How quickly they grow! Can I give a small rat?

[Spoons]

Hola!

So I'm between a bit of a rock and a hard place. My lovely ball python who I have now had about 2 months is growing wonderfully, and has now gained a bit over 100 grams since I got him, resting today at a solid 266 grams from the 146 he was at time of purchase. I have been giving him as large of mice as I can get at my pet store, all falling between 10 and 15% of his body weight, every 5 days. He's starting to look much more round and much less triangular.

Except, now, the largest I can find is 26 grams - 9% of his body weight, since he's grown so much. It's not enough for him, especially growing like he is. That's my problem - the next size up anywhere I can go without ordering online is a small rat. Online ordering, while I plan to do so once he's on small rats consistently (so I can place a large order) would not at all be logical quite yet, as he's still growing - so ordering a handful of rat weanlings would end up incredibly pricey.

Here is my question. Is it safe to feed a small rat at this point, or are they too large? I'll post a pic I took of him last week on my laptop for scale. My other choice would be to feed something a little less - use up the large mice I have bought, but feed them every 4 days instead of 5 until he's up to a safer weight. Or feed a large mouse, and then a fuzzy mouse or something? All of the sizing charts say he should be getting at the 15% end something that's about 40 grams - and that's about as small as small rats come, it looks like they're 40-60 grams. What would happen if he ate something too big for himself? This week he is getting the large mouse, but next feeding they will definitely be too small. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I want to feed what's best and I'm unsure The one he was fed today even just looks so little for him.

Here's a picture of the little guy, as well as one of him eating today. Not a great pic since he's halfway in his hide, but best I could do. Also one of him right as he's done eating - you can see the mouse didn't make much of a bump! Suggestions appreciated.

[C2tcardin]

Small rats sound too big, I would think rat pups or possibly weaned rats but thats a stretch. Sorry for the pun. I don't switch mine over to weaned till they hit about +400g.

[SRMD]

Check out small weaner rats? Might be called something different in the US, I went from small weaner to large weaner to a small rat.

If you feel like he would be able to take it then offer it if you don't feel like he would be able to then don't.

[Spoons]

Maybe I didn't word my OP well enough. I know that's what the ideal is, but my whole dilemma is that I can't get weanlings unless I order them. Like I said in my original post, the only way to get them is to order online, and since I would only need a handful before he moves up again that would be really expensive for me to do. Online ordering is great and very cost effective only if you're going to order a pretty good supply - which I plan to do once he starts eating small rats, but ordering 10 weanlings or whatever would calculate out to a lot of $$ per rat.

There is nothing I can get between the sizes of large adult mouse and small rat here in person. I've been to all the reptile stores nearby and all of the pet stores. Mice go up to large mie, and rats start at small rats, so I can't get any in between sizes. This is the purpose of my post - I am unsure what to feed him until he is big enough to take a small rat, since the large mice are not cutting it, and wondering if he IS big enough for a small rat (which it sounds like he's not, that's what I was thinking too).

[Sauzo]

I feed my little 183 gram girl fuzzy rats that are around 36 grams every 3-4 days and she has no problem eating them. They leave a noticeable bulge in her and she is ready to go in 3-4 days. Today I fed her one and she had it all wrapped up weird and couldn't find the head lol so I tried helping and she squeezed the rat even harder like "don't touch my food!!" But after about 10 mins we got it set up where the head of the rat was poking out from her coils and she found it and it was gone in about 1 min. So I would say a large fuzzy will work. It also depends on the store as some size differently. Like my reptile shop sells large fuzzies which look like rat pups. Their eyes are opened and they have a coat of fur so something like an inbetween. If you can find those, I know for a fact yours can eat those as those are the size my girl eats and she is 183 grams like I said.

And yes they grow fast. When I got my little girl, she was 102 grams. That was 11/28. Now last night I weighed her and she is 183 grams. So she put on around 80 grams in just under a month. She is a porker and loves to eat lol. She smells the rats when I bring em in the room and her little head pokes out from under her hide lol.

[SRMD]

If he should be getting 40grams maybe you could go in ask for a small rat but the smallest small rat they have if that makes sense, since small rats are 46-79grams. Sorry I misread your OP..

I would try getting a small rat and just compare it to the widest part of his body and see what you think..


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[Sauzo]

None of the reptile stores in your area sell rat fuzzies or pups? I know in my area, there are 2 places. 1 is fairly close but they have to order from their supplier and she told me it would be kind of expensive but she would do it. The other place is about a 40-45 min drive but they breed their own mice and rats so they have every size you want and inbetween sizes as well. Maybe try farther out? Cause im in the same boat as you on ordering. The shipping just kills me to here plus I feed fresh killed, did frozen a few times but I prefer fresh.

[Daigga]

If you absolutely can't find a smaller rat, I would just feed large mice more often. Feeding multiple small food items is inconvenient and not super cost effective, but you hit different problems if you try to feed too big (I forget what they are, but I'm pretty sure it involves hurting your snake at worst, or the snake refusing the food at best. Also not cost effective).

[Spoons]

No, none of them do I've gone in to all of the ones remotely close to me (there's not many) and called a few others. I can't imagine why they wouldn't. The pet store close to me the next state over is who I've been buying mice from, since they're larger than Petco's (and cheaper!) Though, maybe Petco's rats would be really small too... I should go and look. One of the stores I went into, I asked what sizes the frozen rats came in and he looked at me like I'm stupid for a few seconds before saying, "Small, medium and large." So I thougth maybe it just wan't common to have smaller available. (well, it isn't around here at least). In fact, the only two actual reptile stores near me don't have anything smaller even live (even if they did, I'll do what I can to avoid switching to live when he eats frozen so well).

I will maybe just bump the mice to every 4 days instead of 5. He grows like a weed so hopefully it won't be too long before he can take a rat. I don't want to hurt him by feeding too large, so I will take the cost blow and just do the mice more frequently.

Thanks for the input everyone! Much appreciated!

[Sauzo]

Dang you got bad luck lol. Both my reptile stores have frozen of all sizes but only the one far away has live of all sizes. Not sure about the Petco or Petsmarts around here though since like I said I don't feed frozen. But like others said, in your case, I would probably just bump up either the feeding schedule or amount of mice per feeding til your snake gets big enough to take the smallest rats you can find. As for too big, most pythons can handle large stuff. Its boas that are much more common to regurgitate especially Surinames.