With a malnourished ball I would start slowly and work your way up. If you feed them too much at once right off the bat you can make them very sick and even cause internal damage. You've gotta think about how their stomachs and metabolisms aren't as good as a healthy ball. You should be fine with your 4 day schedule, but I would start with small one prey item for a couple feeding, then two prey items for a few feedings, and so on until you work up to an appropriate sized meal, which for a 500g ball would be between 50-75 grams. At 500 grams, I would definitely make the switch to rats as well. Start off with pups, which are going to be about the size of an average adult mouse (25-30g). This would be about half a normal sized prey and would, in my opinion be a good starting point so you don't harm your snake. This is what we have done with rescues we've taken in and it seems to work great for us.
Since you asked about your male as well, I wouldn't worry about the occasional hunger strike for a healthy adult ball. Their metabolisms slow down with and they won't eat if they aren't hungry. Some that are really well fed will self regulate themselves.
Good luck!
Reply With Quote