Appropriately-sized meals

[dakski]

Get a weight ASAP. Also, the rat should not be bigger than the thickest part of her body. There should not be a noticeable lump after she eats.

Refer to chart below for proper size. I believe as a BP matures, you can spread out feeding intervals from weekly to bi-weekly, or longer, but you are a long way off from that if a small rat was big. My adult BP - about 1,800G, eats a medium rat every two weeks. When fed weekly, she would often refuse. She fasts in the winter and loses some weight and then gains it all back within a few months of returning to food in the spring, even on a bi-weekly feeding schedule.

[wolftrap]

Alrighty, I'll weigh her and use the chart - what's strange is that the rat with "water weight" was only about 0.05 centimeters bigger than her thickest part, but once she swallowed fully, there was no noticeable lump (am I correct in assuming that the snake's muscles crush the ever-loving daylight out of the prey once it's down?). I also expected that the worst case scenario would be that she'd spit it back out before swallowing fully or, even worse, she'd regurgitate (which was not a fear of mine since the rat wasn't too big, but anything can happen....). thanks for answering.

[dakski]

Alrighty, I'll weigh her and use the chart - what's strange is that the rat with "water weight" was only about 0.05 centimeters bigger than her thickest part, but once she swallowed fully, there was no noticeable lump (am I correct in assuming that the snake's muscles crush the ever-loving daylight out of the prey once it's down?). I also expected that the worst case scenario would be that she'd spit it back out before swallowing fully or, even worse, she'd regurgitate (which was not a fear of mine since the rat wasn't too big, but anything can happen....). thanks for answering.

It can be surprising what they can swallow and handle as a meal!

Always be safe and not sorry by feeding a smaller meal when in doubt!

Spitting up, and especially regurgitation, are very, very, bad for the animal.