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

What size rats do you feed your adult female balls(approximate weight)

  • Small(40-70 grams)

    Votes: 24 42.1%

  • Medium(71-100 grams)

    Votes: 11 19.3%

  • Large(100-150 grams)

    Votes: 15 26.3%

  • Larger(150 grams+)

    Votes: 7 12.3%
  • Total voters
    57
Jake,

I thought you were going to provide big breeders that have told you they feed mediums/larges? I don't think this poll qualifies.

For the record, all my adults, male or female get "small smalls". Slightly larger than weans.
 
One mans small is another mans medium..... I consider 80-120 grams a small, which is typically what a 4-6 week old rat weighs. Which is the size I feed to all my adult Balls.

As long as you are not feeding a rat that is bigger than the widest part of your snakes body it is fine. There really isnt a right or wrong there. Just a matter of what works best for your snake and you.
 
So a 5 foot 4000 gram female should only get a rat slightly larger than a weanling? That would be a snack for her.

To make it easy for people to know what size I am referring to, I get feeders from Rodent Pro and all of my adult BP's get smalls except for 2 which get mediums (those are pretty large for BP's).
 
I guess I cannot just chose one.. cuz some adults are greatly smaller then others. I have one that gets smalls, a couple mediums, and a couple larges. I don't personally think it is a one size eats all answer.
 
Whatever prey i happen to buy that week mostly. Might be a few mice, might be a medium rat, maybe a bit larger. Just nothing that is obviously too large for the animal who is being fed. I stick to girth sized prey and smaller :)
 
SPJ said:
So a 5 foot 4000 gram female should only get a rat slightly larger than a weanling? That would be a snack for her.
Click to expand...

My really big girls get to eat as many 4-6 week old rats as they want on feeding day. Typically after two they are done. Once in a while they will take a third.
 
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.
 
Well for an update, the debate is that even the largest bps don't need anything bigger than a small(about 50-70) gram rat lmao

I guess each person can keep their balls how ever they want and feed any size rat they want but I was told at an un named forum that it is basically in a conclusion unhealthy to feed your balls a rat anything bigger than 50-70 gram range. Other than put the ignorent name calling one sided man on ignore on all of the forums, I'll keep an eye on this thread seeing both sides.

My basic statement was that there are plenty of big breeders and keepers that feed larger than small rats to their balls and I simply stated that either way works, just feed what works best for you and your animals and all I got was a bunch of thats not oppinion, its fact about feeding balls(50 gram rats?!? lmao) and I am an uneducated and basically stupid guy. I think the one who continues to call someone out who is attempting to talk something out shows the maturity level of this one person who's name will remain unmentioned here.
 
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.
 
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.
 
SPJ said:
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.
Click to expand...
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 ;)
 
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.
 
filez41 said:
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.
Click to expand...

What is the big rush to put weight on them?
 
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