Mice vs. rats?

[Daigga]

With my bigger girl I don't have to think about it too hard, since she only eats live and mice are way too small for her, but with Kirby and the new girl I'm adding to my collection I'm debating ordering a larger batch of frozen rodents online. The pet stores near me are a little pricey considering I'm wanting to expand, not to mention they recently had some recalls of their frozen feeders due to salmonella or something like that. Kirby does fine with medium mice, and I've been told the girl I'm getting on Thursday is eating on hopper mice, but I've also heard that rats are generally better feeders for ball pythons?

Should I keep the smaller girls on mice, or just switch them over to rats altogether? If so, what size rat (or mouse, if not) would be appropriate size? Also I'm thinking that Kirby is a little on the small side, she was eating on mice fuzzies weekly for her first few months (got her and a pack of 50 fuzzies in February), and I only recently moved her up to medium mice . She refuses food if i offer it to her more often than once every seven days, but otherwise she's an eating machine, so I'm confident that she can get to where she needs to be if she's behind.

Kirby - 135g
New baby - 85g
Chelsea (currently on small rats) - 785g

[200xth]

Rats are usually easier especially when the BP reaches adult. That's why most people switch. Easier to feed 1 rat than 4 or 5 mice at a time. Nutritionally it makes no difference as long as they are getting an adequate amount of food. Some BP's only eat mice so the decision is already made.

Mouse fuzzies are very small. Too small for all but special cases of extremely small babies, IMO. Almost all baby bp's are big enough for hoppers right out of the egg. Just as an example, I recently had one baby who had not eaten for almost 7 weeks start eating. He weighed 58g at the time. He took an 11g mouse hopper.

My babies get mouse hoppers for their first few meals depending on size of baby. At around 80g or 85g they go to adult mice for a couple or three feedings. At around 100 to 120g they go to rat pups depending on size of rat pups I have. Transition points will vary depending on snake, food size, and how fast the snake grows, but they aren't mice for more than a month usually before I start trying to switch them to rat pups. Some people do this sooner than I do with great success.

I would say your Kirby can go on rat pups right now. They weigh anywhere from 18g to 25g or 30g most of the time so that should be fine for him.

New baby can go on adult mice with a switch to rat pups in 1 or 2 weeks probably (depending on how much you feed and how fast she goes).

Different people do things slightly different though. Thats just how it seems to have been working out for me.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Mice vs rats, it's pretty much all the same gram per gram.
Yes there is a nutritional difference however there has never been a study on BP's nutritional's requirements.

What it boils down to is to feed what works and what is concubines for you.

Obviously most people feed rats because they get bigger and it eliminates the need down the road to feed multiple mice, which not all BP we accept mutilple preys and can also get costly.

So feed what works for you.

Now as far a prey size know that mice fuzzy are to small for any BP.

For an equivalence to feed your animals.

Smallest BP can eat a small adult mouse or fuzzy rat
The secon snake can eat an adult mouse or rat pup
The third one is fine on small rat.

Just remember the size of the feeders can vary greatly within the same range do just know that you should feed a prey equal your animal's girth size since those are hatchling and juvy snakes

[Darkbird]

I start mine on fuzzy rats, and none of my bps usually ever see a mouse of any size. Granted I'm still fairly new to this, but i figure theres no chance of them being stuck on mice if they never see any. I did have to jump start a couple on asf's last year , but they switched to rats by the 2nd or 3rd feeding.

[Daigga]

Kirby was my first ball, so I didn't know any better concerning what to feed her. I do now, so I'm hoping to see some improvements in her growth (or is 135 normal for a snake almost 9 months old?). If I were to make a bulk purchase online, would adult mice be best so that I could go with one food source for both smaller snakes (saving money and simplifying things where I can, I suppose), or should I just go for the different size rats? Also a rough estimate of how long I could expect them to eat on that size of prey would be appreciated so I can have a better idea of how many to buy. I mentioned that I'm looking to expand, so extra doesn't hurt, but that doesn't mean my husband is thrilled about the idea of me packing the freezer full of dead rats.

i take my victories where I can get them. Expanding his comfort zone is coming slowly but surely.

[John1982]

What it boils down to is to feed what works and what is concubines for you.

Autocorrect, I hope?

[LLLReptile]

Not sure what Deb is feeding, but that is quite the diet if they're on concubines...

Rats/mice, it doesn't really matter. I personally prefer sticking to mice as they tend to be easier to get at the sizes I need more often, but that's just personal preference.

-Jen