Still trying to get the hang of how the community works, so hopefully I can find this post again once it is posted…So our Sweet Peas first feeding is coming and I’m concerned about what we should give her. When we “rescued” her from Pet Smart last week, they provided us with a “chart” of her feedings which unfortunately doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to us. They were feeding her “pinkies”, so we purchased frozen “fuzzies” for her because they were out of “pinkies”. I think the “chart” says her last feed was “pinkies 3x” (if we are reading correct). We weighed her (him) yesterday and she is weighing in at about 310 g. If we go with 10% her feeding should be about 30g, right? With that said, the box of “fuzzies” contains 6 fuzzies and has a net weight of 30g. Does that mean we give her complete box? I’m a new bp owner so please forgive me, but I always thought they were more of a “one and done” feeder. Is it normal/usual to feed multiples? Thanks in advance to anyone for input. I just really want to make sure we get this right.
Someone really set you up for failure, yikes. First off, you’re reading that chart wrong. It looks like she was fed 6/26, 7/3, 7/10, then there appears to be a couple of refusals. It does not say 3x, those are likely employee initials. The 0s are days the snake was offered food but didn’t eat, that was the last two feeds. Second, did they say they were feeding mice or rats? A 310g Ball Python should absolutely not be eating meals that small, at her size she needs a much larger feeder, something like a rat pup or weanling each feeding.
Tagging @akmorphs @armiyana who will likely be able to give you better advice.
Do you have any hides, fake plants, etc in her enclosure? She probably will not eat in an enclosure that she feels exposed in.
As for the food that is wayyyyyy too small for her. She should be getting something like a weaned rats.
There was no mention of if it was rats or mice, but in looking through what is sold by Pet Smart (assuming they feed their products) it starts at Pinky, then Fuzzies followed by Sm mice, med mice, lrg mice, sm rat then med rat. It horrifies me to think they were THAT off on what she should be fed. 
I’d like to hope they were using something like rat pups and the worker was just not aware of the proper terminology, but with chain pet stores, you honestly never know. Staffing and knowledge can vary greatly store to store. The animals there aren’t really meant to be sold for any kind of profit, they’re bought wholesale which is why they’re only labeled things like “normal” or “fancy”. What they count on is people coming in and buying the animal, then needing to purchase all the supplies throughout the life of that animal.
You’ve come to the right place for guidance, though. Hopefully we can get you and your lovely Sweet Pea all sorted out for a long, happy life together.
Yes, she has a hide that seems to be happy with as well as a couple fake plants (the pic above was with her hide removed). The tank she is in is 12x30x16, so we are currently on the hunt for something bigger so she can stretch out when she wants because she is measuring in at 30 inches right now.
Thank you for the tag Jess!
Oh boy…I remember those sheets.
Noodlehaus is absolutely on the nose. Staffing Knowledge varies alot from store to store. This store seems to not have anyone knowledgeable in ball pythons sadly. It’s a fight I’ve had to make with some employees when I took over as lead in the small pet department when I worked there. Sadly they do have to make due with what they have on hand… but still wrong on their part. They are misunderstanding a rule for feeding lizards as the space between the eyes as the meal size for snakes as well. =/
The other mistake is they are taught to remove the snakes from the habitats to eat. Which is a nono for most ball pythons.
First things first. Unless your baby was hatched as a very very small baby… a ball python will almost never be eating pinkies. My little ones start out on mouse hoppers or rat fuzzies out of the egg.
The 10% weight rule is a great guideline for beginners because it gives you a great target to aim for. And you are correct on the meal size. You should be looking at medium adult mice. Or rats of a comparable size
She did miss a couple meals according to that chart so this should be the main focus for her right now. No handling, no larger cage size. Just keep her in a comfy smaller size place where she won’t be as stressed. The best time to do it is at night when her head is peeking out of her hide. They like to ambush prey because they’re shy. When they’re little like this a smaller space will work best for you to both learn each others habits before moving her into a bigger space. If she starts to strike at you or stops eating after the move to a bigger habitat you can start over with a smaller one until she’s comfy again.
If you are really concerned about her eating, you can try a small adult live mouse to ‘jump start’ her feeding instinct, but you cannot leave them alone and remove the mouse if she doesn’t eat it. After that she will hopefully get the hang of it and start eating frozen thaw for you after. She looks to have a good body condition still so if you want to wait her out a little more to try to keep her on Frozen thaw (my choice personally) she should be fine.
Do make sure the mouse is warmed all the way through, no frozen middle, and you can use a hair drier to heat it up more just before putting it in with her.
Good morning @nat8128! I will let others chime in on the husbandry aspect, but I’ll definitely answer the feeding questions since that’s what I get asked the most 
I see you already know her weight is 310 grams (most people don’t even weigh their snake when they get it). The rule of thumb that a majority of the ball python community follow is you’d feed 10 - 15% of the weight of the snake as a meal. So you’re looking to feed her a 30 - 45 gram prey; now since she came from PetSmart she was most likely eating mice.
