nervous to up prey size

[Brstin2flames]

Hi All,

My BP has been eating f/t hoppers since I got him. We are not sure how old he is, but he weighs about 174g. I know the rule of thumb is to feed about 10-15% of his body weight, and the adult mouse that I have is 28g, so that is slightly over the weight range. I think the mouse is about the same size at its largest point as my BP is. It just seems so big compared to the hopper! So I am nervous to give it to him.

Should I be nervous or is it ok to move my BP up to adult mice? This is my first time so that adds to the nerves. Any help or reassurance would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Robyn

[Animals As Leaders]

If your snake is the size you say I see no problem. Just go by the girth of the snake and mouse.

[Vilenica]

In my opinion you should go by the diameter of the preys skull in correlation to the width of your snakes skull.

[Animals As Leaders]

In my opinion you should go by the diameter of the preys skull in correlation to the width of your snakes skull.

I never ran into the head being bigger if the girth of the snake and rodent jive? It just kinda always works out that way.

[hunter94]

If the mouse isn't bigger then the widest part of your snake your perfectly fine. I was nervous when I first fed my Ball Python an Adult Mouse but he took it easily. I thought he wasn't going to get it down but he did and he kept it down. It will take a little longer for him to swallow but thats Normal cause the prey is bigger then what the snake is use to. Just try not to be nervous, also something you should know if your feeding Live is that Adult Mice don't die as fast as Hoppers so don't get worried if the mouse is still alive 20-30 seconds after he wraps around it. =)

Good Luck. =-)

[redstormlax12]

Dont be nervous. They are built to take overly large meals. You may think its going to cause harm, but it won't. My SD tic ate some pretty big rats when i made a size switch, but he soon grew into the size and was just fine.

Dont worry about it. Its one thing feeding a snake a meal that cause the snake to be 5 or 6 times the girth it truly is. But feeding maybe 5% more than the 15-20% guide is fine. The rule isn't set in stone.

[seeya205]

Thats fine! Once he coils it then you can leave and come back in a half hour if you are too nervous to watch! My spider is 214 grams and he eats weaned rats which are 30-40 grams!

[Brstin2flames]

Thanks to everyone for the reassurance! He struck, coiled and ate his f/t adult mouse just fine! I stayed and watched, I always do just in case something were to go wrong, plus its always interesting! He did great, it did take longer to swallow than the hoppers did, but thats to be expected.

The only thing I thought was weird, and maybe its not, is that my BP's tongue was hanging out while swallowing the mouse. Is this normal?

Thanks!

[WingedWolfPsion]

Not weird. They also have a tube in the floor of their mouth, and they will extrude this from the side of their mouth when swallowing sometimes. This tube is their airway, and it allows them to breathe when their mouth is full.