Ball Python Questions

[RPCV]

My next door neighbor's kid returned from college then moved on leaving him with a 7 year old ball python. 4 foot long female. He is trying to give it away and my daughter wants it...which means dad is gonna have to take care of it. Have done some research and it appears these are fairly easy to take care of. A few questions I've found conflicting information on:
- Have read that they should be fed a rat anywhere from once a week to once a month. Anyone know what would be most appropriate for a full grown 7 year old?

- He is currently feeding live rats but have read that frozen (then thawed to room temp) are better to avoid rodent bites and infection. Will an older snake that is used to live prey accept dead rats?

- Do females need any special arrangements for egg laying?

Thanx.

 

[Kaden]

Ball pythons eat every week. A general rule of thumb is you feed them a rat 1-1.5x the girthiest part of the snake or 10-15% of their body weight. It is easier to convert babies to frozen than adults, however it definitely still is possible to get adults on live to switch to frozen. Sometimes it’s as easy as just thawing a rat for them and they’ll take it first try, while other times it’s a long process to get them consistently eating frozen. If they’re refusing frozen you can try a few things. The first course of action is to leave the rat in the enclosure with them for the night. If they still don’t touch it you can try braining the rat. This may sound gruesome but it is one of the best ways to get them on frozen. Basically you get a sharp needle and stab it through the thawed rats head. This causes the inside “goodies” to come out a bit which emits a strong smell that they can’t resist a lot of the time. If they still won’t accept frozen try prekilled. So basically buy a rat and then kill it with either co2 or snapping the spinal chord. After eating prekilled for a while they will usually switch to frozen. However, keep in mind that some will just flat out refuse frozen their whole lives. Also, females don’t lay unfertilized eggs like some lizards do. They’ll only lay if they’ve been bred.
I know this thread is old so this is just for anyone reading over it