The meals she was given, based on that sheet, were the wrong size completely and I’m not sure if the x and 0 mean that she didn’t eat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what it means. Some ball pythons can be picky about what size meal they offer.
My advice is to toss that pack of frozen fuzzies you purchased, and look at buying pups/weaned rats (based on the size) from any of the normal online feeder sites you can purchase from; ie. Big Cheese, Coldblooded, Rodent Pro, Perfect Prey, etc. (I highly recommend Big Cheese. I’ve never had an issue with any of their products).
I would try to move her from mice to rats as well. It’ll give her more nutrition. She will be okay going a week or two without a meal as she adjust to her new home, so you will have time to get whatever new prey item you need for her.
I hope this helps you. Sweet Pea is still beautiful!
Omg, thank you for the info and being so thorough!
Unfortunately, we know 0 about “her” aside from this sheet. Length and height were established by us (we measured her). We have no idea on her origin, lineage, morphs or age. Nothing. She seems very mildmannered/docile. Up until now we have been handling her daily. I guess our rationale for that is for her to get used to our sound and smell. She seems to “wake up” after supper and usually comes out of her hide around 9pm and stays out for a few hours.
Today is her “feed” day, so we are going to try later this evening when she wakes up. Fingers crossed.
I would say they were feeding “rat fuzzies” and not “mouse fuzzies”. They sell rat fuzzies at Petsmart and the boxes are labeled as such……
@akmorphs thank you so much as well. I will definately check out these sites. I was already considering looking in to a local feed provider as reviews I have been reading for PS say the sizes in there Artic Mice/Rats packages are inconsistent from one box to the next. Her head is just so tiny to me (but I guess she will be able to open up pretty wide once she does eat). I just hope something in the chart means she has eaten and she didn’t spend her month there refusing food.
I felt the same way about my first snake. It takes some time to get used to the fact that the proper prey size tends to be much larger than their little heads, but trust me, they can handle it!
That still doesn’t explain why they were failing at feeding a 7-12 month old BP pinkies. Lol
2 different people mistaking fuzziest as pinkies and writing that on the chart?
The store just doesn’t know what they were doing and gave bad advice.
Well I am in awe that there actually was a feeding chart, it was filled out (something written on it), and then actually given to the customer.
Congrats on your new snake and I am sorry they didn’t give you the info you should have. I like to point people to Green Room Pythons on youtube for a lot of good info about Ball Python Husbandry and the ways people do it, and you’re also definitely welcome here. There’s a lot of experts here!
@armiyana agreed! I am so glad we “rescued” her as I say. Yes, we’re new, but we will learn and improve and always have “her” best interest at heart. You mentioned 7-12 months. Were you able to guestimate her age by size?
Haha! I have actually already watched a few of his vids
A bit yes! It’s honestly different for every snake and how often they’re fed.
A BP hatchling is usually around 50-80 grams.
A female can hit recommended breeding size by 2-3 years and it’s recommended for them to be around 1500g.
Most of my little ones are around that size between those ages with my feeding schedule.
I used to work at Petsmart, so I can actually clarify a few things!
So the rodents that are in the freezer for customers to buy aren’t the same ones the employees use to feed the snakes. They have their own stock in the freezer behind the fish wall. There’s only pinky and fuzzy mice back there.
It’s policy to feed small species like corn, milks, kings, etc the pinkies. Ball Pythons are supposed to be fed the fuzzies. I don’t remember if it was policy or just my store trying to do better for the snakes, but we did feed the Ball Pythons multiple fuzzy mice.
Now it has been a little over 4 years since I worked there so it is possible their policies have changed.
The chart is a little confusing to read because some of the rows did get mixed up, but this is my best translation of it:
Week 1 - 6/26 - “–” she arrived at the store that day, so they didn’t offer her food.
Week 2 - 7/3 - “X” offered food and ate
Week 3 - 7/10 - “1 pinkie 7/10 ” likely ate 1 pinky mouse
Week 4 - (should be 7/17) - “pinkie ” likely offered a pinky mouse but refused
Week 5 (assuming they put it on the wrong line) - (should be 7/24) - “O pinkie ” offered a pinky mouse but refused
Unfortunately the employees know basically as much as you do. The only piece of information they might know (if they pay attention when they receive the reptile shipment) that you don’t is who the supplier is. I know Petsmart has changed their suppliers the past few years, but I don’t know who they are now so I can’t help with that.
It is common for employees to forget (or not even know they need to if they don’t work pet care) to give the feeding chart to the customer, unfortunately.
As have I. I worked as a lead in that department and left in 2019.
You are correct in the store supply being different, but wrong about the size. You can absolutely order adult mice, but depending on how knowledgeable the manager is or how strict they are on store budgets, they won’t order them.
One of my store managers was actually a Cornsnake breeder so she kept us fully stocked on pinks, fuzzies and adults. We would keep at least 2 BPs in stock at all times.
Southern California deals with a particular wholesaler (a popular Ranch if you will) for their reptiles. It could be different for Eastern states. But even then you won’t know who the wholesale breeder may also be flipping stock from.