The crazy thing is, this is one of the top 3 brands recommended for buying online (since those are who I've bought from). Every weaned rat in the pack looked like this, though they were packed quite flat and tightly together which can account a bit for the weird shape I think. But it is clearly an older rat that should have had more size to it at that age based on the limbs and such.Originally Posted by Bogertophis
Several things come to my mind in comparing these feeders. The scrawny "commercially-produced one" almost looks like it was sick, not just under-fed, & there's just no
way to know which.On the other hand, most domestic rodents are fed much better than wild ones, so they tend to make our snakes a little fatter than they would be
in the wild, where they'd also be getting a lot more exercise having to hunt & catch their own food. Like us, snakes are healthier when they don't over-eat, but I'd rather
lengthen the time between meals or feed smaller prey than feed rodents that look like that scruffy "commercial" rat, wondering about it's health & what it was exposed to.
If you want to get into fattening or not, just keep in mind most snakes would never encounter a wild Norwegian rat (the species that domestic rats are). Theyd see brown rats in the US, African soft fur rats, gerbils, mice of varying species, etc. And that accounts for different nutritional profiles as well.
Always best to watch and not overfeed regardless of prey type, though, I very much agree. But wild vs captive feeding has more factors than just wild rodent diets since they're not typically the same species being compared.
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