New BP owner here...feeding question

[rowanthefrog]

MY boys have been begging for a snake for months so we surprised them with a BP on Sunday. I purchased it from someone who needed to rehome theirs. They said it was about 9 months to a year old. It's about 1.5 feet long. They gave me a couple of frozen mice, the "Large" kind and said it only ate every 3 weeks or so. After reading online that seems like a long time between meals especially for a younger snake and I'm wondering if these mice are too big for it? I don't know if its a male or female but I just watched a video to figure that out. Here's a pic so you can see the size. I wanted to order some frozen ones online and I needed to know what size to order.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4...1paYjBHMHhNa1U

[Ptshay]

Mine is 3 months old and that size, and is about to start eating small frozen. From what I've read, babies should eat every 5-7 days. And the meal should be half the size of the thickest part of their body? I go with one slight smaller. My girl is about as thick as a quarter, maybe a littler thicker now.

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[Ptshay]

Ps they usually dub size by grams with these animals, mine was last weighed at 81 g.

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[RiA MaU]

I've only ever heard to feed them no bigger than their largest section and every 5-7 days. 3 weeks is a really long time unless they're fasting.

[Sauzo]

Pythons can eat pretty large prey. Boas are the ones that you don't want thicker than their thickest part. BPs can go months without food and be fine. My girl goes from end of Oct to around Mar/Apr without food by her choice. She started just over a year old. When she was a couple month old baby, she ate anything that got near her face every 3 days. I was just feeding her F/T mice and then switched to F/T rats.

As for size, if you use a scale, you want something around 10% the snakes body weight. Easier is just feed it a rat or mouse that is as thick as its thickest part. Go to the pet shop so you can get an idea of the size you need. Just remember, most of the places will have size differences in their rodents. A small at one place might be a medium or large small at another place. If you only have 1 snake, my advice is not to order online. The shipping is expensive so unless you are ordering in big bulk or have a couple friends that you can all split up a large order, it will end up costing you more than just buying a single F/T at the pet shop every 1-2 weeks. I generally don't like to keep frozen rats more than 6 months but thats just me.

[EL-Ziggy]

Welcome to the forum, congrats and best wishes with the new critter Row. Your BP looks big enough for large mice in that picture. I'd probably increase his feeding frequency to every 7-10 days. I'd also try to switch him over to rats soon though. It'll save you time and money in the long run. I'm going to respectfully disagree with Sauzo on one point. I believe it is more economical to buy in bulk online even with just one snake. It's even better if you have a trusted local supplier or if you can buy your feeders at one of the reptile expos.