This may sound stupid but....????

you know snakes with all their beauty secrets...who can keep up...

Don't feed it mice....offer it rat pups. Rats are much better for your snake than mice. :)

Thanks,

Boids

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Originally Posted by BoidsUnlimited

Rats are much better for your snake than mice.

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Based on what evidence? Or is that just your opinion?

-adam

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BoidsUnlimited

Don't feed it mice....offer it rat pups. Rats are much better for your snake than mice. :)

Thanks,

Boids

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There is nothing wrong with feeding mice. Mice and rats have very similar nutritional value the difference is very little and depends on the diet of the rodent. Unless you raise you own rodents, how do you know what they have been consuming? I suggest you read this article before makeing comments about how 'rats are MUCH better for your snake than mice'. There are slight differences but nothing too outstanding to rule out mice as a GOOD source of food.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=38
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/Who...nal02May29.pdf

Simply...What you feed is your preference, what I feed my snakes is my preference. Feed what is best and easiest for you and your snakes :D

Well again not to start the old mice vs rat debate but our 5 month old bp has always taken adult mice since we got her at about 17" long and approximately 2.5 months of age. She's now taking either 1 or 2 adult mice per week and has grown amazingly well.

My thoughts are simple....feed what your snake will eat willingly and you can get a consistent, good supply of....from what lots of experienced folks tell me there's not much difference over the life of a ball python whether it eats rats or mice....it's more about a regular feeding of a good prey source that results in a happy, healthy, athletic (not fat) snake with a strong feeding response.

I buy our feeder mice a few days in advance, offer them lots of good water and food then feed them p/k to our ball. Seems to be working fine in our case.


~~Joanna~~

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

Mice and rats have very similar nutritional value the difference is very little and depends on the diet of the rodent.

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I don't even think it's that Daniel. Lots of people like to wave around the "whole prey" study as evidence that rats have more "nutritional value" than mice ... higher calcium, potassium, magnesium, blah blah blah .... but without a corresponding study of the nutritional requirements of a ball python, what does it prove?

More is not always better! ... Any nutritionist will tell you that consuming too much of any nutrient or substance will just cause that nutrient or substance to be passed. Your body (and a snakes body) will only use what it needs. If you want to get technical, consuming more than what the body needs causes the organs responsible for filtering out excess as waste (liver, pancreas, kidneys, etc) to work much harder than they were originally designed to. You could actually postulate that feeding rats may be worse for your snakes long term health if rats contain more of anything than a ball pythons body can actually use.

From practical experience I can tell you that I produced 2 hypo females in 2003. They are sisters and they both eat on the same schedule. One is a mouser and the other is a rat eater .... The mouser is 1245 grams and the rat eater is 1240 grams .... This is just one of many examples that I have .... As far as rats being "better"??? I'm not buying it!

Feed what your snake will eat, feed what is most cost effective and convenient for you as a keeper!

:D:D:D:D:D:D

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

... but without a corresponding study of the nutritional requirements of a ball python, what does it prove?

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ha ha....it does not prove anything. I figured there is enough room for error in those tests anyways. As long as the snake grows healthy, what does it matter :) Thanks for the example.

ha ha...speaking of food nutrition....have you seen the 'snake sausages' yet? I seen them in some magazine when I was picking up my mouse supplies from the pet store. I guess it is like ground meat or something in a sausage casing that is to be heated and fed to snakes....ha ha...I had never seen that before and just thought it was funny.

Snake sausages? Ok, now that's just weird. I guess that could work but .... I'm sure they cost an arm and a leg too. Do you remember the price? It's gotta be cheaper just to buy the rodents.

I am trying to find them on the net now.

EDIT: that was not hard to find, check it out:

http://www.t-rexproducts.com/Dynamic...70201&series=1

That stuff is hysterical. You can even purchase Mouse Maker, which are drops to make it smell like a mouse!! :lmao: Ohmigosh!!! :giggle: Wow, I didn't know they made that stuff.