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When to offer multiple prey items?
Daisy has been happily munching on adult mice since we got her three months ago. She eats very consistently but lately, it just doesn't seem as if it is enough. She weighs about 255g and is about 22" long.
The mice are smaller then her girth. When is it the right time to offer multiple adult mice?
TIA
Tony
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Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
i would try to find bigger mice!
if you can find them for the same price, that would be cheaper than buying 2,3 small ones.
or buy a bunch and feed them up for a week or so.
vaughn
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Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
I've been trying to switch Auryn (he's about 425g) over to rat pups, but he wasn't having it after many weeks of trying. I broke down last night and went to the only pet store option for F/T adult mice around. Their "adult" mice at PetCo--in the frozen bags--are the size of the little mice Auryn was eating when I first saw him--nowhere NEAR the size of an adult mouse.
If you're getting your F/T mice from Petco or some other place, I'd try getting them from an online source or a small mom-and-pop store source. They'll know what an adult mouse looks like, and it'll be a bigger meal for you boy That being said, two of those tiny PetCo frozen mice got fed to Auryn one after the other last night. I waited until he had swallowed the first one and flicked his tongue a few times before offering the second one.
Hope this helps?
--Kim
1.0.0 Lemon Pastel (Auryn)
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Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
Tony, if you are feeding live I'd definitely suggest you do as Vaughn said. Feeder mice coming out of big, often overcrowded feeder bins are often undersized or sold as "adults" when they are really just barely weaned. It's in your snake's best interest to be offered a well fed, well hydrated prey animal so I always think it's best to bring home the live feeders, and do as Vaughn said, feed them up well for a few days to a week, provide lots of water and then you have a decent feeder mouse.
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BPnet Veteran
Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
I've been feeding Lilly two mice a week, b/c the only place you can get mice or rats here is petco, and for rats, all they have is fully grown medium and large rats. =/ She won't eat f/t and other wise I would have to go to the next decent sized town...at least an hour away. It's not really possible to keep the mice that long to fatten them up, but it doesn't actually hurt to feed two mice a feeding does it? I know it's not ideal, but it's not harmful, right?
~ Shannon
1.2 normal bp ~ Lilly (06) ~ Delilah (09) ~ Joey (06)
1.0 cinnamon bp ~ Doughnut (08)
1.0 mojave bp ~ Jay (08)
0.1 pastel bp ~ Patsy (09)
2.0 cats ~ Lil Bit (08) ~ Toby (08)
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Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
Oh heck no Shannon, not at all. We have a few multiple mouse eaters in our collection. Just remember to let your snake take the first mouse fully past the more slender neck area and get herself set back up for the next strike. Make sure both live prey are put into her enclosure well away from her so she can properly and safely hunt them. Some weeks she may take one after the other, some weeks she may just want to the one so it's best if you do feed multiples that you have some sort of rodent safe housing available in case you do need to hold one over until the next week's feeding (as well as food and a water bottle of course).
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BPnet Veteran
Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
That's what I thought. I have been feeding multiple for a few weeks now, and she does just fine, just thought I would see what someone else said about it. ^_^
~ Shannon
1.2 normal bp ~ Lilly (06) ~ Delilah (09) ~ Joey (06)
1.0 cinnamon bp ~ Doughnut (08)
1.0 mojave bp ~ Jay (08)
0.1 pastel bp ~ Patsy (09)
2.0 cats ~ Lil Bit (08) ~ Toby (08)
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BPnet Veteran
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Registered User
Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
I may feed multiple prey items if i'm trying to switch a BP from mice or from rats to f/t rats. I just offer the p/k or f/t item as it's swallowing the mouse. They get the head of the rat with the butt of the mouse and just swallow it naturally. That way they aren't spending all that energy killing another item, but they get the better, nutritious rat!
Sara Gatto
www.MezcladoReptilia.com
“Many of the insights of the saint stem from his experience as a sinner.” -Eric Hoffer
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Re: When to offer multiple prey items?
 Originally Posted by Mezclado_Reps
That way they aren't spending all that energy killing another item, but they get the better, nutritious rat!
Rats aren't necessarily "better" than mice. There are no studies on the nutritional "requirements" of ball pythons, so no one can definitively say that rats are better than mice for ball pythons.
Yes, you may have to feed multiple mice if you have a mouser, but in my experience, my mousers have the same growth rate as my ratters.
This girl is 1500 grams and only gets two mice a week.

Joanna has a large female that only eats mice as well and the snake would probably insist that mice are "better" than rats to her!
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