Quote Originally Posted by jc0716
IT's been a month now since i got my ball python and he's been great and growing fast! he just shed a couple of days ago and refused f/t only ate after i got him a live mice, i know BP can be very picky eaters. I usually feed him 1 adult mice every 5 days. I want to ask if it's okay to feed my snake a small rat nowor should i just feed him a extra mice? he is about 36 inches and 190 grams i don't know how old he is because i got him from a pet store.
Okay first you need to understand that technically a "small" rat is a LOT bigger than an adult mouse. An adult mouse is generally about the same size as a rat pup (which is still nursing from it's mother) so a small rat is way too large for your BP in my opinion. Especially if you are considering live feeding. My adult BP's take small rats (sometimes more than one). My younger BP's take much smaller and younger rats. Perhaps having a look at the mice and rat charts at www.rodentpro.com will help you. There is also a description in a sticky in the Feeder Forum that describes the developmental stages of both rats and mice.