Help!

[Nateboy10]

Hi I have a 6 month old(assuming) female(still not sure if a female or not)ball python and she weighs 128 grams and I know it's pretty small but I'm just wondering how big she should be and I feed her hoppers so I'm not sure if I want to feed her rat pups or not

[Viol8r]

How often do you feed her, and does she eat everytime? As long as your husbandry is good the mouse/rat issue is between you and your python. If you think she may still be hungry after feeding you could try a rat pup instead or extra mouse or larger mouse. I feed all mine rats from the time I bring them home, but I also breed rats...lol

[Nateboy10]

I feed her every week and she always takes it she has a very good feeding response and sometimes I'll feed her 2 times a week

[Viol8r]

Sounds like you don't have much to worry about then. As long as she is happy and healthy she sounds fine. If you just want to put weight on her try upping her prey size, give her multiple prey items, feed every 5 days, or any combonation there of.

[Nateboy10]

Ok thank you so much and btw I like your collection of animals

[Viol8r]

Thanks! Me too...lol

[bcr229]

Personally I would take advantage of the strong food response at this point in the baby's life to convert over to rat pups. If you do end up with a female, as an adult she could get big enough to require multiple large mice each feeding, which is a lot more expensive than one small or medium rat. Plus, if you ever do need to re-home her, many keepers would rather not own a "mouser", as they cost more to keep.

[Nateboy10]

I'm not sure what size rats petco have and don't worry I'll have her until she dies because pretty soon I want to start breeding and she would be my breeding female for a little while