Hi all! New to site, and question!

[Dana]

Hi everyone,

My name is Dana and I got my first ball python 2 days ago! I adopted
her from a great exotic rescue in NYC. She's friendly and docile,
about 2 ft long (I haven't measured yet) and has fully recovered from
burns along the underside of her body (possibly ammonia burns).

We have no idea how old she is, as I have no knowledge of her former
diet, etc. But he's really cool!

Her name is Ramona (after a Bob Dylan song) and she ate an adult mouse yesterday (f/t). The rescue guy said that she has a good appetite and will eat a coupld of mice a week.

Question 1: Should I try to feed her another mouse today?

Also, I think (from reading around) that she may be at or approaching the size when she should switch to eating rats.

Question 2: When should I switch her?

Thanks!
Dana

[First_time_herp]

Well its agreed by many that the best way to decide how big to feed is by compairing the prey to the size of his thickest girth. So if a rat is that big than go for it!

[steelsack]

Welcome to the site! You could probably switch her over to rats any time, most say the sooner the better. Just find one about the size of the food she's currently eating. If she's on adult mice, then a juevie rat may be perfect, like stated above, go with the food to girth ratio. If she ate yesterday, give her about a week and then try feeding. She'll need time to digest what she's got in her currently. Feeding too often can be hard on the digestive system.
Some bp's take to rats no problem, you may need to rub a rat against a mouse to scent it, but I would just try the rat and see what happens. Enjoy your new bp, they're wonderful snakes! Feel free to post any and all questions you may have, we're all about helping each other here. Oh and post some pics! We love the pics!

[led4urhead]

Welcome to out little corner of the universe! It looks like you've done you research on you new bp. I agree with whats above. Bp's need to be fed about every 7 days, and you can actually start bp's on rats from the time they are hatchlings. Good luck!

[Marla]

Hi Dana! The others have given you good input on the switch, so I'll just say welcome to the site, and we look forward to seeing and hearing more of Ramona.

[JLC]

Welcome aboard, Dana! We'd love to see some pics of Ramona sometime!