mice to rats

[travistite]

Recently all the mice at the pet store have been way to small, and I've had to start feeding my ball two mice a week. I was wondering when a good time to step up to rats would be, like a length or age. Also how often should i feed him with rats, and how big should the rats be?

[Shaun J]

im not sure bout the last q but,you can start feeding them rats at 28 inches

[Brandon.O]

umm.....thats not true at all......i started feeding roxy rats when she was about 20 inches.

[Shaun J]

teh bp.net caresheet said that,oh well,mine is 17 inches,what should i feed mine?i have like 50 fuzzies in my freezer and that is what i feed him

[led4urhead]

There is no catch all age/length for what size prey you should feed. Its all about the girth of the animal and if he/she is able to handle the prey or not, in my opinion. If your bp is able to take rats at 20 inches, go for it. If it takes your bp a bit longer on mice to get big enough to make the transition, its ok too. You've got to remember, they are all different and grow at different rates.

[Schlyne]

Yeah, my bp is roughly 18 inches (He won't stay still completely uncoiled ) and I've been feeding him adult mice. I'm not sure if 1 small adult mouse keeps him full for 2 weeks though (he wouldn't eat for me last week). I will find out next week when I feed him again.

[Brandon.O]

There is no catch all age/length for what size prey you should feed. Its all about the girth of the animal and if he/she is able to handle the prey or not, in my opinion. If your bp is able to take rats at 20 inches, go for it. If it takes your bp a bit longer on mice to get big enough to make the transition, its ok too. You've got to remember, they are all different and grow at different rates.

yeah what he said.

roxy is pretty girthy for a 20 incher so rats are perfect for her but for somebody elses snake with the same length but not as much girth it wont work and you need to feed something smaller (mice probobly)

[Schlyne]

I was just skimming through the feeders forum (I was looking for something else), and mice have more calcium on them. So that's why it's recommended that you feed mice until they're 28 inches long. Otherwise you'll be feeding baby rats, which still have bones that are mostly cartildge.

[Brandon.O]

hmmm......the bones on these guys seem pretty developed (like hard)
but even if they werent theres not a chance i would switch her back now, plus even the biggest mouse is not enough for her.So i think these guys are perfect.

[Cody]

Yeah my 4 month old 21 inch female can currently take down a nice sized adult mouse like nothing, so as soon as I find a place where I can get my hands on some rat pups and weanlings, I'm getting a bunch. I wanna get her on rats as soon as I can, so I don't have to worry about switching her over when she's older and maybe more stubborn.