If your ball python is already 2 1/2 feet long he should be ready for the switch to rat pups. Start with pups that are about the same size as the mice he is currently eating. Don't be surprised if he is a bit hesitant at first; rat pups smell different from mice, and snakes are very much olfactory driven feeders.
One trick that we have used when making the switch is to put the rat pups in with mice for a few minutes before feeding them to the snake. That gets him to associate the smell of the rat with the smell of mice, which he already knows to be a food source. After he has eaten a few of the ';mousey smelling'; rats he should start taking the rats as is.
One other thing I would recommend is that you not feed your snake in his home tank - remove him to a separate feeding box. A large, dark plastic bin with a tight lid (we use Rubbermaid bins) provides a secure, easy to clean feeding box. Ball pythons, being nocturnal, are more inclined to eat in the dark.
The other reason for feeding in a separate feeding container is so that he doesn't associate the opening of the tank lid with food. This learned behavior - reinforced by feeding in his home tank - might make him strike at the first thing he sees when the lid opens. More than a few novice snake keepers have complained to me about their ';aggressive'; snakes striking at them whenever they try to pick them up. This behavior is solely the fault of the keeper, not the snake.
One thing I commend you on is that you feed only dead mice to your python. This will become even more crucial when feeding him rats. A live rat left with a sluggish or disinterested python can be disasterous for the python. I have heard of pythons that were killed by their intended meals because their keepers did not take the simple precaution of feeding only dead rodents.
Rats are a better food source for your python, as they have a higher fat content and more muscle mass, which means more protein content as well. Rats are also a more appropriately sized food item for a larger snake. You will probably find that your python feeds less often, but still continues to grow normally when on a rat diet.
I hope this helps.When do i know that my ball python is ready for rats instead of mice???
yes you should feed him food the size of the middle part of his body. he can eat sm-med size rats now specially if he is eating the mice with no problem, go to the next size of food.
just like xxandra said,great rule of thumb,only feed them rodents as thick as the thickest part of you snake.I have 3 ball pythons,and my largest one is a female and she is 3 1/2 ft and 2 1/2 years old and 6 inches round,she eats sub-adult rats,which are rats that have been stopped nursing and have been eating solid food for 2 to 3 weeks.yours at that size ,you could feed it hopper rats.
We had a ball python..we never gave him dead mice they were always alive...but I am pretty sure you can take him up to rats when ever you want! But the more you feed them the more they grow ( so i have heard). We didn't want ours too big so we kind of stuck with the mice. To sum it all up...it is up to you!
2feet should be the rigth size before switching to rats.
But if he's used to eating mice, give him a rat that is the same size as the mice haev been. And then if he eats it, maybe try to move up to a larger size when you feed him the next time.
agree with everyone
my snake eats a rat once a week, we switched to rats when he started getting hungry more then once a week.
A good rule to go by is to not offer your snake anything larger than the thickest part of his body.
I started giving my ball python small rats when he was about the same length. He was able to swallow them with no problem, but he seemed a lot more hesitant about catching them... they tended to put up quite a bit of a fight. And since he refuses to eat anything he didn't kill himself, I took him back to his weekly live mouse, and he's doing fine... he's over three feet long now.
But, if you're feeding pre-killed, you don't have to worry about that, and as long as it's no bigger than the thickest part of his body, he should be able to handle it with no problem.
Don't be surprised if he doesn't ';take'; to them right away... as I'm sure you know, ball pythons are notorious for being picky eaters, and even a slight change can send them off their feed. If he doesn't take to them after a couple of weeks, I'd just go back to mice... my snake is doing fine on them.
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