Quantity of mice per feeding? Help please!

[djstarfall]

A little bit of background info, I have a 550g bp around 10 months old, has great appetite, never refused a meal, I always feed prekilled mice. I breed my own mice and have a consistent supply so far.

However, I have NO ACCESS to rats where I live so... I also breed my own gerbils but that's for the future.

My question is, if I were supposed to feed the bp 10-15% of her body weight (which means about 55g to 77g) every 7 days, and each mouse weighs 30g at its maximum, is it okay to feed 2 - 3 mice per feeding? Or am I doing it totally wrong and should be feeding ONE appropriate weighed food item instead?

Sent from my C6833 using Tapatalk

[chrid16371]

Perfectly fine to feed more than one prey item, as soon as one is down offer another. Its just more convenient to feed 1 appropriate sized rodent.

[djstarfall]

Perfectly fine to feed more than one prey item, as soon as one is down offer another. Its just more convenient to feed 1 appropriate sized rodent.

Haha thanks chrid. Currently I'm feeding 3 one week, 2 on the next. Rinse and repeat. In the long run though, when she reaches say, 3000 grams, is it still a viable option to be feeding 10 mice then?

Sent from my C6833 using Tapatalk

[chrid16371]

Haha thanks chrid. Currently I'm feeding 3 one week, 2 on the next. Rinse and repeat. In the long run though, when she reaches say, 3000 grams, is it still a viable option to be feeding 10 mice then?

Sent from my C6833 using Tapatalk

I'm not sure about 10 bc I've never heard of it. Maybe. Why don't you start breeding rats? You could sell off some since noone really has access to them.

[chrid16371]

Honestly you should never have to feed 10. At a young age bp need more nutrients to grow so you feed every 5 days with the 10% rule. Once they get bigger they don't need as much so some will feed a medium rat every 2 weeks but I see a lot of people will keep at a smalls once a week. So 2-4 mice would be about a small rat I'm guessing so you could keep feeding around that once a week instead of feeding 10 every 2 weeks.it all depends on the individual snake also.

[KMG]

I'm not sure about 10 bc I've never heard of it. Maybe. Why don't you start breeding rats? You could sell off some since noone really has access to them.

It may be illegal where they live to have or raise rats.


OP, I think trying to feed 10 mice would not be a great idea. I regularly feed my Hoggy 4-5 mouse pinks and will give my big Blood a refused small or medium rat to go with her XXL rat but trying to get a snake to take 10 mice seems like a big task. Ive never seen or read about it being done but it just doesn't seem practical to me.

[JodanOrNoDan]

It may be illegal where they live to have or raise rats.


OP, I think trying to feed 10 mice would not be a great idea. I regularly feed my Hoggy 4-5 mouse pinks and will give my big Blood a refused small or medium rat to go with her XXL rat but trying to get a snake to take 10 mice seems like a big task. Ive never seen or read about it being done but it just doesn't seem practical to me.

I'd never get done feeding if I had to do this. I'd spend all my time feeding snakes. The most I have ever heard being fed to a ball at one time was three but that said three would not be enough for one of my big girls. It would be like feeding popcorn.

[MarkS]

I've done 2-3 mice at a time for snakes that steadfastly refuse to eat rats. It's not really the type of prey that is important and long as the quantity is sufficient. Nearly all of my ball pythons get small rats (average about 80-100g) Only the biggest girls get medium rats (over 120g) once in a while. I don't worry about the 10-15% by weight guideline, I go by what the snake looks like.

(in my opinion, most people feed their ball pythons too much. Mice are fine)

[djstarfall]

I've done 2-3 mice at a time for snakes that steadfastly refuse to eat rats. It's not really the type of prey that is important and long as the quantity is sufficient. Nearly all of my ball pythons get small rats (average about 80-100g) Only the biggest girls get medium rats (over 120g) once in a while. I don't worry about the 10-15% by weight guideline, I go by what the snake looks like.

(in my opinion, most people feed their ball pythons too much. Mice are fine)

Haha. Well I do have the quantity at hand. Just unsure if there's an issue with feeding "too many" in one sitting (eg 10 mice each time in the future).

I guess I'll need to find an alternative for the long run

Sent from my C6833 using Tapatalk

[MarkS]

Ball pythons can be fed MUCH less once they reach their adult weight. Most of my girls are around 2000-3000g each, if I were to feed 10-15% of their body weight each week, that would be 200-300g of food. They'd look like overstuffed sausages if I did that.