# What happens if you give a snake a too-small mouse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 28, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828 "2014-11-28T15:45:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828/1 "2014-11-28T15:45:42Z")

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… Or offer any pet reptile an undersized meal, I guess.

I have a ball python who eats small adult mice, and I got to thinking: what would happen if I offered a pinkie? Would he (she? Snakes are hard to sex.) consider it an appetizer? Turn up its little scaly nose until/unless the mouse lived long enough to get bigger? Would it even consider it to be edible?

Anyone ever had this with their reptiles?  
ETA:it couldn’t possibly somehow screw up the digestive process, would it? The only issue I could see is if I started considering pinkies = full size for meal planning purposes and starved the snake, which would be quite dumb of me.

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828/2 "2014-11-28T17:52:27Z")

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The snakes I have had in the past were never that picky concerning the size of mouse I fed them. If it was alive, and it moves around, my snakes would eat it. Why would they ever turn down a free meal, unless they weren’t hungry or were ill?

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828/3 "2014-11-28T18:51:46Z")

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(Okay, this is GD, but I can’t resist: “If you give a mouse a cookie…”)

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828/4 "2014-11-29T00:54:27Z")

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Reptiles in general do not have to eat constantly, but can eat and then fast for a while. They tend to be opportunistic eaters.

I would expect the snake to eat it and then see if anything else showed up.

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-give-a-snake-a-too-small-mouse/705828/5 "2014-11-29T14:19:45Z")

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> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> (Okay, this is GD, but I can’t resist: “If you give a mouse a cookie…”)

… then he’ll get big and fat and the snake will eat him. 😃

Thanks for the replies, all. Kinda what I figured, and googling didnt turn up anything different, either, but wanted to ask around here.