rats v. mice?

[Christina]

i'm feeding my 21" ball python small rats already. when i went to the reptile house, i told them that she was eating mice in under 10 minutes. they told me to give her a small rat, slightly larger than a big mouse. (they carry them, and gave me the rat) she seems to be fine and hungry the next time i feed her, which is once a week. and i always let her have friday night until sunday afternoon to digest. is that too much?

[recycling goddess]

try not to feed a rattie over 3-4 weeks old... as that's big enough even for a full grown ball.

and yup... 48 hours to digest. sounds like you are doing a great job!

[tmlowe5704]

That is not too much time to digest, in fact 2 days is recommended. The rat though may be a tad large for a snake so small still. If you can, take a pic of the rat in relation to an object and then take a pic of the snake with the same object.

[tigerlily]

Yes, that does seem a bit too much for a juvi bp. Small rats are all an adult bp needs. You want to feed something slightly smaller that the widest girth. Use a string if you need help measuring. I hope this helps.

[Christina]

the rat was slightly larger than the girth, so, i dunno if that helps at all. she's about an inch around at the widest...i got her for christmas, and my prior experience extends to watching a northern albino pine snake over the summer a few years ago... thanks for the advice!

[Christina]

my gallery has pictures of her after her feeding- labeled *after a meal- 21"*

[recycling goddess]

you should barely be able to see a lump in your snake after it's swallowed. if it's more than a small bump... then the food item was too big.