How long to wait?

[Suess]

My ball python was hatched in Feb, he's been eating adult mice every week. The lady told me to wait a week before offering him food, I was wondering if I could move him to a feeding once every two weeks? would that cause problems? How should I tell when to feed him? Just offer until he takes it?

Sorry for all the questions, I've read up alot on these guys but I'm still a little fuzzy in some areas

[Lankyrob]

I would try him with an appropriate sized rat rather than a mouse as when he is adult he will need a LOT of mice at each feeding to fill him up.

Once he is eating rats then i also feed mine on a rolling 14day/21day schedule

[exwizard]

While he is still a baby, every week would be advisable then when he gets a little bigger, then bump him back to 2 weeks.All of my smaller snakes plus the '09 Macklots are on weekly schedules and the bigger Dums are on every other week schedules, even Black Betty.

Rats are also advisable now while he is still a baby. Balls can be so tough to switch later.

[Suess]

Alrighty, thank you. My family's a little terrified of him being in the house, they think he's going to grow up into a monster but I've been trying to explain that he's just a Ball Python, he's not going to get massive. I just thought though that you could control the growth by feeding at certain times without damaging the snake or having to starve him.

I'll be sure to get him rats, the lady said he was on mice right now and we were at a convention so I bought a 25 pack of frozen mice. It was the smallest and I used to have rats as pets so it seemed more appealing lol.

Would he do okay eating say a small rat and adult mouse together? would it even be possible to get him to do that? So that he got the nutrition and my mice don't go to waste?

[alessia55]

Baby ball pythons and juveniles up until the age of about 3 year can eat every 7-10 days. Adult ball pythons (age 3 years and up) can eat every 10-14 days.

You should switch your baby to RATS as soon as you can. Some ball pythons can develop a "taste" for mice and will be harder to switch to rats later on. As an adult, a ball python will eat one rat... if he's still on mice, it'll be 3 or so mice. Which is a pain. So get him on rats as soon as possible.

There is no need to give him a small rat and an adult mouse together. Just get him one appropriately sized rat. If you're financially able, and can afford to buy frozen rats, just throw out the mice (or better yet, give it or sell it to someone who has smaller snakes; use craigslist if you need to).

The best way to keep your ball python healthy is to feed it the right sized prey on a good feeding schedule. Occasionally your ball might decide not to eat (for a week, or two, or a month, or two...) but it's normal. However, feeding them less to stunt their growth is definitely not good for them. He won't get "huge," even if you stick to regular feedings.

If you'd like, you can check out the feeding page on my website.

[exwizard]

^^^^what she said^^^^

You wont ever have to worry about your snake getting too big because he wont. Hes a Ball.