# Can you feed hamsters to ball pythons?



## Brendan

Can ball pythons eat hamsters as a STAPLE diet?


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## GartenSpinnen

I dont see why not, just make sure you pre-kill them because they can be nasty bitey little things and you wouldnt want to cause harm to your beloved reptile. I had a hamster that got out of its cage and chewed the buttons off every remote in my house, then proceeded to give me a nice big bite when i picked it up to put it back in its cage...it got fed to a copperhead. ;P


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## NastyNate

haha thats funny the little %^&* got what it deserved, yes i guess they could be and like stated pre kill them, also after a certain point the meal will be to small for your BP.i think it would be way easier just to order rodents of size from online


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## Mushroom Spore

No. Hamsters quite frankly are not BIG enough for a fully-grown ball python, which needs to be eating rats. And ball pythons are notoriously difficult to switch from one prey species to another; some will NEVER switch once they pick a species to be addicted to. Why make it worse by offering an animal that's not even readily or cheaply available from frozen prey bulk-order dealers?

Shammer's right about pre-killing, no matter what species of rodent we're talking about. They are some mean fighters and biters when thrown into life-or-death situations.


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## GailC

There is nothing nutritionally wrong with feeding hamsters. I used to feed dwarf hamsters to my corn snakes.


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## sick4x4

nothing wrong other than the price tag!!! i had a picky ball that would eat only hamsters..i had to trade it since it was getting expensive


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## Andrew273

Are you thinking of buying a BP and feeding it the hamster you already have...?


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## tyrant963

Your gonna feed your snake that hamster you thought that had rabies?


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## Ewok

well thats one way to get rid of a rabid hamster


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## NastyNate

are you serious??!!!


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## Brendan

Andrew273 said:


> Are you thinking of buying a BP and feeding it the hamster you already have...?


NO NO NO NO...lol. 



tyrant963 said:


> Your gonna feed your snake that hamster you thought that had rabies?


No.

Of course I'm not. What made you guys think that?

I just thought, that instead of going and buying live mice, I could start breeding hamsters of my own. My family doesn't like mice. I'm not sure whether my hamster is either a teddy bear hamster or a Syrian hamster, but it's HUGE. Much larger than an adult mouse.


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## NastyNate

but its def not bigger than a medium rat or a large rat which you will get into once your BP has got some serious size on it. my male BP which is about 4 maybe 4.5ft long takes medium rats down like nothing.


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## Mushroom Spore

NastyNate said:


> but its def not bigger than a medium rat or a large rat which you will get into once your BP has got some serious size on it. my male BP which is about 4 maybe 4.5ft long takes medium rats down like nothing.


This. And I must repeat that you really, really do not want a BP to get addicted to a prey species that will not sustain it all its life, that's just a huge pain in the butt to fix.

Just don't buy live mice at all, since live prey is hugely problematic. Pick an online prey dealer (I've used http://bigcheeserodents.com/ for years) and go from there. It's cheaper, even with shipping, than buying the questionable-quality (and often wrongly-sized) frozen rodents from my local pet store. 

You pay like 30-40 bucks total depending on what size/species you've ordered, and you're set for months and months and months.


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## Bedlam

shammer4life said:


> ...it got fed to a copperhead. ;P


THAT is an amazing way to end a story!


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## Rich65

Rats are the only way to go with Ball pythons, once they scent on or start to prefer one prey item type it's hard to switch em back. Get the Ball off mice and onto rats as soon as possible, it will have a better growth rate and you wont have to buy as many mice. An adult would need require many adult mice just for one feeding.


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## Harrod

I think hamsters are a poor choice as a food item. Hamsters have a much higher fat content than mice or rats do. I could see feeding growing snakes smaller hamsters once in a while but a larger snake should be fed healthier food items IMO.


Nick


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