Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
yeah i think i'm gonna stick with rats.....read about them and heard they will help ptu weight on faster and healthier than feeding 2 mice at a time. correct me if i'm wrong though. cause it would be alot easier for me to breed mice than rats..lol
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
Possibly but remember how badly mice smell compared to rats :)
dr del
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dr del
Possibly but remember how badly mice smell compared to rats :)
dr del
Ugh. The mice smell. I hate mice.
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
i did notice that, ths was the first rat i've offered so far, and there was even a smell compared to opening the mouse container...so...i agree.
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
In the end it won't really matter what's easier for you or smellier LOL it will matter what your snake will accept on a consistent basis with a strong feeding response. That's what you end up feeding (and also the method of feeding as some won't take anything but live, others are quite happy with f/t or pre-killed).
As far as the thing about rats vs mice that's just not a proven theory. Practical evidence stated here many times over by breeders with 100's of BP's over many years is that it's not about rats or mice. It's about an appropriate volume of prey on a weekly basis. In other words, feed what the snake likes, feed it the correct amount for it's size, whether that's a single rat or multiple mice, and it'll grow to the size it should in a nice, healthy manner.
Here's a small example from our own collection. Four 06 BP's, all about the same size and weight (give or take)...all born within a few short weeks to months of each other....pick out the rat eaters vs the mice eaters (and there are both in that group of 4).....(no cheating and looking up my posts about who eats what now LOL)...
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=38886
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
i would guess Muirne and Riordan are the rat eaters...i did not peek. thoses are 06 hatched? when were they hatched? my wife got my first BP from Petco (urghh) for me on sept 10th and they sai dit was 6-9 weeks old when seen the vet a few weeks later he said he's alot olde rthen that...but mine are no where near your's sizes, he weighs in at 225 grams
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
Judging from the pic with your ball eating the medium sized rat, I'd say that meal was a little on the big side. I'm not sure if that pic was taken during or right after constriction, but a snake that has to use its whole body to wrap two or three coils around a prey item is eating something entirely too big.
Just go nice an easy on him.
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
she wraps mice liek that too...she's literally all skin and bones so theres not any girth to help with constricting.
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by racer69
i would guess Muirne and Riordan are the rat eaters...i did not peek. thoses are 06 hatched? when were they hatched? my wife got my first BP from Petco (urghh) for me on sept 10th and they sai dit was 6-9 weeks old when seen the vet a few weeks later he said he's alot olde rthen that...but mine are no where near your's sizes, he weighs in at 225 grams
Actually Muirne is and always has been a mouse eater and Riordan has accepted both, though is now on rats. The other mouse eater is Cara, Helori being a rat eater.
Muirne is a May 06 female - mouse eater
Helori is a June 06 female - rat eater
Cara is a also a June 06 female (different clutch) - mouse eater
Riordan is an August 06 male - was a mouse eater but took to rats easily
I don't have weights this week on them but they are all actully in the 200 grams or so range. I'll weigh them all next week likely. The point here Racer was to show you that really rats or mice, as long as they are eating appropriate amounts of prey...they are all gaining about the same rate. Sure where Helori and Riordan may eat a chubby rat fuzzy, Muirne and Cara will eat two mouse hoppers but they all are receiving the same weight of prey so are gaining about the same (allowing of course for genetic differences in growth patterns).
Re: pics of snake i rescued...these are sad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by racer69
yeah i think i'm gonna stick with rats.....read about them and heard they will help ptu weight on faster and healthier than feeding 2 mice at a time. correct me if i'm wrong though. cause it would be alot easier for me to breed mice than rats..lol
OK - you're wrong! :D All of mine are currently mousers until I get my first litters of rats (I happen to not like breeding mice).
My mousers get no more than 2 mice a week and are still gaining 100 grams a month on average.
