Just making sure!

[Jo060]

Hey, I know this has been posted a ton of times by different people but, Im just makin' sure :). I'm about to go to my local herp store for a rat. My BP was born July 1st (2003) and about
2 1/2 feet long (two and a half) Wut would be the appropriate(sp) size RAT for him?
THanks!

[jathoma]

See my first rat post....

My ball took his first rat last night with no problem...

My ball is around 2ft and the rat was 40g (small rat)

Hope this helps!

[sapphire_moon]

Ya a small rat should be fine, for probably 2 weeks until she gets bigger, my little female is about 26 inches and refused her meal last night because she is still a little "bumpy" from her small rat.....

[MontyPython]

I feed mine once a week on a small rat and he hasn't rejected a meal yet.

[Big Mike]

Get a rat that is about as fat as the fattest part of your snake.
You can quite safely feed prey that is about 1.5x the girth of the snake.

[daver676]

Your bp was born July 1st, and is 2 1/2 feet long? No Way. Is that possible?

Dave

[fateamber]

Is my bp too small, he is about the same lenght and is a year and a half! (he is maybe a few inches longer ) It's hard to measure him, he gains a extra foot if he really stretches out.

[jathoma]

GET HIM ON RATS - QUICK!!!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[BoidKeeper]

Don't worry about the names, ie: Fuzzie, Weanling, Small, Hopper etc. Go with what Big Mike said. Not everyone uses the same names to describ the same size rat. I breed rats and I've decided to adopt the same lables as rodentpro.com.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Jo060]

Originally posted by daver676
Your bp was born July 1st, and is 2 1/2 feet long? No Way. Is that possible?

Dave

Yeah, he was born July 1st 2003 and hes 2 1/2 feet long. Its possible...cause mine is' :) Is that big 4 a 3 month old?

[mykee]

I also, do not use length or size to determine an appropriate food item for my snake. I use a scale, and I think that a scale is something that you cannot live without if you are serious about keeping ball pythons. I use 15%-30% as a general feeding guideline. I feed my balls between 15-30% of their total weight per meal. I forget about 1.5 times the width, that is the 'old way'. I also believe that 90% of BP owners underfeed their balls. I've seen many year old balls that were fed on teh 1.0-1.5 times the snakes' girth, and to be honest, they look immaciated to me. So your 3 month old ball, I'm guessing between 175-225g? I would feed it a "weanling" or a rat that weighs around 35g. Or two pups that weigh 20-25g each. She'll be able to take that no problemo. Good luck.

[fateamber]

Was he stretching when you measured him?

[fateamber]

For a 3 month old that is HUGE!

[Jo060]

Nope, he wasn't stretching he was kinda an "s" shape sroda like this ~~~ So, i used the rope method to measure him. and got
2 1/2 foot