undersize/weight?

[sho220]

That's what I figured but wasnt sure if rats were more "nutritional" for snakes. Also how often SHOULD she be shedding? she looks like she will shed very soon as of right now, just curious of what the normal rate was.

The nutritional composition of rats vs mice are slightly different, but considering no one really knows what a ball python's nutritional needs are, it really doesn't matter.

Nutritional values per Rodentpro...

A Juvenile Rat has:
Crude Protein: 56.1%
Crude Fat: 27.5%
Natural Ash: 14.8%
Energy as K/Cal:g 5.55 K/Cal
Vit- A & E (in Ui): 151,389 & 139.2

An Adult Domestic Mouse
Crude Protein: 55.8%
Crude Fat: 23.6%
Natural Ash: 11.8%
Energy as K/Cal:g 5.25 K/Cal
Vit- A & E (in Ui): 578,272 & 100.4

here are some amusing threads regarding this topic...

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...3-Rats-vs-mice
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/pytho...ts-v-mice.html
http://www.rcreptiles.com/forum/about780.html
http://www.captivebredreptileforums....vs-mice-5.html

If you read through them, you'll find some say their BP's grow faster on rats, some will say they grow faster on mice, and some will swear they've noticed no difference...

I've had a few mousers over the years, and I'm in the "no difference" camp...it is more inconvenient to feed mice though...and they stink...

I once heard that they've even found hieroglyphs dating back to ancient Egypt discussing the merits of feeding ball pythons rats vs mice...