Searching his encloser like CRAZY

[djvip510]

I was woundering...Why is Mowgli, my 950g Male searching his tank like crazy tonight? He has been super active, way more than normal for the last 3 hours. Last week I changed his meals from 4 mice to 2 Medium Rats. I usually feed ever week but today is only the 5th day since the last feeding. Do you think he is hungry again? Even considering I increased the amount of food...

[LAWReptiles]

Maybe he still smells a trail of scent from his last meal. Ive never really seen a snake " act hungry ". Unless being wrinkly, dehydrated and aggressive is acting

[West Coast Jungle]

When my males are in breeding mode or possibly smell a female who is cycling they seem very active and look they want to get out. They seem to calm down when I place them with a female to breed. This is a theory but I think it maybe a breeding behavior and at that size your boy is more than ready for the ladies.

[montypython123]

maybye hes just happy that he moved to big boy dinner

[SatanicIntention]

Why is he getting so much food? You're just setting him up for a fast.

Even my adult females, who weigh around 2000-2500g, don't get any more than 3-4 adult mice every 7-10 days. The ones who will take frozen get 1-2 f/t weaned or small rats. They don't need mediums and they don't need larges... You're overfeeding him.

[starmom]

Becky, what are the weights of your prey sizes? I have found that some people have rat weanlings who are about 50g *coughconniecough*

When I buy f/t rats, smalls are about 55g and mediums are about 80g. Could you post the weights you are talking about since maybe the OP is just getting very small sizes of what he's calling medium...

To the OP: Becky is insanely remarkably good regarding the care and husbandry and medications for ball pythons. She is a great resource as a member on this site. She singly helped me to save a little hypo female who was in the process of starving herself. Becky's advice is always geared to the health and welfare of the snake. I would take her advice without question!

[SatanicIntention]

Well, with my pet rats, they get weaned at 4.5-5 weeks and are generally almost 100g at that time. Fatbutts.

Big Cheese smalls are around 65-75g, with weans being a bit smaller, 50-60 I think.

If you're getting 80g mediums, there's something wrong. JUST WEANED 5 week olds should weigh that much, if not more. Mediums IMHO should be over 150g. Large rats should be around 250-350 depending on sex. Maybe that's just me and I just have big rats.

But still, if he's feeding his 900g MALE Ball 160g worth of rats every 7 days, it's still overfeeding. 2-3 mice would be fine. 2 mice generally if not in a breeding rotation, 3 if they are.

[starmom]

Totally agree on the overfeeding part. Maybe it will help him now that he has some weights to put with the sizes.

I guess the rats from The Mouse Factory just come little~ though the rodents are always very well fleshed...

[SatanicIntention]

I promise my rats do not subsist off of candy bars and doritos... I should have one litter sometime this year and I'll keep track of the babies' weights as they age. Most of my adult males range from 200g-500g(all the rats are pets and the majority are not bred, only the pedigreed kids are every so often).

I guess I need to order from TMF once just to see, but right now I can't really justify the extra cost. When I thaw out a small rat from BC, I'll weigh it and see how big they end up being. Got me curious now.

[West Coast Jungle]

I have found the rats that I breed are much chunkier than the ones I get from my big breeder. My thought was that I leave them with their Mom much longer than he probably does so they are eating solid food and still nursing. I have the feeling big rodent breeders separate them much sooner (and breed mom again) so they dont get as much nutrition and thus much skinnier.

Plus mine are spoiled