Very Hungry Male!

[GreenNeutron]

Okay, I've had my male ball python since mid-February, and I've noticed that _everytime_ I've fed him he's been absolutely starving. The people at the pet store that I bought him from told me they were feeding their baby ball python fuzzy mice (yeah I know, I should've walked out right there, but this little guy really impressed me because he was so outgoing, crawled right out of the cage onto my hand when I put it in there. probably because he was starving!) Anyway I've been offering him small/medium adult mice, because he's still only about 200 grams, and none of the pet stores around here sell frozen young rats. They said they'd order them for me, but I figure at 200 grams he's small enough that mice will work for a while.
Anyhow, he's taken mice from me everytime they've been offered. In the past week (7 whole days, not like 5 or something) he's eaten 5 adult mice. Should I get them to order equivalent width rats, would those be more filling? Or should I try to cut back even though he's starving so he doesn't get fat? Or should I just feed him until he's not hungry and be happy that I have a bp with such a good feeding response? He really is a perfect pet, always really outgoing when I open the cage, climbing up on me and everything. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing offering him more prey if he was willing to take it.

wow I didnt mean to make that long of a post. thanks for reading!

~Melissa and the very starving, appropriately named Orion:confused: :confused:

[sapphire_moon]

If he ate 5 small/med adult mice at one meal I think he would be able to take a small rat???? Give it a try, if it is to big he won't eat it.

[GreenNeutron]

oh not in one meal! though he still seemed hungry yesterday after I gave him 2 in one. Last Friday I gave him one, then sunday he was kindof cruising around his cage kindof sniffing around a lot, so I figured "maybe he's still hungry" so I thawed a mouse and put it in there, and he struck it and ate it. Then Wednesday he looked hungry again, so I gave him two that time. But then Friday he still looked hungry so I gave him 2 more and he ate those too. So yeah I guess you're right, I should give the rats a try next time he looks like he's hungry. Heheh... I was just kindof weirded by how hungry he is because I was under the impression that snakes didn't eat that much!

[nita]

If he is eating 5 adult mice at one sitting and still looking for more food, and is only 200g, I would say take a stool sample to the vet and look for parasites. Especially if he isn't gaining any weight eating like that could be parasites. Good luck.

[GreenNeutron]

Hmm... I don't _think_ it's parasites unless he just got them, cause I took him and some of his poo to the vet on March 1st and they said he checked out fine. (This is the vet I take my bird too, he's really good when it comes to exotics.) I dunno... maybe it could just be that he's still worried that he's going to be starved some? Because they'd had them at the pet store for a month and were feeding them one fuzzy mouse each once a week.(!!)

[mykee]

Parasites probably aren't an issue, underfeeding is. If you have a 200g baby ball, he could have been eating adult mice from birth, the size of the food you're feeding him is much too small, shown by the fact that he's eating so much. I would get him onto rats A.S.A.P. for the longer you wait, the harder it'll be. A 200g rat could easily be eating 25-50g rat pups depending on preference. Also, I would feed him as often as he wants, he'll stop eating when he wants, forget this garbage you hear about getting an obese ball, I'm yet to see one, and I have some voracious balls here at home. There will be a time, and I promise you this, that your ball will stop eating for months on end, that's the time that you'll wish you fed him when he wanted to eat. Good luck.

[sapphire_moon]

also, don't feed every day, every other day or every 3 days. At least feed every 5 days or so. IMO only