How big of rat can your rat snake eat?

[sattva]

I have been feeding Fred, my Taiwanese beauty snake, a small rat every two weeks... He is 7 years old, about 7 foot long and I'm considering bumping him up to a medium rat... My problem is i'm worried about it being to big! He's head looks to small to me... I know I'm supposed to go by the body and not the head but I can't watch them eat something that's three times the size of their head... Anyway, I thought I pick some brains here... So if you have a full grown rat snake how big of meal can she/he eat? :confused:

[SWDK]

You can either bump up in size, feed 2 small rats instead of one or feed 1 small rat 2x per week. It really depends on the size of the rat vs the size of your snake. They can really eat larger meals than you think. Mother nature made sure of that.

I have a 1yr old Blue Beauty that is somewhere between 6'-7' long and about as round as a $.50 coin at its fattest. She takes small rats with easy and downs them quickly or she'll have 3 chicks per feeding. By the summer I'll be switching her to medium rats.

[sattva]

My guy sounds about the same size as your Blue Beauty... And you're saying she can down a medium with no problems?

[SWDK]

My guy sounds about the same size as your Blue Beauty... And you're saying she can down a medium with no problems?

She takes down small rats with ease. She's not quite ready for mediums yet or at least the size mediums I've been getting. She will prob be on mediums by the summer if she continues growing at her current rate.