Feeding baby ball pythons

[MS2]

I was just wondering what and how often people feed their babies. I feed a 1 week old rat to my babies every 5-9 days. They just don't seem to be as large as other babies that I see for sale. Should I be feeding larger meals and more often? I didn't know if "power feeding " is good or not.

Thanks, Matt

[MitsuMike]

I don't breed rats so I don't know how big a 1 week old rat is but feed 15% of the body weight of the snake. I feed the babies every 4 days til they hit 200 grams and then everyone else is on a 7 day cycle.

[MS2]

Thanks for the reply. Do you feed mice or rats?

[Sarin]

A week old rat is definitely too small for a hatchling BP. I feed my small hatchlings (60-100 grams) rat pups and larger hatchlings (100-200 grams) weaner rats every 5 days. Then it's up to smalls every 5 days until they refuse, then every 7 days.

[Sammy412]

I have a 3 month old hatchling that is feeding every 5 days on weanling rats.

[steveboos]

Yeah i usually feed hatch-lings every 4 to 5 days until they get 1000 grams, then every 7-10 days depending on feeding habits.

[Don]

Yeah i usually feed hatch-lings every 4 to 5 days until they get 1000 grams, then every 7-10 days depending on feeding habits.

Ditto this schedule. It has worked well for me.

[BuckeyeBalls]

Hmm i do 4 days until 500g

Then at 500g i switch to 5 days

Then at 1,000 grams its every week

[MitsuMike]

Thanks for the reply. Do you feed mice or rats?

Rats all the way, I have learned my lesson to not keep Bp's on mice if at all. As soon as I get the snake I try and convert the baby to rats.