New owner of a ball python, few questions

[Rodor]

Hey.

We Just bought a 1 year old ball python from a private breeder. He is 330g and around 70cm long.
We also got some frozen rats, they are listed at 60-90g.

At day 7 he refused to eat, we waited two more days and offered him a 75g rat, he would not eat it and he Just looked and smelled at it after he shoke it, but after 30 min or so we took it over his hide cave and then he shoke it again and eated it finaly :-) But it seems like he must have his hide spot to eat at all.

How often should i offer him food when he get large rat like this? 75g is heavy for a 330g snake? The rat was not thicker then the snake outside diameter of the snake stomac.

Next question is about leaving him alone for a few days. It seems like he poop every third day or so. He took a pop the day before we left on vacation. So my guess is that he going to poop today, and we are not home before two more days.
Is it ok for him to be in his box with poop for a couple of days?

I dont have any person near that is not affraid to take it out for me. He do have termostat on the heat mat, and water enough until we get home again. The light is on a timer.

Last but not least, is it ok to take him out and hold him every second day? Someone say 1-2 times pr week, but i also read about people that handle them ever day.

He was alone for 4 days when he was new, and after that he was alone for another 4 days until before i gave him a rat before we left him.
He is very calm and nice to hold, we are used to own a corn snake earlier :p

Appriciate some advice here :-)

[bcr229]

A 60-90 gram rat is really too big for a 330 gram snake, it should be eating a 36 gram rat at most. I would leave him be for a week other than weighing him again after he poops.

He should be ok alone for a few days as long as he has plenty of water available.

[Rodor]

A 60-90 gram rat is really too big for a 330 gram snake, it should be eating a 36 gram rat at most. I would leave him be for a week other than weighing him again after he poops.

He should be ok alone for a few days as long as he has plenty of water available.

Yes that was what i thought also, but the seller is a experienced ball python breeder and what he said is the rat is not thicker then where the snake is biggest. And it could be 1- 1/2 as big as the snake, the rat is not thicker then where the snake is biggest, but the weight of 330g and a meal of 75g sounds strange anyway. If i get rats that is 36g then the rat is way smaller vs the snake.. But in weight difference og sounds mutch more right.

[Rodor]

Now we have owned him for two weeks. When he arrived he weight was 330g, and he had got a rat day before we bought him. And he took a pop a few days later.
Now he got a rat for 5 days ago, and he havent poped yet, today he was 380g.

How many gram should they add pr week?
I Just had him out and the 75g rat is still the same size as the snake if the snake is not ticker, should i continue to give him this size rat on 75g, same size as where he is tickest? And how many days should he wait to get a new one?