Rat pups or large adult mice?

[rabernet]

Doesnt rats in general have more nutrition than mice? So if you want more weight on your snake I would give rats. Plus you are going to have to give your snakes rats later on when they get bigger so yea.

While it may appear so by the numbers, the argument is really a moot point, since we don't know what the nutritional requirements of a ball python are. For example, a ball python may require 10 grams of protein less than what a rat provides, but a mouse might be exactly the requirement that they need. No one knows.

What a keeper feeds should not be based on some obscure "rats are better than mice" argument. A keeper should feed what is most convenient for them, and what their animal will eat.

For convenience sake, I do feed rats, because I raise them, and I don't have to feed them more than one prey item a feeding. But I raised up the bulk of my founding stock to adult hood on mice, and their growth was not hindered by their diet of mice.