What size meal?

[thedigi1]

Hey everyone,
I finally measured my ball and I want to say that he is 21 inches long. Should I introduce him to adult mice now or should I continue on his fuzzies? I mean he still looks for food in my opinion when I feed him a fuzzie so I thought it might be time for a bigger mouse. What do you guys think?

[dr del]

Hi,

How would the thickness of a hopper mouse compare to the thickness of him at his widest point?

Would this be F/T or live feeding? whats his feeding response / strike accuracy like?


dr del

[thedigi1]

Well Its F/T and im a newbie whats a hopper mouse size? I mean I have some videos of him eating if you need to know exactly the size of my ball's mouth its youtube.com/thedigi1

[ThyTempest]

Basically, the right size feeders doesnt matter on length, it matters on girth. The appropriate size feeder is about the same width as the snake, when measured at the largest point. For example, if the ball python is about as big around as a half dollar coin, then the mouse/rat to feed would want to be about the size of a half dollar coin (around).

Hope this helps, and ...please dont feed him currency

[BMorrison]

Furio is about that size. Give him a hopper.

[thedigi1]

okay then whats a hopper? I just bought a adult size mouse. I haven't fed him yet cause I don't ever feed him this late but I wanted to make sure that I didn't try to feed him something too big for him.

[starmom]

Check out this link: http://www.themousefactory.com/rates/rates.html
This is from The Mouse Factory and they have good pictures of the different sizes of mice and rats. Understand though, I have found TMF grams for each size to be on the light side relative to other places!

[mr86mister]

Well I watched the video of the "gut buster". If that is your snake it looks to me that he will be able to handle an adult mouse without much of an issue.

[thedigi1]

Thanks! thats a good start! so an adult mouse will go down his body with no problem? and how will I know if he can't handle it?

[mr86mister]

What will most likely happen if it is too big for him is he will just down right refuse it. He may strike, coil, and begin to swallow and a bit down he may throw it back up. He may even swallow it whole, but please PLEASE make sure if the bump is nice and big leave him alone for at least two FULL days or until the bump disappears in a nice quiet place. You don't want him to throw it up.