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I have 7 '04 female balls, and a het albino male, and I am thinking about switching some of them to small rats. The largest are about 250-300 grams. When do you guys switch your girls to small rats. They are all eating rat pups/weaned rats now.
Jason
One of my little Het girls is barely over 300 grams, and she just downed 2 good-sized weaned rats in a row. I'm pretty sure she could upgrade. Is small the next size up? If so, go for it.
Chris
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0.1 Normal
0.2 Het Piebald
1.0 Reduced Pattern
0.1 Banded
0.1 Screaming Child
Even a newborn bp will eat a rat pinkie (unless it's way undersized). Follow the standard feeder-size guidelines (food can be 1 to 1.5 times the width of the snake) and go from there. Some snakes seem to prefer smaller meals, so if the snake seems intimidated (vs. just refusing a meal), drop down the feeder size a bit. If you have rats of all sizes available there's never any reason to switch - they eat then from their first meal.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
I didn't mean switch, like from mice to rats. I meant switch, like from rat pups to pet store smalls. They have always eaten rats, well except for my male, I just got him switched to rats.
Jason
In that case, whenever you think they're big enough to handle it. It's going to be a judgement call.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
If the prey item is larger than the largest part of the snake.Then the food is in fact to big.
As long as a snake is say...2 inches thick,then give it a 2 inch thick rat. 
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3.12 Ball Pythons
0.1 Mutant Thayeri
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