Live prey

[rabernet]

Fed my adult female, 2,000g, her first live Rat this weekend. She has never killed her prey in her 6 years of life until now!

The snake is a family pet, and very healthy. My 8 yo middle son is a carnivore enthusiast, and frankly we got bored of feeding F/T. He keeps venus fly traps (best fed traps on the planet) and other carnivorous plants, as well as various carnivorous insects. He likes feeding live. Plus it was a pain to thaw the rats and they stank.

So this weekend we went down to the local shop and got a small rat, probably just shy of 100g, maybe around 90g. I didn't want to start her off with a live 225g rat like we would give her F/T. She took down the little bugger within about 2 mins of it being in her tank!

My question is, are the bigger rats, say 225g, significantly more dangerous than a 90g rat, given that they are both raised in a responsible local non-chain shop, well fed and watered? I want to give her the appropriate size but I would rather feed her twice as often than endanger her significantly more than with the littler rats. And I say "significantly" because i know there is always a small chance of problems.

For me, cost is a non-factor. Compared to my 3 kids, spending a few bucks a month on a snake is nothing.

I must say though that the live rat, in my situation, was way cleaner, easier, and more entertaining than the F/T by a long shot.

I don't feed much larger than 150 gram rats once a week to even my largest girls.