Are these rats to large?

[None505]

I bought some rats for my Gopher Snake today. The guy who I got the rats from had me bring the snake so he could tell me what size rats it needed and he said that it can be eating a much larger rat then I thought it would be needing so I bought 10 30-50 gram rats(the ones I thought it needed) and 4 of the larger size which turned out to be 100-150 grams. My snake is only 324 grams so it seems to me that the 100+ gram rats would be way to big. Should I offer them to the snake or should I feed them to my dogs?

[IW17]

Seems large. That's a third or more of its body weight.

[sharthun]

I agree, I feed around 10 to 15% body weight for my crew.

[EL Ziggy]

I'd agree those are a bit large. My snakes are all between 450-500g each and they typically eat 10-15% of their body weight every 6-7 days. That's one or two 35-45g rat weaners.

[None505]

Thanks, I guess I will feed the larger ones to my dogs then.

[franks]

Lol guess they are not the face licking types of dogs.

[None505]

Lol, they do quite a bit of licking my face just not for 15-30 minutes after eating their raw meals :) .

[jpsteele80]

I always feed 125% of the biggest part of the body, this way it always gives a little bump

[SSSSnakes]

I always feed 125% of the biggest part of the body, this way it always gives a little bump

Same here, I don't go by weight, I go by the largest part of my snakes body.

[EL Ziggy]

Not hijacking this thread but I have a question for those who feed according to the girth of the snake. What if one prey item is a little smaller than the widest part of the snake and the next larger feeder is more than 125% of the snakes width? For example a 35-40g rat weaner is a hair smaller, or maybe the same width as my 450-500g colubrids. An 85g small rat is at least 2x their width. Which prey item would you feed?

[franks]

Personally, for colubrids I do not feed 2 size of girth. To use your specific example, I would just stay with the smaller size until he is ready for the larger ones if you cannot find anything in between. I do not keep boas, but I can say that my pythons are capable of downing much larger proportionate prey than my colubrids.

[SSSSnakes]

Not hijacking this thread but I have a question for those who feed according to the girth of the snake. What if one prey item is a little smaller than the widest part of the snake and the next larger feeder is more than 125% of the snakes width? For example a 35-40g rat weaner is a hair smaller, or maybe the same width as my 450-500g colubrids. An 85g small rat is at least 2x their width. Which prey item would you feed?

Some times I feed larger and some times I feed smaller. In the wild they don't find the perfect size prey. Snakes do not need the perfect size food, nor do they need to be on a strict feeding schedule.

[EL Ziggy]

My colubrids inhale rat weaners but there's no way they can eat a small rat. Do you guys feed multiple smaller prey items if the next size up is too big?

[SSSSnakes]

My colubrids inhale rat weaners but there's no way they can eat a small rat. Do you guys feed multiple smaller prey items if the next size up is too big?

No, it just gets a smaller meal that time.

[fedupdon]

I've feed my boas lg prey the only thing I've noticed is the go into a shed fairly soon after their lg meal don't believe you can feed too lg of a meal if the can get it dn it was not too big