Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I received my ball 10/18/02 as a hatchling. He is 3.5 feet now (7/17/03) I am currently feeding him 3 frozen hoppers/1x a week. The past few days he's been eyeing me a lot more, I think looking for food (He always comes out, hangs out on the branch and follows my moves with his head around feeding day). Even though his head is still kinda small I think he'll do ok with the next size up from the hoppers in mice. He looks really healthy, although long and skinny as the food I give him adds to his length rather then girth. When I purchased the ball I did so after reading literature which said ball's typically don't get bigger then 5 feet, based on how quickly he's growing I'm not sure if this will continue to hold true. How big are your balls (no pun intended)? Does this sound like the proper food regime based on his size and age? I appreciate your comments. -K

My bp is a little over a year old, and she is 27 inches. I feed her small rats, and she is fine with them. Yours really is growing fast, but it can eat at least medium rats if you ask me.

Oh, by the way, how much does he weigh?

Wow! Healthy baby, growing fast. I also have a BP from last year, and he is 3ft. We feed him 1 sm rat every week or so. I think your baby could take that, if not a med rat with no problem.

Most normal sized ball pythons COULD handle adult sized mice right out of the egg (there are “half-sized” hatchlings that should be started on smaller food at first). But I find it easiest to get hatchlings started with live hopper mice. Thereafter, it’s usually a snap to immediately graduate them to larger (and prekilled) food items. So, why not offer large adult mice or small rats and see how it goes? It sounds as though your snake could easily handle three adult mice or equivalent volume of rat.
Have you heard the rule of thumb that you should feed a food item about as large in diameter as the diameter of your snake, or maybe a little larger? I think that’s good advice, but I usually don’t hesitate to go larger with established animals. At any rate, ball pythons are fairly tough and flexible critters, and it sounds like yours is doing fine.

-Joan