Feeding question?

[Geek_Girl]

I just got my bp and he was eating peach fuzzies at the store and now at home (he's eaten once with no problem). I've read that it's best to feed him once a week?
I was looking online at some places to order them by bags since the local petstore is so expensive, but they are sold in 100 size bags. If he eats once a week that would be almost 2 years worth, but I know that he will need larger mice as he gets bigger. Is it still worth buying them in such large quantities? Or instead of increasing size could I just increase the number of mice he's fed?
Which leads to me to my next question. How do I know when to increase the amount or size of food he's being fed?

[TheWinWizard]

I would check to see if you have a herp club near you that you can join. I get my rodents from the one I belong to, relatively very inexpensive. How big is the ball?

[Adam Chandler]

Unless you have an abnormally small BP mouse fuzzies are most likely too small for your BP. Right out of the egg BP's are big enough to eat either hopper mice or rat pups. Basically you want to get a prey item that is roughly the same size or slightly bigger in diameter as the widest part of your snake's body. Offering you BP a weekly meal sounds just right. You can't overfeed a Ball Python, believe me if they are not hungry they will NOT eat.

As TheWinWizard said you can look to see if there is a herp club or warehouse mousery in your area were the rodents are MUCH cheaper than petstores.

If you have a hard time finding a local herp club or mousery I would recommend checking out a local reptile expo. There they usually have people from that area selling rodents who you can likely get a custom order from. Also reptile expos are just awesome events to attend in general.
You can see a good list of upcoming expos nationwide at: http://www.kingsnake.com/events.php

[Eric Doane]

If it is just a baby, you can feed every 4-5 days until its about 300 grams. You want to feed 15% of your snakes body weight. I agree that fuzzies are too small. Mine started on hoppers, and now 2 months later is eating weaned rats. It is ok to feed multiples, but you want to switch to rats as soon as possible. You will see significant size gains after switching to rats. If you are unable to find a better deal locally, you could always breed your own. If you have extras, you can freeze them for later. Best of luck. Congrats on the snake. Pics?

[Vypyrz]

If you do end up having to order your rodents online, you might check out RodentPro.com. They have a 1 bag minimum order, but, you can have whatever combination of sizes and numbers you want.

[ODoyle90]

I had the same issue feeding my BP. The only stores I found around me carried up to large mice (4 pack) then jumped to medium rats (2 pack) and large rats (1 pack), all for $11. Pretty expensive for any budget. Luckily, BP.net came to the rescue. I was going to attend a reptile show near me and pick up some rats there for cheap, but ended up finding a rat breeder in my area thanks to a thread I started asking about prices. When he's on large rats, $5/month is much better than $44/month, thats for sure.

And shipping frozen goods is rather expensive. If you calculate it out, its just about as expensive as buying from the stores. So I'd go with a reptile show, or like mentioned above, snoop around for a herp club or rat breeder near you. Good luck!

[Geek_Girl]

If it is just a baby, you can feed every 4-5 days until its about 300 grams. You want to feed 15% of your snakes body weight. I agree that fuzzies are too small. Mine started on hoppers, and now 2 months later is eating weaned rats. It is ok to feed multiples, but you want to switch to rats as soon as possible. You will see significant size gains after switching to rats. If you are unable to find a better deal locally, you could always breed your own. If you have extras, you can freeze them for later. Best of luck. Congrats on the snake. Pics?

Oh wow, I wouldn't have thought fuzzies would be too small. They looked so big when I was feeding him! And I believe there was going to be a show nearby but it was cancelled, so I'll check around for a herp club.
I'm going to look at scales later tonight or tomorrow so I can keep an eye on his weight and then it will give me a better idea of what to feed him, right?

And here are some pics of my new baby. If you look closely in one of them you can see one of my naughty dogs on top of a table.

[Deepsouth]

I got my three year old about five weeks ago. Soon as we got her home we fed her two hoppers took about five minutes ate them both. Figured she was still hungry and she was simply hunting Placed another hopper in the next day and she took that one also. Has been five weeks and she will not take anything. Put frozen pinkie in, thawed to room temperature and nothing.
Have another hopper that I put in about every three days for about 15 minutes no interest at all. She has shed and has pooped.
Temp in tank is between 80-85 and have a basking light at one end and heating pad under tank at the other with the hide over it. Turn off lamp at night Mist about four times a day and water bowl is directly under heat lamp.
Any ideas?

[ODoyle90]

That's a lot of food to give a BP back to back. My guy is on a 5 day schedule, and I don't handle him or touch him at all for 2 days after feeding. It lets them get settled in after a meal. If you think that his current meal isn't enough, just try giving him a larger meal the next time.

If the problem persists, then you'll be able to find several threads on tricks on problem feeders. As for now, you should stop giving him food every 3 days. I understand you want him to take one of those times, but he has no urgency to eat when he knows there will be food shortly. When they don't eat, just remove the mouse/rat and wait til his next appointed feeding time. You could even wait a couple days longer just for the hunger to set in. Good luck though.

[Geek_Girl]

So I was able to measure Bones last night and he looks roughly 17-18in long (if that matters at all lol). So I should try switching him to hoppers or a small rat (if rats, what size)?