Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are rodents exclusively for BP'S? Can you feed them other choices, if accesible?
-----

Ball Pythons are strictly rodent eaters. Mice when young and rats when they get big enough to eat them. They will eat gerbils and hamsters of appropriate size also, but that can get costly. Some balls are finicky, will only eat certain things. Some never take anything but mice their whole lives. It is also best to feed either frozen/thawed or fresh killed to eliminate the chance of damage the live rodent can do to your snake. Many people feed live prey to their balls, but you must not leave them alone for any length of time. Hope this is some help.

Quig

It helps!!! Ali
-----

All mine that will take mice get mice all their lives. It is just a lot easier and cheaper. You can buy them frozen for about 50 cents for a 40 gram mouse. Some people will tell you that you need to feed balls rats in order to get them bigger, but its not really true, more a matter of preference than anything else. I have seen a lot of 5-7 pounders that have only eated mice.

How many of your snakes do you feed live mice? What is the size of the largest snake you raised on live mice? Just curious cause my snake loves live mice but wont touch f/t rats and I would like to continue to feed her Live mice.