Why rats over mice?

[Spoons]

Hey!

So, maybe this is a dumb question. I'm adopting my first ball on satuday, and poking around for places to get feeders for him. I am fairly certain he is on mice now, and I hear that converting to rats is the way to go. Most of the things I read say to go for rats. I have also heard it go so far as people saying ball pythons should not be fed on a diet of mice, and should only be rats. In bold italicized letters.

Why is this? It seems like just a size thing, rats being bigger, but that doesn't seem like enough to warrant the push for people to feed rats instead of mice. Is there a major difference in the nutrition between them, or? They seem very similar to me, but there's obviously something I'm missing.

Thanks again

[JPR]

It is a size thing. And a price thing. Some breeders stuck with "mousers" take years to get females up to size. And have to feed up to 6 adult mice. With rats you can feed one prey item. Which is more cost effective, and all around easier.

[Viol8r]

I breed rats for my snakes. The rats also don't seem to smell anywhere near as bad as mice do.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Gram per gram it's all the same.

Feed what works! If you want to feed mice feed mice.

Why do I feed rats because I did rather feed 1 medium rat (around 120 grams) than 4 mice.



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[PitOnTheProwl]

Feed what works for you
Don't believe everything you read either LoL

[Velrys]

After 10g (the weight of a rat pup) Rats have a tiny bit more calories than Mice per gram.

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

[Spoons]

Thanks for all the answers! Looks like it's not a huge deal. I was looking for somewhere local to buy feeders that isn't petco - I'd like to order them but I want to see what he eats as well as what size first, so I figured I'd get both a rat and a mouse just in case. So it made me wonder Thanks much!

[kiiarah]

There are a few different arguments I have heard. One is that it can be pretty inconvenient to feed mice to an adult bp because they quickly reach a size where one mouse will not be enough. Rats get bigger so they can be kept on rats their entire life, just keep increasing the size of rat as needed. Because bps are already known as picky eaters, it can be hard to switch them once they are used to something. Maybe if you were to feed both somewhat regularly you would minimize the transition if you ever do switch to only rats as your snake outgrows the mice. Feeding rats is just cheaper and simpler when they reach adult size

As far as nutrition goes, I have also read the argument that rats are more nutritious than mice. There are differences in content between rats and mice, but whether these are significant enough to really be an issue is still up for debate. Many snakes have lived our their entire lives on mice (usually because they refuse to eat rats) and are perfectly healthy, so the issue is really what is easier for you as the snake is going to be fine either way. Most people seem to agree though that getting them used to and keeping them on rats is the way to go.

My advice would be to find out what the snake has been eating when you get it. If it is on rats I would consider that fortunate and keep it that way. If it is on mice I would still say to try offering a rat and see if it is willing to eat it, and continue feeding rats if it is. If you do wind up with a snake that will only eat mice don't stress it, but always be thinking of care requirements down the road and try to set things up to have as few problems come up later as possible.

[Solarsoldier001]

Just curious. Isnt it bad for the snake have to eat four times a week. Like stressful to it's muscles? I thought that it would be since they always say to feed once a week


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[Velrys]

At some point you have to consider whether or not you're stressing their digestive system. They can only digest so much material so rapidly... that being said if you have a 2000g adult that you never switched over to rats its going to take a lot of mice to keep it fed properly and because of the size of the animal it can handle more material to digest.

I think, just from a sustained stress on digestive system vs. spiky stress that it would be preferable to feed frequently than to feed several animals once a week.

People feed once a week because its convenient and other personal preferences. There is no biological reason to feed once a week.