So im planning to get into breeding, i have a one year old male at 600g rtb.i have a 2 year old female at 900 ( she was year old at 160g when purchased) . My question is how should i be feeding them? , i currently both a sm rat per wk.
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Hi and welcome to the community 
I would say don’t rush, she is likely to eventually fast if you feed her too much to get up to weight quickly.
Then it might take even longer.
How much does small rat weigh, some different suppliers have different weight ranges for what they call small rats.
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I forgot frequency.
I feed my adult males every 2 weeks and females I cycle.
Females weekly during the breading season and just after eggs and then every 10 days to 2 weeks.
But thats me, see what others say.
This guy makes alot of since, at least to me
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If you want to get into breeding then the first thing is have patience.
Female ball pythons don’t just turn 1200g at 2. I have a 5 year old who still is maintaining an almost exact 1200. I have a male who is longer than all of my females. Weight wise I keep him trim. If you’re looking at producing healthy offspring from healthy parents then you need to just let them be. They all grow at different rates.
Overweight females that are powerfed won’t always cycle or they can reabsorb.
Even if your female is the right weight, she could still skip ovulation.
The general rule is 10% of the body weight or the width of the widest part of the body for meals. 7-10 days for females and 14 days for males. And if they start getting too hefty, cut them back a bit.
Getting your feeders from a reputable source can be a huge factor as well. I started raising my own rodents after dealing with local shop’s sniffly rats or ones with patchy fur from ringworm.
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Patience is definitely the main factor here.
I’d say your male is still a little too small to be RTB, I’d wait until he is 800g minimum since they can go on very sudden and long lasting fasting periods while breeding that will cause a bit of weight loss.
For females I’d wait until they are a minimum of 1500g and this can take them several years to achieve depending on their health, appetite and genetics. I have a BEL girl thats going on 4 years and is just now passing 1600g because she would refuse meals for months at a time when she was younger.
Both of my females refuse to eat F/T so unfortunately they eat live, my male takes F/T readily.
Since one of my other females recently laid she’s been eating a sm rat 1x a week and she is currently getting back up to 1500g. The day she laid she was around 1280g so there was a significant weight loss after developing 5 eggs (she was 1632g before breeding). Outside of breeding I feed my females every 10 days and my male every 14 days.
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I agree with @armiyana fully and have had the same experience.
Agreed. But in addition to those risks, just because some males have been known to breed at minimum weights, doesn’t mean they are all ready or fertile at that weight. Age and maturity play a factor.
On another note, compatibility. I have had a female refuse a larger male but take another male readily. Now i always have a spare male just in case.
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I will take everyones advice and not rush it, thank you guys
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So small rat are usually between 45 to 80g and should i go back to feeding 1 sm rat every two weeks
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If your female is at ~900g she should be eating 90-135g rats every 10-14 days. Remember they need 10-15% of their body weight, aiming for more around 10%.
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