Feeding Mice VS Rats

[Expensive hobby]

Rats & mice DO have different nutritional values, no question about it. But I've always been of the opinion that the differences are small enough it is not likely to matter to a ball python. And, even if one is slightly more optimal than the other, I'm aware of no scientific studies that tell us what optimal nutrition for a BP is, so how would we know if rats or mice are better? For example, rats have a higher % fat than mice, but is more fat good for a ball python? Or bad?

Rats might make them grow faster, although most of the anecdotal evidence I've seen in that direction is cases where the rat-fed BPs were also getting more food overall, so even that is suspect. But, I also don't think we have a good idea of how fast growth should be to be optimal for their long-term health.

As far as the 10% rule, or any similar rule...it seems to me that however much you are feeding a snake, you'd want to feed them more in comparison to their body weight when they are young and growing rapidly than you would when they are adults. So, for example, if you feed them 10% as hatchlings, then you might feed them only 5% as adults. Or, if you feed them 10% as adults, you might feed them 15% as hatchlings. Or maybe you feed them the same % of their body weight their entire lives, but you feed them more frequently when they are young and less frequently when they are adults. I'm really curious, Expensive Hobby, why you think the opposite is true?

One thing that is for sure true is it is faster and easier to feed a BP a single rat than multiple mice. And, every once in a while you'll get a snake that isn't fond of taking a 2nd prey item in one meal, and so there would be a significant advantage to that particular snake to eating rats.

You nailed it in the frequency of feeding comment. I believe that younger snakes do need more nutrition than their adult counterparts, but they achieve it through more frequent and smaller meals. While I believe adults benefit from a larger meal each feeding based on the percentage of their body weight but offered less frequently.

Another thing that people seem to skip right over in these debates on the 10% rule, is sure a hatchling is growing quicker than an adult, so the need for more nutrition is evident, however a hatchling doesn't have the type of demand that a larger snake has. Example? An adult snake has to move more mass. And adult snake has breeding to think about. An adult snake has growing to do in its own right, whilst it goes through physiological changes as it becomes a sexually mature animal. Ovulation, egg production, mating and copulation, months on end without food. All nutrituonal demands that hatchlings don't have to deal with.

That is why I believe a larger meal per body weight percentage is important for adult animals. Getting longer and heavier aren't the only things going on here. Gotta think outside the box.

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