Got rats that are too small

[crashpyrette]

So question.... I ordered some small rats(frozen) and ended up with weaned ones... I tried to see if I could exchange them from the local business I ordered them from and that was a no-go. They are too small for the BP I ordered them for, he is a little over 500g and these weened rats are ranging from 25-30g. How should I go about using them up? I don't want to underfeed my BP but I am not sure about the wait time between rats in a double feed or if it would just be better to try and space out feedings 4-5 days. Any advice would be appreciated!

[Ball_Pythons4life]

Sucks that you cant exchange them I don't see any reason why you cant feed two of them, if s/he will take them. How many did you buy? If it was only like 10 dollars worth you could just buy some more.

[Bogertophis]

If you double-feed these, just do them one right after the other. Don't wait, or it can mess up the digestion & cause a regurge. Some snakes will take one right after another, some you have to be creative (sly) to "chain-feed" them, & some won't. I hope yours will take them, but don't worry if not. The alternative is to feed each one solo, but I'd still suggest feeding no more than once a week. Snakes evolved eating variably-sized prey, so don't worry so much about slight underfeeding. Most snakes in captivity are over-fed & that's WORSE for them, health-wise.

[Ball_Pythons4life]

If you double-feed these, just do them one right after the other. Don't wait, or it can mess up the digestion & cause a regurge. Some snakes will take one right after another, some you have to be creative (sly) to "chain-feed" them

Oh yea I probably should have specified how to do it lol.

[nikkubus]

I would just feed them to him one at a time, every 10 days. There isn't a lot of difference between weaned and small and he is JUST barely big enough to eat small anyways. Not going to hurt him to stay on that size a bit longer. 2x weaned is too much for a just over 500g BP and chance for regurge is high.

[dakski]

I agree. Two with one right after the other is fine. Assuming she takes two.

Or, offer 1 weaned rat a week. Once on small rats I’d be feeding her every two weeks. So that feeding one weaned weekly is a similar overall weight to one small rat weekly. I wouldn’t feed more than once a week.