mouse-rat transition

[snakeys1996]

first of all, id like to say hi. i havent posted here in a long time, i took a much needed vacation to my old house in michigan, (i live in charlotte, NC now). i have a question about moving from feeding mice to rats. i know my bp is an ,03 but i dont know when exactly he was born. but i was reading other posts about bp's that were a little over a year old and already being like 3 feet! my buddy is only like 25" i feed him a mouse every week and he ALWAYS readilly accepts any available meal. i thought he was an april 03 but i defenintly could be wrong, wich would explain is size, or lack of it. do you guys think hes at a normal size? if not do you think i should feed him more often or a rat maybe? a rat seems to big but then again, snakes always amaze me

[JamminJonah]

well the generall suggested feeding size is - feed the size of the biggest part of your snake (typically the middle). I personally feed perhaps 8-10% larger than his biggest part when I transition sizes. Meaning when I was feeding rat pups I eventually couldn't notice a lump in him and he was taking them down like breathing. Not that you ever want your snake to struggle with eating but through his body language and the fact that the prey item was no longer making a dent and he always seemed hungry after feeding (rather than retiring to the hide he would dart around or start smelling around the lid of the tank looking for more food) that is when I went to weaned rats (at the time I fed the first one weaned rats were about Icc's biggest girth plus about ten percent. He didn't struggle with it but you could tell it was a more substantial meal for him and he promptly retired to digest after feeding. He's still on weaned rats because they still make a dent though he is seeming hungry again, I fed him two once and he took them gingerly but I don't want to overfeed. I hope somewhere in this rambling is some sort of suggestion or answer. haha

[iceman25]

Its all about girth. How thick is buddy? If he looks like he can fit a dead rat inside, then by all means try and switch him over.

[hhw]

My BP was born in September 2003 and is currently about 22 inches long. The fact that it's a he would also be part of it, as males are smaller. Mine is currently eating the 2nd from largest size of adult mice right now, which are approximately the same girth as the widest part of his body. I am going to keep mine on mice as long as possible, as in case I have difficulty switching him over, I'll want to use the 2 prey item switcharoo method on him. I would want the rat I use in the switcharoo to be fully weaned with fully developed bones, so it'll be a while before his ideal prey size is twice that. I have yet to see any formal scientific data supporting the nutritional superiority of either mice or rats, so I do not feel any urgency to make the switch.

[snakeys1996]

thanks for the help. i think im gonna get bigger food for him. im feeding him full grown adult mice and it leaves no lump and he eats it pretty fast. il get back to you on his circumfrence in a few minutes, just to see if itle help

[snakeys1996]

in his biggest part, his circumfrence is approxomatly 3.45 inches. give or take a little considering the difficulty of acuratly recording the circumfrence of a snake. im not sure that means anything but let me know if it does.

[iceman25]

Now all you gotta do is find a small rat and meaure its girth. If its the same or slightly bigger, he is ready to switch over.

[snakeys1996]

ok thanks