I just switched my new BP to rats. She was 252 grams last week. Long story short she was only being fed weekly mouse pinkies by her former owner. Way too little food for her from what I have learned here. So I fed her a small adult mouse week 1 that I had her. Week 2 and 3 were subsequently bigger mice. Her feed last week was the absolute biggest mouse I could find. That was when she weighed in at 252 grams , right before feeding. Well , this weekend I got her the smallest rat I could find. It was maybe double the size of a large adult mouse. It was *slightly* thicker than her widest part. I offered , she hesitated.I left it in there for a few hours in the dark and she ate it and went into her favorite hide.

That was Saturday night , have not seen her out since. Last night ( 48 hours after eating and being rather torpid ) I lifted her hide to check on her . She has a big lump more than midway down her body , I can see her breathing movements below the lump. What concerned me is her lower half was turned so her belly was visible. SO , she was belly down from her head to the rat lump more than midway down , and belly up after from the lump to her tail.

Normal , or was the rat too big ?

I prekill her food ( cervical dislocation ) . She was eating live pinkies before I got her , and I did not want to risk switching her environment and feeding type ( to f/t) . I have no problem pre killing for her , but if this rat was too big I'm not sure what I would do .Maybe feed two mice for a while? There is not much size variety in live rats for purchase it seems. Breeding them is not a possibility here . I would need a divorce attorney.

Thanks in advance.