Time for rats??

[adamms]

I got my ball in august, Im not sure of his/her weight (by the way whats the best way to go about checking that?). Chuck is starting to devour feeder mice really easily. Everyone says go with frozen rats and all but i've read on here people using live rats. Should I try out a small rat and see? It only takes a minute or so after chuck begins eating it to finish, and it goes down VERY fast. Thanks!

[Vengeance]

He should have been on rats a long time ago, possibly when you first got him. I don't understand you statment about reading of people using live rats. Usually that is a frowned upon pratice espically with rats because of the size and the damage they can inflict. F/T or P/K is a much better solution or feeding live, too many risks involced with feeding live espically if not done properly.

As for weighing your Ball, get a $10 kitchen scale from the grocery store and put your ball python on it and it will give you his weight. If you want to have a more accurate idea of his weight buy a digital scale.

Depening on the size of your Ball I would try a small rat and see how he does.

[adamms]

I will try that and see this weekend how he does with a rat. He's been eating his live feeder mice so not sure how he will be with frozen rats. Never had a problem so far with feeding.

[HeatherRose]

Try it out with frozen rats first. Ball pythons can take young rats right out of the egg, and sometimes it can be difficult switching them over from mice to rats, so it's better to start early.

It MIGHT take some patience, and a couple tries before you are successful in feeding frozen, but if you're switching to rats, frozen a better idea as rats can pack much more dangerous bites than mice, among other reasons (live animals can carry parasites that are usually eliminated when frozen, etc.)

Just make sure the rat is VERY very warm first. Try slowly thawing it out in warm/hot water, then place it in fresh hot water right before feeding. If you have no luck, there are many tips and tricks to switching ball pythons from live to frozen, just do a quick search :)

Good luck! :D