What size rats do you feed your adult female balls? POLL

I tend to feed my big girls 150g rats. I have a pastel female who's putting on weight like it's her job, she's about 700g and she just ate a 130g rat two days ago. Is there a reason that people are feeding smaller prey items? I would think the bigger ones would help them put the weight on faster. My males tend to get smaller meals so they don't get quite as big.

It depends on the place you buy the rat from and also the strain of rat. Domestic colored rats tend to be smaller than the big lab strain of white ones many feeder breeders use. For instance, I buy the white kind from Brad Benike at GrossBoy Exotics, and the closed-eye pups from that strain are the same size as a weaned regular colored rat. They're huge. I feed weaned rats from that strain to all of my snakes -- the large adults just get 2-3 of them on a 10-day schedule.

I choose to feed smaller prey items for multiple reasons:

1 -- Weaned rats pose MUCH less of a threat of fighting back than an older/larger rat. They are naive and often times just sit there and do nothing while the snake approaches and goes to strike. They never bite back and if they do, their teeth aren't large/strong enough to inflict damage.

2 -- Feeding smaller prey allows my snakes to choose how much they want to eat at any given time. If one feeding day they aren't very hungry, they can only eat one if they want. If the next feeding day they're really hungry, they can eat 2-3. Which large prey items, it's either all or nothing...there's no in-between.

3 -- I keep my feeders in holding tanks when I buy them in large groups. Weaned rats eat, drink, pee, and poop far less than adult rats, leaving less for me to have to clean up. They also are not skittish and mean and bitey like adult rats so there isn't a need to grab them with tongs and possibly drop them.

I stated on the forum that its your own choice what size you feed and I was called an idiot lmao

All my adult females eat X Larges from Rodent Pro for the most part. Unless they are smaller of course. But usually it is Medium and Up. X large is the biggest I ever had to go. All the males that stick around 600-800 get either a small or 2 or a medium.

Originally Posted by SPJ

I would rather feed one appropriately sized prey item than multiple. That's why she gets the bigger size. Just easier to feed her and her digest it IMO.

lol The concept is that ONE (1)50 grams rat is all a bp should eat every week

This is always a fun topic LOL

Me personally I feed my breeder females and anything in the 800-1000 gram range RodentPro larges generally but i also like to change it up and i will sometimes give my breeders really large meals as well like RP XXL or XXXL and i also feed alot of retired breeders from a buddy's colony nothing like 2-3 pound rats to make a nice healthy poo at the end of the month

Ive also been known to throw my really big girls a small rabbit from time to time as well

Courtesy of our own Ghetto Herper Mr. Gib!!!!
http://www.ghettoherpers.com/gallery...pics/bunny.jpg

Nice try Jake. Just because it is done, doesn't mean its the right thing for the animal. But as I said on the other thread, everyone can do what they want. You claimed that all the big breeders are feeding mediums/larges. I asked you for names and you haven't made that happen.

If I said you were an idiot (which I don't recall doing), it has to do with much more than your position on a topic that you have limited experience with, yet spoke on like an expert and even claimed sources to back it up.

Originally Posted by filez41

I tend to feed my big girls 150g rats. I have a pastel female who's putting on weight like it's her job, she's about 700g and she just ate a 130g rat two days ago. Is there a reason that people are feeding smaller prey items? I would think the bigger ones would help them put the weight on faster. My males tend to get smaller meals so they don't get quite as big.

What is the big rush to put weight on them?