ball python question

Hi, i have a ball python, and when i got him his weight was about 120g which is about 5onzes The python was a year old so i think that was kinda underweight. I know he was a non-feeder for a while, and then his previous owner fed him on 2 fuzzies every ten days. I dont think this is enough really cuz hes about 2foot long. (and very slim for a ball) I have since been feeding him on 1 adult mouse every 5-6 days. He has without fail taken every meal I have offered.
Would you think that 1 adult mouse every 5-6 days is healthy for him? If not, what is a better amount ? I only want the best my my baby, but i do think 120g is very small for a year old python. Am i wrong in this?

I was looking for information on Balls and there is a lot of information on the caresheet link. A large section on feeding...

I just feed a prey item the size of the widest part of my ball pythons...and have had no ill effects....good luck...Lyn

You actually don't feed a snake by how many, you feed them by how big a prey item. Your snake should get a prey item the size of the thickest part of his body or a slight bit bigger. After he eats it you should be able to see an obvious bulge where the food item sits. Also, IMO, he should be switched over to rats. Whenever I had baby royals they would be switched to rats by three months but mice/rats is a personal choice. The only thing that I will say there is that rats are slightly more nutricious than mice. On how often... I have found over the years that the safest rule of thumb when going with a generality is about once a week. Some will say "Oh he ate it right away, he must be hungry so I'll make it every 5 days." NOT!!! This line of thinking will come to the borderline between healthy feeding and powerfeeding in which case you wll end up with an unhealthy snake with a life expectancy that has been cut in half.

I would say its time to move up to a decent sized rat at 2 ft in length, here we start baby balls right out on rat pups, breeding and raising babies for years, with personal experience I say hands down rats are far better, just from comparing the growth they go through when started right on them instead of mice. Every 5-7 days is generally a good feeding schedule, depending on the size of the prey item, as well as the size of the animal, with adult animals feeding schedules can be pushed back to every 2 weeks, it can be very easy to make some snakes obese as they get to be adult animals, especially among smaller species of snakes I would say, some snakes though it seems almost impossible to over feed them lol.

I also have my Ball Python on rats. It's hard to believe that he can swallow a 60g rat because his head is still so tiny compared to the widest part of his body... but he can really stretch that mouth! It's amazing, really.
I try to get all my snakes onto rats as soon as they are big enough and I find they really do well on them. They also seem to have a better feeding response (taking an F/T rat quickly as opposed to me wiggling an F/T mouse for a half hour).
We feed our 1 year 7month old Ball Python 1 small rat (50-60g) every 7-10 days if he'll take it, but he's fussy sometimes. He's about 2.5 ft long and weighs 444g. He seems slimmer than a lot of photos I've seen of Balls, I haven't seen any length-to-weight guidelines for Ball Pythons, so I'm not sure where he's supposed to be weight-wise at his age/length.

Amelia; do you have any thoughts on size guidelines for BPs??

Originally Posted by Amelia

with adult animals feeding schedules can be pushed back to every 2 weeks, it can be very easy to make some snakes obese as they get to be adult animals, especially among smaller species of snakes .

I think advice given is sound advice,size compared to how many. And I would have to agree with Fran,go with rats and definately frozen /thawed or freshly killed as live rats seem to be more aggressive and cause a considerable amount of damage to your snake when frightened.But one question I have is when to consider the ball an adult. I wonder if you can go with age,or weight or would you go with length. My Ball Python Elvis is just naturaly on a 2week feeding schedule and Im starting to think its pointless to try to feed him weekly as he just refuses to eat.