Rat pups or mice

What is recommended for young ball pythons, rat pups or mice? At what weight doody people switch from rat pups or mice to small rats?

There isn't a body weight to switch. Three 30g mice are equal to one 90g rat. But I think. A lot of people prefer rats because there will come a time where you will have to feed 5 or 6 mice at a time. Rule of thumb is 10-15% of your snake's body weight

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

There isn't a body weight to switch. Three 30g mice are equal to one 90g rat. But I think. A lot of people prefer rats because there will come a time where you will have to feed 5 or 6 mice at a time. Rule of thumb is 10-15% of your snake's body weight

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This.

It's not worth it for you to start on Mice. You can always get rats that are appropriate size for any aged ball python.

Here is a link to an awesome chart I saw originally on the RFUK. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...mousesizes.jpg

The appropriate size is 10-15% of the snakes body weight. If you have a 100 gram ball python you can feed it rat fuzzies.

If you start feeding mice, expect to be feeding mice to it for the rest of it's life.

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Originally Posted by decensored

This.

It's not worth it for you to start on Mice. You can always get rats that are appropriate size for any aged ball python.

Here is a link to an awesome chart I saw originally on the RFUK. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...mousesizes.jpg

The appropriate size is 10-15% of the snakes body weight. If you have a 100 gram ball python you can feed it rat fuzzies.

If you start feeding mice, expect to be feeding mice to it for the rest of it's life.

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This is realy not true at all. We have started some off on mice and have never had anyone try to stay on mice. We breed both rats and mice and all of our balls will eat either or.

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Originally Posted by TessadasExotics

This is realy not true at all. We have started some off on mice and have never had anyone try to stay on mice. We breed both rats and mice and all of our balls will eat either or.

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I never said it's impossible to switch back. I said expect to be feeding them mice for the rest of their lives. I feed both ASF and Norways. But I know that it CAN BE difficult to get them onto rats once they have been on Natal's, and likewise mice. It doesn't mean you can't - but if given the option I will feed Norway over ASF or MICE any day.

Norway eaters will not have to eat multiples, it is usually much easier to find rat suppliers than mice suppliers (at least in my area), and it makes them easier to sell in the event that you have to sell, or want to sell.


EDIT:

I tried to edit, don't know why it kinda double posted.

I would start on rats out of convenience. All of my snakes are fed rats straight out of the egg. You can switch at any time. But nutritional wise, both mice and rats are nearly identical.

The 10-15% thing only applies for babies and juvies(or growing animals in general) . Not adults. So keep that in mind. If you feed 15% to an adult 2500 g ball, that is way too much if you feed weekly.

Another method to gauge prey size is to feed prey as large as the widest part of the snake.

Personally, I feed live and eyeball prey size. And as someone who feeds live, I would never feed a single large Norway rat. I would rather feed multiple smalls to keep feeding safe for my snakes.


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