Why Should I Care?

Have there been studies done on the nutritional values of rats vs mice? Even if there were I doubt there are studies to show which is in fact "better" for each species.

So, from my experience, it simply doesnt matter. I'd rather feed ft rats to all my snakes. But I have had die hard mousers grow normally and live perfectly healthy and happy snake lives. Just keep them eating.

*by the way, interesting mathematical debate on the ratios of bone to fur to meat etc... ;)

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Originally Posted by cecilbturtle

Have there been studies done on the nutritional values of rats vs mice? Even if there were I doubt there are studies to show which is in fact "better" for each species.

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Yes. There have been many studies on nutritional value of all sorts of feeder animals.

Mice and rats have about the same nutritional content when comparing animals of similar size. Calories and protein is about the same. Rats have a higher fat content, but its only by a few percentages.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Yes. There have been many studies on nutritional value of all sorts of feeder animals.

Mice and rats have about the same nutritional content when comparing animals of similar size. Calories and protein is about the same. Rats have a higher fat content, but its only by a few percentages.

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Thanks, good to know.

What about what an individual snake needs? By species? Age?

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Originally Posted by cecilbturtle

Thanks, good to know.

What about what an individual snake needs? By species? Age?

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I'm not aware of any published studies on individual snakes and species in regard to nutritional needs.
However, there are accepted feeding practices that are similar and different between species of snakes.
I.E. feeding ball pythons more frequent meals and feeding red tail boas less often. Feeding a hatchling every couple days compared to an adult's weekly meal.
These practices have been established from the experiences of successful keeping.

For my bps I feed my babies every 5 days for the first few months then every 7. After a year, depending on the individual animal, I feed every other week. If/when they go off feed I offer every week or every other week, again depending on the animal.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/Who...nal02May29.pdf

For those who are interested.

So yeah, there are differences, but from the health of the snake, it seems like there are none.

The differences are nearly identical except on fat content. You have to compare animals of the same size.
An adult mouse is not going to be the same as an adult rat. But a 10 gram mouse is going to be nearly the same as a 10 gram rat.
The only real benefits of feeding rats is that you just have to feed one rat to compared to multiple mice.
It's more of a convenience factor than higher nutritional value.




Nutrient Composition of Whole Vertebrate Prey by RodentPro:
Adult mice (>10g)
- Kcal/g =5.25
- Crude protein % = 55.8
- Crude fat % =23.6

Rats (10-50g)
- kcal/g = 5.55
- Crude protein % = 56.1
- Crude fat % = 27.5

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp


Whole prey according to the USDA(page 14 of their PDF provided below):
Adult mice (>10g)
- Kcalorie/g =5.77
- Crude protein % = 56.9
- Crude fat % = 23.5

Rats (10-50g)
- kcalorie/g = 5.67
- Crude protein % = 60.3
- Crude fat % = 26

http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/Who...nal02May29.pdf


Additional data found on a non scientific source:
Adult mice (>10g)
- kcal/g = 5.25
- Crude protein % = 55.8
- Crude fat % = 23.6

Rats (10-50g)
-kcal/g =5.55
- crude protein % =56.1
- crude fat % = 27.5

http://www.leedspetshops.co.uk/nutri...snakes-page-69