Pinky mice vs pinky rats

Seems to happen over and over in the questions about feeding snakes or about caring for feeder rodents so I thought I'd ask the newer members to be a bit more specific. When you refer to pinkies (or fuzzies for that matter) please specify whether you mean rats or mice as there is a significant size difference involved here when it comes to giving feeding advice. If you aren't sure about the development stages of mice and rats and what each stage is called you can refer to our sticky on this in the feeder forum and also have a look at www.rodentpro.com to see what each stage looks like and about what size they are in weight and length.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=31105

i generally refer to (mice) as pinkies, and (rats) as pups.

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Originally Posted by jcaustralia

i generally refer to (mice) as pinkies, and (rats) as pups.

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It seems that many of the frozen feeder suppliers consider rat pinkies and rat pups to be at completely different stages of development though. Big Cheese and Rodentpro both list pinkies, fuzzies, then pups.

Steve

interesting i don't order online so i have not noticed that.

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Originally Posted by jcaustralia

i generally refer to (mice) as pinkies, and (rats) as pups.

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That is exactly why I started this thread. That is both incorrect and confusing to people that are trying to respond if people do that.

Rats are not pups until they reach pup stage at approximately 14 days of age when the eyes open, they are fully furred and their ears are erect. If you asked me about feeding a "pup" and I thought you meant that stage but you were actually referring to a newborn pinkie rat, well do you see the confusion inherent in that. Food size is very important and this is just another plea for newer members to use the information provided here so experienced members can properly anwer their queries.

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Originally Posted by hoo-t

It seems that many of the frozen feeder suppliers consider rat pinkies and rat pups to be at completely different stages of development though. Big Cheese and Rodentpro both list pinkies, fuzzies, then pups.

Steve

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That is how it should be listed Steve. Rats are pinkies until about 8 or 9 days of age when their fur comes in, then they are fuzzies until about 13 to 14 days of age when as stated before their eyes open, their coat is fully in and their ears are full erect. They are called pups until they are weaned at around 3.5 to 5 weeks of age (depends on the breeder), then are normally referred to as weanlings or weaned rats until they reach small size. The pup stage for a rat because it is the longest stage can mean that a pup rat at say age 14 days is much much smaller than one very close to weaning age....in other words...not all pup rats are equal LOL.

Mice follow about the same timeline however their developmental stages are referred to as pinky, fuzzy, hopper, weanling, small, etc. (so basically a pup rat is equal developmentally to a hopper mouse though not of course in size).

Suppliers like Rodentpro also have names for the intermediate sizes (peach fuzzies, small and large pinkies, etc.) to allow their customers to get exactly the right size consistently.

Interesting topic. Personally I don't think I have ever used the term "pup" as a way symbolize a stage of growth just as a redundant way to relate the offspring to what family it belongs...rats.

For example in some of my African rat posts I've referred to litter as "pups" in my posts in different stages of their development. I was not aware that the term refers to a specific growth stage if that is the case. I can larn sumthang 2day! :)

Now that I'm thinking about it I kinda relate the term pink or pinkie to mice more often than not. I think its definately worth noting to specify "rat pink" or "pinky mouse" when discussing though...could save some confusion.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

That is exactly why I started this thread. That is both incorrect and confusing to people that are trying to respond if people do that.

Rats are not pups until they reach pup stage at approximately 14 days of age when the eyes open, they are fully furred and their ears are erect. If you asked me about feeding a "pup" and I thought you meant that stage but you were actually referring to a newborn pinkie rat, well do you see the confusion inherent in that. Food size is very important and this is just another plea for newer members to use the information provided here so experienced members can properly anwer their queries.

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i now see why, i did not know that rodent suppliers labled them as such since i have not ordered online food before, and i also did not know they were not pups untill 14 days, and since i rarely use pinky rats, i can see where the confusion would be.

Just another bit of useless info that sticks in my head regarding rats. The males are actually referred to as "bucks", the females as "does" and the baby rats in a litter are called "kittens". Bit of totally useless info really LOL (these terms being more in use in the pet/show rat trade)

I agree with your age on pups, but pups dont have their eyes open or their ears up yet. That usually happens closer to 20 days.

I checked on rodentpro to see their description of pups to double check.

14 to 18 days of age. Eyes still not open.



For me going completely on name doesnt work either, as Ive had 25 gram weanlings and 45 gram pups before :) depending on mother/number in litter,etc. I usually stick to a weight class when determining the name more than how developed they are.