Increasing/Changing Diet?

[Sarabi]

Greetings,

I'm new to snakes and have a 3 1/2 month old ball python. Other than being small for her age, my ball python appears to be very healthy. She's currently eating 1 hopper mouse every 5-7 days. She takes frozen/thawed no problem and is a real good eater. Is there a general rule for when to increase the quantity of prey and/or change the food from mice to rats? Also, I read that rats are a more nutritious food source for ball pythons. Is that true? Is there a big difference between mice and rats? Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. I greatly appreciate it!

[Craiga 01453]

Hoppers are too small. This guide should help you out.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Greetings,

I'm new to snakes and have a 3 1/2 month old ball python. Other than being small for her age, my ball python appears to be very healthy. She's currently eating 1 hopper mouse every 5-7 days. She takes frozen/thawed no problem and is a real good eater. Is there a general rule for when to increase the quantity of prey and/or change the food from mice to rats? Also, I read that rats are a more nutritious food source for ball pythons. Is that true? Is there a big difference between mice and rats? Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. I greatly appreciate it!

Gram per gram it's all the same the difference is that once they are adult you can feed one prey (if feeding rats) versus multiple (if feeding mice)

As for your current feeding you are underfeeding your BP, hoppers are for hatchlings out of the eggs, after a few meals they quickly move to something much bigger.

[Sarabi]

Thank you! That chart is helpful. I'm actually feeding my python "small mice"--not hoppers, got the names mixed up. But, I'll start feeding her some rat fuzzies, as well. Thank you!

[Sarabi]

Gram per gram it's all the same the difference is that once they are adult you can feed one prey (if feeding rats) versus multiple (if feeding mice)

As for your current feeding you are underfeeding your BP, hoppers are for hatchlings out of the eggs, after a few meals they quickly move to something much bigger.

Currently, I'm feeding her frozen/thawed small mice that are about the same size as the largest section of her girth. Should I go bigger than that?