight when I got him and everyone kept forgetting to mist him in back, so hes having a hard shed.

The story goes, I fed him a hopper because he was under weight and I felt so bad for him because he is a GOOD eater! Even when he's shedding he eats! Considering we have captive hatched, its extremely rare we actually get bp's that actually eat frozens. In any case, he had a prolapse the next day after he got bought...and my manager came up to me and told me it was because I fed him a small hopper. And that he was "bloated and the mouse was too big for him causing the prolapse". I told her the 1 and a half diameter rule and she claims it was still too big for him. And that he would have to be fed multiple pinkies and small prey items for the rest of his life, because he would always prolapse. I told her no, that wasnt true.

He prolapsed after he was bought by this couple with a six year old kid (they were buying it for the kid) and they started to handle him right away! They didnt give him time to adjust, and he was always a bit skittish anyway. I told her prolapses were common in bp's and cornsnakes, and that they can do it when their stressed/pissed off and to put him in some sugar water, put some saline solutions on it, and some ky jelly.

But it wasnt in our "procedures" so the couple returned him and they put him in back...on dry paper towels for two days. (I was currently out of town at the time when they called me about it). So, it ended up getting infected and they had to take him to the vet. Where he proceeded to get out of his cage and get lost for a couple days after the surgery to pop his hemipenes back in (couldnt they just, take the hemipenes out? we werent planning to breed him, after all).

In any case, once he was found and he healed they decided to put him up for adoption because it could "Prolapse again". In any case. This brings me to my actual question!

Should I feed him once every five days to put weight on him? Or once every seven? Im feeding him mice. And Will switch over to rats once he gets too big for his mice. He's about 4 months old, about 12 inches long, not exactly sure how much he weighs. I'll weigh him at work one day.

And I decided to promply name him Spartacus , he's one tough boy!