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feeding size question

K

karlsboa

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After watching some videos I see I gave my ball a rat too big. Can someone tell me in grams what a rat should weight to feed 400 gram balls please
 
It's not a weight thing, for the most part. The consensus is usually to only feed rodents as big as the snake is around. If the rodent is wider/larger than the widest part of the snake, then it's too big.
 
10-15% of the body weight of the snake. So 40-60 grams is an average size rat to feed that BP. This is not an exact rule though, anything close to that is fine
 
karlsboa said:
That has confused me though, do you stretch out the rat to see its sbhize ?
Click to expand...

You don't have to get that exact with it (stretching the rat). At 400 grams, I would feed weans (rats that have just been weaned from Mom, to start feeding on their own). Not too long ago, I would have been pushing a 350-400 gram snake onto small rats, but that practice seemed to cause them to quit eating after a while. I was getting my babies up to 500-600 grams quickly, but not much bigger by 12 months old.
 
This is just how I do things:

I feed a 30-50g rat to the 300-500 range depending on the "fat" of the snake. A short chunky 400g snake might get a 25-30g rat but a long average sized 400g BP might get a 40-50g. If you wanna play it safe, smaller is better to some extent.

My high dollar ones get smaller meals because I would rather not chance it. (10% every 7 days)
Males get smaller meals because I like to pace them as better breeders. (10% every 7-14 days)
Adult females get larger meals but a little less frequently. (15%+ every 7-14 days)
Growing females, with a healthy hunger, get larger meals (closer to 15%). (every 5-7 days depending on shed cycle)
Bad feeders get small meals (5-10%) until they are back on. (No set schedule)
Breeding females get smaller and smaller meals throughout the breeding season. (No set schedule)
Breeding males get offered a small meal after separation and on break. (No set schedule)

I like to feed smaller most of the time because I feed frequently. The only time I get worried about feeding to much or to large is when I get bad feeders back on because I'm trying to make up for lost weight, but other than that, on my schedule, I have no worries.
 
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