Feeding question

[genoknave]

1. How long have you had your ball python?

One week.

2. How old (or how big) is your snake?

8 Months, 400 grams

3. Does it eat on a regular schedule?

First week

4. How long since its last meal?

last night, 20 gram mouse

7. What type and size of enclosure does it live in?
15 Quart tub, 3 slot snake rat

8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it?

aspen, around 1 inch

9. What type of heating do you use?

flexwatt

10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures?

yes

11. What do you use to measure/monitor temperatures?

digital thermometer and temp gun

12. What are the surface and ambient temperatures in the enclosure?

90 hot, 80 ambient

13. What is the average humidity level?

55-60%

14. How many and what type of hides does the snake have?

None, rack is dark and only open at the front.

15. Is water readily available at all times?

yes

16. Does the snake live alone or does it share the enclosure with anything else?

alone

17. How often and for how long is the snake typically handled?

only a couple times for a couple minutes so far

18. Does the snake have any medical history (old injuries or illnesses)?

no

19. Do you have any other reptiles? Have you brought in any new reptiles recently?

3 ball pythons purchased from the same breeder at the same time






Hello again everyone. So I ended up getting in my balls last week and everything has been going great so far. I didn't think it was going to be so difficult to get appropriate sized rats locally though. All three were on live rats when they were purchased from the breeder so I wanted to start with live just to make sure I could eliminate any reason they might not feed with me. Well, my local pet store's "small rats" looked fine when I picked them up but after weighing them at home they seemed way to large for my snakes. Only one of the three rats was small enough at 60 grams. The other two rats are around 85 grams or so. Well I decided to feed the smallest rat to my pastel since she has been the most active and she was 355 grams when I fed her. Her feeding response was excellent and struck at the rat within the first minute. It did take her a little over ten minutes to get it down though and I didn't want to risk the larger rats with my other two. So I went back to the pet store the next day and picked up 4 of the their largest mice. My yellowbelly female took two of them down without a problem. The spider/yb however, did not. I watched for about 45 minutes and he did not seem interested at all. So I decided to pre-kill the 20 gram mouse and leave it in overnight. I woke up this morning and it was gone. My main question is since it was so small, do I try and feed the other 20 gram mouse again today, or do I wait until next week? The spider is about 400 grams. Should I have just fed the larger 85 gram rats anyways even though they are about 21% of the weight?

Thanks

[swansonbb]

I probably would have gone with the rat. Offering the second mouse is ok - but if the snake doesn't seem interested, I'd suggest not offering food again for a week or so.

[Annarose15]

Since the spider already took pre-killed, I would use this opportunity to offer him a F/T rat next week (letting him stay a little hungry this week). I would not keep offering mice if you want them on rats.

[genoknave]

Good call, I think I'll offer him the F/T next week and see how he does. Thanks.

[Don]

I agree with offering f/t. Pre-killed is a good switching point. Also, I'd stick with rats rather than mice. Good luck!