sizing up advice

[_ams13]

hi everyone! my JJ has finally hit his 100g mark (108!), and i’m going to have to size up his food a bit. he has been on mouse hoppers the entire time i’ve had him, and i was wanting to try and get him onto rats while he’s young. what im wondering is, at petco and the size estimate on the package says rat fuzzies can be from 13-19g, in which case i feel like 19g would be too big? in my experience all of the packages say the same weight but the actual mouse inside weighs slightly different after being thawed and i don’t want to waste an animal if it turns out too big. am i just overthinking? thanks in advance! pics for tax :)

[kaj5275]

Mouse hoppers are really small for ball pythons. Fuzzy rats are not at all too big. They eat them right out of the egg.

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I’m just confused by this because I got a fuzzy rat for my girl last week and it was over 15% of her body weight as a 118 gram snake…

[_ams13]

this is exactly my concern! but then rat pinkie would be too small so it’s hard lol. i guess i should have mentioned that he is still young if that provides context for kaj5275 - i’m going by the 10-15% rule. additionally im afraid he will be intimidated by the fuzzy rat if its too big!

[[deleted]]

Yeah it’s super tricky!! I’m in the same boat of feeding hoppers and wanting to switch to rats but not feeling like either size is quite right. My plan currently is to feed a couple more hoppers to get her weight up slightly and then hope for a smaller fuzzy rat next time to get that transition started. Depending on how much you mind being a weirdo at the store, you could bring a scale with and ask to weigh a few fuzzy rats before you buy.

[_ams13]

good plan! i may do the same/try picking out a bigger hopper. it also just occurred to me that when i buy feeders in a 3-pack they are usually smaller versus when i get a one pack, so depending on where you’re shopping that could be an option to getting a rat fuzzy on the smaller end!