gerbils

i can get gerbil feeders indefinetely. nutritionaly, does anyone know if they are good as, worse, or equal to the rats that ive been feeding my snake. also, is it legal?:confused:
i really dont have a problem with it. they looks like rats to me, and she loves them. i just fed her one the other day and she pounced like never before. i have also heard that they imprint pretty hardcore with gerbils. any input would be greatly appreciated. :)

The question is do you really want to do this?

Gerbils are more aggressive and have longer teeth than rats.

Once your BP imprint one them it is VERY hard if not impossible to switch them back

What if in 10 years from now you have no longer access to gerbils or they become too expensive?

What if you had to re-home your BP, many people do not have easy access to gerbils, will not want to pay such a high price for a prey, or will not want to deal with gerbils, which mean this would really limit your options.

Trust me stick with rats or mice this is your best bet in the long run.

Their natural food includes jerboa so it's no surprise your snake loves gerbils. The problems with them are, sometimes that will be ALL your snake will eat. Getting them can be a pain and they cost more

I completely agree that gerbils are more aggressive and a close friend of mine found this out the hard way. The gerbil left a nasty scar on his Lesser. IMO the cons out way the pros on this one and I'd stick with rats.

Now that you've read about how you shouldn't have fed a gerbil to your BP, I'll try and answer your original questions.

Nutritionaly I would summize that gerbils are better than mice, and about the same as rats. Rodents are what they eat, so as long as they are eating quality rodent chow, they should be fine for your snake. Size may become an issue at some point. A buddy of mine had gerbils as pets, and I don't think I ever saw one get much bigger than a Med rat. As your BP gets bigger you may have to feed multiples to get close to 10%-15% of it's weight.

From a legal standpoint, it's not against the law. PETA won't let you star in an add campaign if they find out about it, but there's really nothing that can be done to you.

Just because I would never want to be a nonconformist I'll take this chance to tell you that feeding gerbils is not the best course of action you could take, but that's my opinion. In the end you should do what you think is right for your situation and your BP. Since your snake is already feeding on gerbils, all the talk about switching it back to rats might be a moot point anyway. Good luck.

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Nutritionaly I would summize that gerbils are better than mice, and about the same as rats.

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Yes but nutritional requirement of Ball Pythons are not know so gram per gram of prey it is all the same.

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As your BP gets bigger you may have to feed multiples to get close to 10%-15% of it's weight.

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Are you saying a 3000 grams females needs a 300 to 450 grams rat?

Do you realize that this is way much more food that they would ever get in the wild, that an overfed BP will fast to catch up and that feeding a 300+ grams could very well put your BP at risk.

BP do not need large meals to thrives one small rat (4 weeks old) weekly is enough even for a large adult, this reduces the risks when feeding live and also allow you to have BP that eat with consistency.

thanks all for your help. i will probably just stick to rats because i dont want my bp to get that attached to gerbils. and i didnt realize that they were more aggresive. i actually thaught that rats were the most aggressive, ive been bit multiple times by rats, never by a gerbil. but then again, i was never trying to eat a gerbil so i guess i dont know how they would react.:confused:
if that makes any sense...

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Yes but nutritional requirement of Ball Pythons are not know so gram per gram of prey it is all the same.

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If the nutritional requirements of Ball Pythons are not known, then following that line of reasoning to it's logical conclusion, no one can really be right about what type of rodent they feed can they?

Deborah, you've been at this a lot longer than I have, but when did feeding BP's based on their weight fall out of vogue? I've read this Forum up one side and own the other, and 10% of a BP's weight every 7-10 days seems to be a norm rather than an exception. Actually, if you do the math on what most people feed young BP's, they are often way over 10%. I know most people feed more if they are younger, and less if they are older or overweight, but everyone seems to be hanging around the 10% mark.

Did I miss something somewhere? Seems a lot of people with 110 gram baby balls feed them rat pups that tip the scales at 16-30 grams depending on the pup. That's not a lot different than your analogy of a 3000 gram female eating 300 grams of rat...although, at that size and age, I can see cutting it down a little from 10%.

I think that it is about the worst prey item you can give your snake...

I have a rescued male that was being fed gerbils by his previous owner, it has taken me close to 2 years to get that snake to take another prey item, and even now he hits very inconsistently.

He does not eat with consistency, he is healthy, but he is very underweight. I cannot rehome him, as I am not comforatble, as he is NOT thriving and not eating consistently.

Due to his previous owner's decision, I consider him a "specail needs" snake and at some point I am going to have to make the decision as to whether or not to have him euthanized humanely.

If you ever have to rehome this snake, and it has imprinted on gerbils, then this could be your snake someday...

Bruce

Just like to add my 2penneth...

I've had Lilith for 6 years, and she was 2 years old when I got her. She'd been fed on large mice and small rats with the occasional gerbil when her owner gave her to me. I fed her large mice and then did a bit of research about BP's in the wild and found that gerboas were their natural food.. so I bought her some gerbils. She fed happily on them for a couple of years and then they got a bit harder to get. When they were available I bought 10 or so at a time and kept them in the freezer (I always feed F/T). When not available I have suplimented with small rats or large mice and not really had any problems with her feeding. However, I don't feed her on a regular schedule - just when she comes looking for food... she might then eat 2 or three prey items over a few days and then go off feeding behaviour - she's a much more reliable feeder this way, when I first got her and used to offer prey every week she would turn her nose up at it 3 times out of 4.. which meant a lot of wasted rodents...

I haven't been able to get gerbils for a while so have been feeding her rats with no problem - it may help that the mat I use to heat up the F/T smells of gerbil but she will feed on rats no problem - as long as I wait for her to some looking for them... One thing I have noticed is that she gets fatter on rats than she does on gerbils and think that size for size rats contain more fat than gerbils...

As gerbils are nearest to the natural food source of the BP I think they're the best thing to feed - i think I'm in a minority there though! At the end of the day my snake will eat rats and mice too but if I ever can't get hold of gerbils I would consider buying a pair and breeding some for the freezer... (Luckily I just managed to get 10 last week!)