Quote Originally Posted by DrEwTiMe
Adam i have been toying with the idea of moving to rats for some time now, i am gonna take my snake to my vet friend so that i can get her weighed and see if perhaps its time to feed her some bigger items. My question is, would there be any actual benefit in moving my snake to rats( more wholsome meal, one prey items as opposed to multiple ect) rather then ust keeping her on several mice? And is there any more inherint danger or feeding rats rather then mice? I hvae been stuck as to what i should do heh, i feel like my snake is right in between where she is ready to take on more then one mouse but not quite big enough for a small rat. Im also going by what the lady at the pet shop told me which is that the small rats are at least 3 times bigger then an aduly white mouse. What should i do?



For breeders, rats are really the way to go ... they bulk up ball pythons quickly with their size and are a lot easier than feeding multiple mice.


For a hobbyist with a single snake, I would look more at rodent price and availability. If mice are easier to get and a couple of mice a week is cheaper than a rat, I say stick with mice. I know that sometimes rat sizes and availability can be a pain in the a$$ at pet stores around here and mice seem to be everywhere. If I had only one ball python, I would probably stick with mice because of the convenience.



Both are totally healthy food choices and have all of the nutrients that your ball python needs. Many people are quick to quote studies that show a small rat has more nutrients than a mouse or fuzzy mice have more calcium or stuff like that, but without knowing what a ball python actually needs and uses nutritionally, their points are really moot. I've raised enough ball pythons on mice to know that they are as good of a food choice as rats.



Hope this helps and good luck with whatever you decide.



-adam