feeding ?

[ron]

ok samson is 16 months or so not sure as lady wasn't sure exactly how old he was in july figured around yr.. he is 34 to 36 inches 5" around at widest area. i have been feeding him 2 adult mice every friday but now he is still out looking for more it seems like after 2 of the mice so i got 2 rat pups f/t .? is think he will be ok with the bigger size of rat pups? they look a little smaller than his girth and 1 ok or think 2/

[kc261]

I'm surprised none of the more experienced forum members have answered you yet. I'll give it my best shot.

First, unless I'm confused on my rodent sizes, I don't think a rat pup is significantly bigger than an adult mouse. Unless you are talking one that is like a weanling/small adult mouse that isn't fully mature.

I'm pretty sure that most approx 1 yr old BPs can handle the size of a rat pup with no problem. All snakes grow at different rates though. Since you say the rats look smaller than his girth, it should be ok.

You might have more trouble with changing from mice to rats than anything having to do with size.

You didn't say if the mice you've been feeding are live or f/t. If he's used to live, some snakes don't like to change to f/t.

As far as whether you should feed 1 or 2, if you think they are bigger than what you have been offering, I'd start with just 1 at least the first time. Otherwise when you try to feed again a week later, he might not be very hungry and even if the first feeding with the new food goes ok, you may get a refusal the 2nd time.

[hoo-t]

I usually think of my snakes in terms of weight rather than length and girth. But based on your description, I would think your snake could take a weanling rat without any problems. The general rule is to feed nothing larger than the snake is at its widest point. If you have problems switching, try a rat that is roughly the same size as the mice you are currently feeding, then gradually work up in size once you have a successful rat feeding. One thing that I have done to determine what size rat to feed my snakes is to first weigh the snake, then find a rat that is roughly 10% of that weight, or a little smaller. So, a 400 gram snake would get a rat that is between 30 and 40 grams, but no larger than 40 grams. Most people on this site will recommend that you do not feed a rat much larger than about 50 grams to any ball python.

Steve

[Adam_Wysocki]

All good advice so far ... if you read around the internet and speak with different people you'll learn that there are many many ways to feed your ball python when it comes to selecting prey size ... my advice would be to either stick with the two adult mice, or if it's convenient for you, switch to a large wean or small, small rat once per week. I personally feed my snakes smaller sized meals on a once a week feeding schedule and have had great success with that methodology over the years. I'm certainly not saying that feeding larger is wrong, just not for me.

Another thing I'd like to point out, after that second mouse is eaten when it appears that your snake is "still looking" for food, that has very little to do with still being hungry as you and I know it, and more to do with the animal still being in "hunt mode". The snake is still in the mindset of looking for prey and will often times even constrict and kill prey but not eat it while in this mindset. This behavior is similar to that of a dogs when they eat a bowl of food and after emptying the bowl sniff the area all around the bowl looking for more ... once they see that all the food is gone, they snap out of "hunt mode" and return to a passive restful state. Of course this is just my opinion, but it's one that I've formulated after working with a lot of ball pythons over a long period of time and in that time doing a whole lot of feedings.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[ron]

hey thanks all for the advice he was on f/t adult mice or what petshop calls adult mice i got rat pup rat pup was thicker and close to twice as long..but samson grabed it took it no problem.. but think will stick to just 1 once a week.