small rats

So Monty has been on weaner rats for a year now - he is 18months old.
They are certainly smaller than his thicker section but he has one a week (he takes food about 8/10 weeks) and seems saited. last time I weighed him he was about 800g and is probably pushing a kg now.
How much bigger do small rats tend to be? I order my rats from Eurorep.
I imagine the answer is a bit subjective but how much bigger do they tend to be? Should I make the upgrade.

i have a male at around 800g on small rats. Small rats in the U.S. may be different from Small rats in the U.K.

http://www.rodentpro.com/images/size_r_small.jpg

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Originally Posted by kurgan

So Monty has been on weaner rats for a year now - he is 18months old.
They are certainly smaller than his thicker section but he has one a week (he takes food about 8/10 weeks) and seems saited. last time I weighed him he was about 800g and is probably pushing a kg now.
How much bigger do small rats tend to be? I order my rats from Eurorep.
I imagine the answer is a bit subjective but how much bigger do they tend to be? Should I make the upgrade.

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I am not really sure of what you are asking here :confused:.I am going to take a chance though,are you wanting to know when you should feed your snake larger rats? If this is what you are asking, then if he does not show a lump in his mid-section after eating the size of rat you are feeding him.Then you need to start feeding him say a medium rat instead of the small rats.Question for you ,what is the 8/10 weeks? I hope i am answering your question for you.

I meant that he takes the food about 8 times out of 10 that I offer it.
There is no noticeable bump these days.
Thanks!

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

i have a male at around 800g on small rats. Small rats in the U.S. may be different from Small rats in the U.K.

http://www.rodentpro.com/images/size_r_small.jpg

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Thanks - actually the small rat in your p;icture is if anything smaller than the weaner rats I am feeding now. I'll try to take a picture of one.

sorry to go off topic but how do you guys weigh your BP's??

hey,

RockinTimbz,
I put mine in a pillow case and weigh them on kitchen scales - weigh the bowl and pillowcase first (or zero the scale with them on) to get an accurate reading.


Kurgan,
Are their any reptile shops near you? It's probably best going to one of those to see the sizes of the rats and possibly buy one to try rather than having to faff about with minimum online orders etc.

There tends to be a fair bit of variation in size even in the same bag sometimes but it's amazing the size of prey these lil wrigglers can actually manage.


hope this helps,


dr del

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Originally Posted by RockinTimbz

sorry to go off topic but how do you guys weigh your BP's??

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There are some websites online that you can buy digital gram scales from... I got mine at Wal-Mart. It is made for measuring the mass of food, a diet scale. Cost about $30.00 for me.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

i have a male at around 800g on small rats.

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WOW :O

-adam

Adam, I gather that small rats are too big for the average 800 gram ball?

i think adam feeds his large females, small rats

I feed my guy small rats... he won't even try at anything bigger.

Weaned rats tend to be around 30-50 grams, I consider the next size up to be small rats which are typically between 50-90 grams. All my adult balls eat either weaned or small rats. I breed my own rats so anything that hits the 90 gram mark is either gassed or becomes a future breeder.

Keep in mind that with a weight range on small rats being 50-90 grams, you are looking at a 50 gram small being about 1/2 the size of a 90 gram small.

So saying you feed your 800 gram snake a small rat, can either mean you feed it a small small or a large small, which makes quite a difference :)

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Keep in mind that with a weight range on small rats being 50-90 grams, you are looking at a 50 gram small being about 1/2 the size of a 90 gram small.

So saying you feed your 800 gram snake a small rat, can either mean you feed it a small small or a large small, which makes quite a difference :)

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Good point, when I pull rats for feeding, I always have kind of a mental picture in my head of which snake is going to get which rat. My largest females get the largest 'small' rats. Something around 800g I would be feeding a rat that was around 40-50 grams, so either a 'large' weaner or a 'small' small.

Mark

P.S. I got my scale at http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/in...ROD&ProdID=118

I really must get with the times and weigh our feeder rats. LOL I go with the old "well that looks about right" system of feeding. :) We feed live though so tend to err on the small side. We just eyeball the right size and grab one out of the feeder tub that's just right for this or that snake.

LOL, yeah I feed my balls live too and don't generally weigh rats while I'm feeding them either. But I do gas a lot of the extras and I always weigh each one so I know which pile to put them in for freezing. After a while you get good at guessing weights just by looking.

Mark

Hi,


Don't know the weights but I have fed my 2.33kg and 1.7 kg females large rats before and they ate them fine but ,as I guess you all already know, they eat a bit more regularly with smaller meals. They had a habit of haveing one 5 weeks running then taking a 3 week break:(

When I say large rat my memory says it was around eight inches nose to nuts and about the same thickness as a coke can at the fattest part.

Now I feed them all rats about 5-7 inches in body length ( depends what the shop has) once a week and they are far more reliable eaters.

I only mention that as you might find it better to use small rodents despite what the python COULD eat.And also certain sizes can be a right royal pain to get a hold of occasionally. Nothing worse than moving a snake onto small rats then not being able to get any for a month.Probably not something you need to worry about if you use eurorep but you never know. If you do have a local shop ask them about supply and see if they find any probs.


dr del