Rats vs Mice

[TDent1]

I posted this in the Blood Python forum, but this forum is much more active and the question can be applied to pretty much any snake. Basically, I have a Blood who doesn't always take F/T but I want her on rats as often as possible. Live rat pups are hard to get in my area.) I've been feeding both my Ball and Blood a rat pup every five days. While the size is just about perfect for my Ball, who I'm trying to bulk up anyway, my Blood is perfectly capable of taking an adult mouse. I know that rats are more nutritious than mice, but are rat pups better for her than adult mice?

Basically, Is a baby rat still more nutritious than an adult mouse?

[TomC]

Most people here will tell you rats are a little better. From what I have found they have a very slightly larger amount of protein but it is almost negligable. The big thing is no one really knows for sure exactly what the nutritional requirements for snakes are because there has not been a lot of research in that, that I have seen.

Having said that rats do have one big advantage. If you continually feed a snake mice they can imprint on that prey and not want to eat anything else. That is fine when they are small but eventually they grow. When your snake does get big you may have to feed up to 2 or 3 adult mice to fill it up where for most people it is much easier just to feed one rat. If you do not mind feeding multiple mice then a snake can do alright on mice for the long term.

[blushingball419]

No, there's really not that much difference. From what I've heard, bloods are normally not as picky as bps and seem less likely to "imprint" on a certain type of prey, but I suppose it could happen. Since an adult mouse is bigger than a rat pup and technically has more substance for your snake at the moment, you could either switch to one adult mouse, or just go with two rat pups instead. It's really up to you, but since you said rat pups are hard to find in your area, mice might be easier for the time being.

[BuckeyeBalls]

This is personal experience and personal experience only. No facts here.

But iv had a boa and 1 bp that i fed mice only diet to for close to a year.

My friend has a sister to from the same litter. His girl is much bigger, he fed only rats.

I recently switched to only rats for the past 3 months or so and i have noticed a major growth spurt in the boa that was fed mice only for a yea, and slightly noticeable in my bp.

[TDent1]

Thanks for the replies! I'll still be trying to get her rats, but for the time being I'll feed her a mouse.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Gram per gram of prey it's all the same obviously there is an advantage in feeding rats, it is obviously more convenient to feed 1 prey versus multiples which you will have to at some point.

So is an adult mouse better than rat pup? No if they weigh the same there is no difference the food intake will remain the same and while the nutritional value is different there is however no study on nutritional requirement of snakes.

I mainly have rat eaters but I also have 2 mice feeders and they are doing as good as everyone else.

[kellysballs]

Deborah is correct. It's all about how much you are feeding. I did a statistics project on 20 baby ball pythons and tracked their growth for the first 12 meals. There was no statistically significant difference in growth (gram weight, girth and length) between animals fed similarly sized rat pups or mice.