Underweight

[Amyelaine]

HeY! I think my Ball is underweight. I have seen pics of balls on here that are a year old and MUCh bigger then miss priss, I wonder if I haven't been feeding her enough. She has no problem eating. I usually feed her every two to three weeks one reg sized mouse. Is this enough, do I need to feed her more? Please help? She has never ate a dead mouse, so I have been feeding her stunned mice since I got her. Should I move onto rats?

[BoidKeeper]

A ball python can eat an adult mouse straight out of the egg. A year old BP should be on small rats at least, this will very ofcourse. I would advise you to put her on rats asap. Mice in my opinion should never be fed to balls because you will only have to switch them to rats later because mice are just too small. If they start on rats then you will avoid any problems trying to make the switch. When they are started on rats they just have to keep moving up in size to match the size of the snake. A ball should eat one rat slightlly smaller then its girth once a week. Some will say slightly larger then its girth but I always go slightly small because it is easier for digestion. Do you know how long and how much she weighs now?
Good luck,
Trevor
This is a female ball born summer of 02
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/507/289ghana_3_may_24_03.jpg
She weighs over 800g

[Amyelaine]

Damn, she is MUCh smaller then this. I am looking for a retailer that sells the rats. All I have is a petco close to me and they are of NO help! :(

I hope I haven't been starving my baby.

[Linds]

Babies typically feed every 5-7 days in their first year... adults usually every 7-10... each snake is different in its needs, that is jsut a general guideline.

[Tim_Cranwill]

I agree with what Tevor said. It's not too late to get her on rats. It may take a bit of effort... she may be all over the rats. You never know. But post a pic of her if you have the time... :)

[Mike177]

how long is she? like what was said if you can see the food item in her for like a day then it is good sized. if she is a yearling she should be on MUCH more then one mouse every 3 weeks. i would put her on rats or feed her mice more frequently but going to rats now is best considering you will have to switch her one day

[MontyPython]

I also think i have an underweight snake. I've only fed him once since i got him, he ate the day before i picked him up from the pet store. Mine eats baby mice just fine now...

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2459montyincage2.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2459montyonbed-med.jpg

Maybe it's cause mine is still a baby, but i've seen baby ball python pics that look bigger than mine...

Can someone tell me if mine is normal?
Thanks

[BoidKeeper]

That snake should be eating hopper rats no problem once a week, 5-7 days.
Trevor

[Piers]

I try to feed all my balls as much as posible,they can be great feeders and then with no ryme or reson go off the food,Ie my male albino has only eaten twice since Feb. he ways 385 grm. my albino female is a killer at 9 months old is 910 grms. The rest are all 450 grms and up. They are all given the same chance to eat,about 4 to 7 days, but they all have different feeding resonces. So what I'm saying (the long way) is feed feed feed!
Piers

[bbkaren]

I agree with Piers--if mine'll eat, I feed him. Right now he's on a roll, eating every 2-3 days but only live mice (for some reason he quit eating f/t rats and in fact for a couple months, wouldn't eat anything).

They're picky picky picky. Mine gains and loses weight like Luther Vandross but that's just his personality, can't seem to change him!

Only thing I've heard is feeding hamsters is like financial suicide because they're like Haagen Dasz to snakes...nothing else quite measures up after a hamster! lol

Good luck and roll with the "diets" best you can, don't stress out about it--their finicky nature is part of their charm!

[tHeGiNo]

BBKAREN! NOOOO!!!! LOL! Couple problems there. First you should only be feeding once a week. Second and more importantly, DO NOT FEED LIVE. Im sure there are plenty of things you can do to get him eating dead again. Have you tried f/t AND f/k?

[bbkaren]

yes actually I have tried both "dead" options--as I mentioned it worked great for a while and now he doesn't go near anything dead--and I know about feeding live, it's never a rat, never unsupervised, and he takes it right away. I understand the caution though!

[tHeGiNo]

Alright, what you could do to make it safer is stun the feeder by smacking it in the head, not too hard though so that it is still kicking.

[Big Mike]

Definately don't feed every 2-3 days. Their digestive systems are made to take whole prey animals...so it's pretty powerful. It's better for them if they can give their bodies a break from the process of digesting a newly eaten prey item. You can feed more prey items at one time...like 3-4 mice once a week.