Feeding Babies

[Jonathan.R]

Hey,

So I have a couple 2 month old ball pythons that I've been feeding live mice to. I was told that younger ones had to eat live mice and then they could then me transferred over to pre-killed or frozen as they got older. However, some of my reading says differently. Do you guys have opinions on feeding younger balls live or pre-killed?

[JMinILM]

You can feed live or F/T mice, rats or ASR to BPs of any age. Most people start babies on live as it is easier, but some start right out on F/T. Also there is no "need" to ever switch off of live. All mine eat live and are doing great and have been for years.

[Jonathan.R]

Thanks for the response! I would personally prefer to feed pre-killed or frozen compared to live. Just easier for me.

[Neal]

You can feed a baby ball rats, just sometimes mice are easier as they have a different smell. Though the best thing to do is to go for rats off the start or switch to rats ASAP because this can be a problem when they get larger and one mouse per time doesn't cut it, then it'll cause them to grow slower.

I will always recommend f/t over live because if your snake hits that mouse/rat wrong and that mouse/rat takes a chunk out of your snake it can cause issues that would of been easily avoided by feeding f/t. Your snake can get a bad infection or that can seriously cause a BP to go off feeding and tons of other things. So it's honestly best to do f/t though not always the most convenient for breeders and what not. I brought some f/t feeders to a girl and I watched her feed her king snake a weanling rat and because it didn't get the head just right I saw that rat take a chunk out. It's cheaper to go with f/t over live in the long run unless you breed your own.

The black pastel I have when I got him had only eaten one meal a hopper mouse, I fed it f/t rat pink for it's next meal and it's been on rats since, so whoever told you that is quite wrong.

[I-KandyReptiles]

Hey,

So I have a couple 2 month old ball pythons that I've been feeding live mice to. I was told that younger ones had to eat live mice and then they could then me transferred over to pre-killed or frozen as they got older. However, some of my reading says differently. Do you guys have opinions on feeding younger balls live or pre-killed?

You can feed them whatever they will eat. My hatchlings vary from live ASF rats to f/t rat pups.

Most will give babies live when they hatch usually just to get them eating right away. If you wanted to, you could offer a f/t mouse/rat and see if your Bp will eat it.

[ROACH]

You can feed live or F/T mice, rats or ASR to BPs of any age. Most people start babies on live as it is easier, but some start right out on F/T. Also there is no "need" to ever switch off of live. All mine eat live and are doing great and have been for years.

Same here! All of mine are on Live Rats and have been since they were little.

[Jonathan.R]

Again, thanks for the responses! I think I'm going to try to feed frozen next time. I'd definitely prefer to be feeding them rats instead of mice but I can't seem to find any small ones around. I've been debating on buying a small breeder colony of ASFs but I can't decide.

[BALLZY]

I start all my babies on rat pups.