Seems OK.....

[Blizzarddude]

Ok well my stepdad went to get me some weanlings at the petstore he goes to get Monty food and we finally find out that all they have is frozen pinkies, so he got me 5 like I asked for and broght them to me and said, "Sorry they didn't have what you wanted, but heres the best I could do." So I took the pinkies, most of which were pretty small and went up to my room, turned on the faucett and started thawing 3. After thawing them I got Monty out, which I noticed that his eyes were very cloudy and know he probably wont feed, so I took him out, put him in his Hodini cage (call it Hodini cage because its a sinch for him to escape it) and put a pinky in it. He coiled up because he saw my movement and then I coaxed him to uncoil and eat. He eyed it, flicked his tounge and BAM, he got it. Since you great people on here said he is large enough and should eat weanlings/sm. mice I gave him another, BAM, he got it, same with the third and I knew that he seems fine. When swallowing he @@@@@ed himself a few times, which I checked out and he seemed to be fine. But 3 pinkys should be sufficient until the next feed when I get him some sm. mice. My dad lives a halph our away and sees me every friday, sometimes for the weekend, sometimes for the afternoon, but theres a petstore there that I have known the owner of for 10yrs or so now usually has sm. feeder mice. So I'll get him a bunch of feeders and freeze them and use them periodically. Also that petstore is where I got my first taste of snakes, and where it spared my likings for herps. At that store I got my first snakebite too . It was a 4ft redtail boa and I was about 5/6 I guess and I was holdin him and went to uncoil him from my arm and BAM, he got me, in the spot right between your index finger and my thumb, the main part of my hand, I remained calm and Pop pried him off me, great for a 6 y/o huh?

[Blizzarddude]

where it has @@@@@ I said another word for stuck starts w/ a pr and ends w/ a ick .

[daniel1983]

I would definately get the little guy on adult mice as soon as you can. Most pet stores carry adult mice...it is very odd that they would carry pinkies and not adults.

[kurgan]

What about rats? I've heard from more than one person that they are a better (more 'natural' as if that means anything for a pet snake eating thawed out food) and more nutritious meal.

[daniel1983]

Here is a link to a study on the nutritional value of mice and rats (and a bunch of other animals):
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=38
However, NO study has ever been done on the nutritional requirements of a ball python, so that info is kinda useless Mice and rats will both work fine.

But concerning rats, if it is easier to obtain RAT PUPS instead of adult mice then I would go with the rat pups. They are about the same size so the food mass will be equal.

[frankykeno]

We feed multi-mice as here the mouse supply is more consistent than rats of reasonable size. According to Adam he's got adult b.p.'s that eat multiple mice and ones that eat rat and doesn't see any great difference in the size of the snake, it's health or ability to reproduce well. Good enough for me.

[tigerlily]

Yup he showed Wendy and me two sisters, one fed rats and one fed mice, and they were the exact same size. I think it's all about quantity. Look at the amount of grams of whatever you are feeding. I think that's most important.