Food Size Question

[Kate]

Ok, kind of a newbie question for you all. I've had my bp for about 9 months now and she doesn't seem to be growing as fast as other peoples snakes. I'm not sure if this is something I'm doing or if she's just a slow grower. She's almost 2 feet long and about as big around as a toonie. I usually feed her one adult mouse once every 10 days (give or take a day or two). She has not gone off food while with me and has never refused a meal. I'm basically wondering if this meal is too small for her or too infrequent. I don't want to over feed her but I don't want to under feed her either and since she's my first bp I don't really have any experience to go by. She's never refused a meal and she's never gone off feeding. Everyone says tailor the food size to the snake size but can anyone be a bit more specific than that? Should her food be smaller, larger or the same size around as her? What about length? The small/juvenile rats they have where I get my mice are quite a bit longer than the mice and they look big because of that but really aren't much bigger around. I think they are a bit bigger around than she is but how big is too big? Would she just not eat it if it was too big or would she hurt herself trying to get it down? Also, should I try switching her to rats now or are the mice ok? Thanks for reading my long rambling post and for any help you all can give!

[Andy_G]

Try feeding her a minimum of once a week until she is an adult, and then move it back, sounds a little too infrequent in my opinion.

[Jeromerules]

yeah try feeding her 1ce ever 7 days. You can feed the snake a mouse that is a little bigger than the snakes girth ( width) Just use your judgement. but yeah try feeding every 7 days instead of 10.

[Markus Jayne]

Hi Katie,

The others give you good advice. The important thing to remember is:

1. Feed every 7 days
2. Match the food item to the size of her girth at her widest point
3. And if at all possible switch her over to rats asap.

Rats have a tendency to put more weight on snakes. Our entire collection is fed rats with the exception of one female. She is about half the size of her other siblings and I have to feed her 2 mice per feeding as well. Rats are bigger and generally one meal of the appropriate sized rat will do.

Hope this helps.

MJ

www.ballpython.ca (http://www.ballpython.ca)

[SnowFoxx]

Definitely feed a bit more frequently, but you can also try giving her two mice at one feeding, one at the next, then two mice, then one mouse...

That might make the little bit of difference she needs, like it did with mine.

- Victoria :w

[Linds]

I recommend trying to switch your snakie over to rats ASAP. The faster the better, if they haven't been started on them to begin with. Nothing like having an animal capable of feeding on medium or large rats stuck on mice :rolleyes:

[Kate]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I should clarify a bit about the feeding schedule. She was feeding every 7 days in the summer but mid fall she started losing interest and I noticed she wasn't looking for food as much. She slowed down a bit and I found if I fed her every 10 (or so) days instead of 7 she had more interest in the food and it didn't take 5 minutes to get her to grab at it (she has to think it's alive which involves me waving a f/t around in front of her face with tongs for awhile). I will up her feeding to every 7 days now though, and if she doesn't want it, then I guess she doesn't want it. Also, should I expect problems when switching to rats? Will she maybe not take them as readily? Is there anything I can do to make it easier? I will switch to rats asap as you all recomended if she's agreeable (lol). If she's eating a large adult mouse now, what size rat do you think I should start with? I don't want to overfeed the poor thing and she's not losing any weight, I just think she should gain more quickly than she has been. Thanks for all past and future replies, you've been very helpful.