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I have a couple juveniles that are excellent feeders. They're up to eating rat pups right now. My question is about how often to feed them. A rat pup is a pretty good meal for them, but they'll take a couple a week. Should I keep them at 1 pup every 5 days or week, or feed them as often as they'll eat?
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

1 a week. I think mice are a better choice and frozen thawed if you can get them to eat that. adult animals are always the best so an adult mouse would be the right size for the ball python. one every week or 5 days is perfect in my opinion. with my ball pythons I feed ones that are a year or less 1 adult mouse a week and over a year and a half I give 2 mice one week and 3 mice the next. That is quite a bit and some people might say it is too much. Some ball pythons are terrible eaters and consider yourself lucky if you have a good eater but some eat like crazy and if you give them as much as they take they will end up with a shorter life. Overfeeding is a huge cause for shortened life in snakes...these animals have not been in captivity very long (in comparison to the millions of years of evolution in the wild) so giving them access to all that food is something they are not evolved for (though they may think it is great...it is not...like human diet is still supposed to be a hunting a gathering type diet but our social evolution is faster than our biological...so we may love a big mac, it is not good for us and we have not evolved to account for it and will get fat and have health problems). Hope this post helps.

I disagree, feed them rats if they will take them.

I just offered food to the babies that hatched 5-17. out of 11, 9 had thier first meal of a rat pup (2-4 days old). I will not even offer a mouse to those that refuse until they hit 6 weeks old.
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www.NEWReptiles.com

I agree. Rats are more nutritious gram for gram than mice. If you have a ball that needs movement it's a pain to have to dangle three mice in front of them every week.

jeff

damn, I wish you posted this a few days earlier. I thought I was swimming against the stream in my thinking.
I tried to feed my hatchlings 2 day old rat pinks for their first meals, but they all refused.
I also like to get my snakes on rats as soon as possible.
Anyway, I waited three days and gave fuzzy mice which they all took.
I am going to go back to rat pinks, and try to get them all on them with the next feeding.

TomChambers

You're not the only one to observe that hatchling balls more frequently take mice as they're first few meals. I believe it's the movement specific to the young mouse that get's them interested. However, it is certainly to the long term benefit to the keeper that the snake ultimately take rats.

When you try to switch them, I recommend that you use rat pups about 4-5 days old. Make sure they have a good coat of fuzz.

It's great that they like rats now. RATS are clearly the better choice for balls. I recommend that you NEVER offer them mice (they might prefer them and refuse rats thereafter). Mice are great for youngsters, but it's a real pain to have to offer adult balls multiple mice when a single med rat every 2-3 weeks will do. I recommend that you ask large scale breeders of balls with this question... you will find that rats are the overwhelming choice.

Also, frequency of feeding very young balls is not terribly important in my opinion. I say once a week is fine for convenience, and they will grow very well on this regimen. I say give them as much as they want each week, but make sure that the meals are not very large. As they approach adulthood they may have to be cut off somewhat in order to prevent obesity.

Studies have shown that there isn't much difference between mice and rats as far as which is better. The bigger difference is the age of the prey - older have more calcium. Therefore, an adult mouse is better than a rat pup. That said, I've heard of some breeders rotating between rat pups and adult mice for their young growing snakes to ensure they get all the stuff they need. Feeding more smaller items in one meal is better than a single large item.

I feed my 11 month old BP 2-3 adult mice per week. Sometimes he'll take 3 and other times just 2. I'm sure 1 single large item would be more convenient for me, but I'm concerned more about him. It's easier on digestion and I think the 'hunt' may serve as some form of enrichment and stimulation for his senses.

Just my $.02.
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