What size rats to feed

[Lferg]

Hey guys, I'm getting my first Ball next week. I have his home setup and it's running steady. He is a 2011 and weights 68 grams right now. I need to go ahead and order some rats for him but I'm not sure what size. I am in the air about where I am going to get them from right now and just wondering what the weight of his pray needs to be AND about how long before these guys move up in pray size? I don't want to order too many of a size then have left overs too small for him and need to get bigger ones. I just really want to do the right.

[Royal_Python]

Yours is about the same size as mine.. I was giving prey that was too small at first.. The general rule is to give the snake a prey that is about the size of the thickest part of your snake. It will look too big, but amazingly, they have no problem. I would get frozen mice, and just follow the instructions on the package. The key is making sure the prey is warm enough, as they seek prey out with taste but more importantly, heat signatures.

If you get frozen from petsmart, do no get any smaller than fuzzies, but you might be able to go up to small mice.
good luck

[Lferg]

I'm going to order bulk. Petsmart is way to expensive. There is a rat farm about an hours drive from me. So I'm either getting them from there or RodentPro.

[Freakie_frog]

At that size I feed like a rat crawler. I like to see a little lump in my snakes..

[Lferg]

So like 20 - 30 gram pray?

[rperry03]

I have 2 that size and they both just ate live mice hoppers, I fed them fuzzies before that and worked up. A lump barely showed up so next time it will be a little bigger. I went with mice because there were no rats of the appropriate size available and my Asf feeders are too small

[Freakie_frog]

So like 20 - 30 gram pray?

Not sure of the weight I've never weighed prey items I go by the over all size look of the animal and the prey.

[snakesRkewl]

In my house 68 gram hatchlings would get fed small fuzzy's about 18-20 grams