Rats versus Mice

What do you guys feed your snakes? What would make one better than the other for the ball python (not for your convenience)?



My apologies if this was already answered. Search button ignores two character words like "vs" or "or" when searching for "rats or mice", so nothing good comes up.

I feed rats. I have heard that they have a higher naturitional (sp) than mice. But I feed mice when young and rats when older..

like freaky says

i feed mice simply because its more convenient, the closest pet shop near me is about a half hour drive and they sell all sizes of mice and the only rats they sell are jumbo rats.

I feed rats because as the snake gets older you can feed it one appropriately sized prey item vs multiple mice.

Since the nutritional requirements of ball pythons are not known...you can't know which rodent is "more nutritious" for them. I'm unaware of any true scientific studies done on which might be better...but I've heard tons of anecdotal evidence that suggests proper feeding routines with either rodent provides the same growth potential.

It doesn't matter.

I've raised tons of animals from the same clutchs where one would decide to be a mouser and a sibling would decide to eat rats and they are all within a few grams of each other.

No speculation here, been there done that. ;)

-adam

I prefer to feed rats myself, but I have some snakes, like my thayeri that have to be on mice since they're so small :)

Rat's all the way here guy's love feeding mine one meal a week.

I'm currently a mouser and have been very happy with the growth that I've experienced. I'm soon going to be switching to rats, not because I feel they are better, but because I like breeding them better than mice. I'm sure I'll have a few kiddos that will insist on staying on mice, and I'm fine with that. Whatever THEY prefer and will eat consistently - it's all good with me!