weanling rats

[Reptile_Man]

iv heard of people feeding their bps weanling rats.my bp is about 22 inches long and almost 2 inches in diameter at her thickest point.id say she is actually closer to 2 foot long.would a weanling rat be too big?im just curious as i'veread on other sites that weanling rats are ok to feed once every 10 days or so at this size.i know size of the weanling has alot to do with it,but i saw some today that looked to be ok.iv been feeding adult mice but they seem a little small and she is no longer interested in mice or so it seems.

thanks.

[Reptile_Man]

oops,i posted this in the wrong part.sorry people. il repost it in the bp section.

[JLC]

(I moved this to the right forum for ya. )

[Reptile_Man]

ok here it is in the bp section,i didnt put it here(my laptop is messin up i think

cheers jlc

[frankykeno]

Weanling can be a deceptive term as it really depends on just how old the rat was at weaning. Some breeders wean as early as 3 weeks, some as late as 5 weeks so that can mean a huge difference in size. If your snake is used to mice you might want to try a nice rat pup first as a smaller step up. Usually a large adult mouse and a nice sized rat pup are about the same volume of prey (though again pups can vary greatly in size due to genetics, amount they eat, nursing from the female and the actual age....pups are from day 14 or 15 until they are weaned so there's a huge growth spurt in there too).

Basically you want to compare the rat pup/weanling's greatest girth, it's hips and butt area, to your snake's girth and pick a rat that is in size no more than or better yet less than the girth of your snake.

[MarkS]

Yes, I feed my BP's that are that size adult mice or weanling rats that are about the same size or slightly larger then the mice. Rodents that are somewhere around 30-40 grams I'd say.