Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was recently told that if i do not increase the size of my balls prey, and he is about ready to eat samll rats, that hishead will not grow along with the rest of his body so he will have a small head and have a hard time sustaining himself once full grown because he will not be able to eat larger prey items. Any truth to this?

haha, WTF?

lol ^
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Pastel 0.1
Spider 0.1
Normals 2.1
Het Pied 0.1
Leopard Geckos 1.1
American Bulldog 0.1

lol...Thanks you I was told this by a manager at a Pet Supplies Plus and thought it sounded pretty rediculous, but I started to worry and just thought I'd check. lol

you have got to be kidding me.

OK.....some truth thought to this....some

IF a baby ball eats all small mice...the head will not grow as much as let's say someone who feeds small rats to a month old ball....you stretch the head and jaw by feeding huge meals...and the head will grow bigger, a little faster than if you feed all small items....it has to....

...I think it has a little bearing.....

I actually feed my keeper balls bigger mice and rats in order to stretch them out and make them grow faster.......I've been doing this for years....not always, but if they are willing to eat huge mice and grow faster...I feed them that way....some won't eat huge mice, scared....so they eat regular...

YES a ball fed any size will still have the head grow...no doubt....and to make this seem backwards...the posts on here that have rat fed balls that feed waaay too much will actually have the head stay small and the body grow way to fast....and get the pinhead affect....so it's is like totally opposite.....

...so.......some truth in the idea....just to make them stretch out and grow and be comfortable eating bigger prey than normal if needed....

rambling now.......

.......like the idea that fish grow only to tank size.....?

.....yea........

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LOL......

Snakes fed mice for what seems like an excessively long time don't tend to grow as quick or mature at as large of a weight as snakes switched to rats at a reasonable time. And interestingly, snakes that were fed exclusively mice for a long time that are switched to rats go through a growth spurt not long afterwards.

While the head thing may or may not be true, it seems to do the snakes good to switch to rats. Mine eat less often but maintain a good weight and nice muscle tone compared to the mice-fed snakes I've seen.

Plus mice are way more disgusting than rats.

~jenny
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)