Going from mice to rats?

[mikehorton]

How can i determine when my BP is ready to tackle a larger animal like a rat? She's a little over a year and I'm hoping a mouse a week is sufficiant enough. Plus i'm trying to get some size growth out of her. Thank you

[Adam_Wysocki]

How can i determine when my BP is ready to tackle a larger animal like a rat? She's a little over a year and I'm hoping a mouse a week is sufficiant enough. Plus i'm trying to get some size growth out of her. Thank you

For whatever it's worth, my yearling (and 2 year old) adult females that are mousers are eating two adult mice per week and growing at the exact same rate my yearling females that are eating rats. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in feeder type by looking at them.

-adam

[gmmuscle91]

Just feed one appropriate sized prey item once a week. If a small rat is about the same size as her girth, then try a small rat. Good luck.

[Grim91Z]

Rats have more protein so it will help it grow faster. If a small rat is 1 - 1.5 times the max girth, then I say go for it. When I run out of the F/T mice I have I'm swirching to rats.

[elevatethis]

Just following some logic:

If this:

my yearling (and 2 year old) adult females that are mousers are eating two adult mice per week and growing at the exact same rate my yearling females that are eating rats.

is correct,

then this:

Rats have more protein so it will help it grow faster.

is incorrect.

Comprende?

[kavmon]

and you have to compare apples to apples, if you feed 2 mice that weigh 50 grams total, and then you feed one rat that is 60 grams! well then you are putting more weight into your feeding. think about it in terms of weight rather than mice or rats?



vaughn

[Adam_Wysocki]

Rats have more protein so it will help it grow faster.

That is a myth.

It doesn't matter how much crude protein, fat, potassium, etc any rodent has, because NO ONE knows what the nutritional requirements of a ball python fed on any given schedule are.

For example, if a small rat has say 20 grams of crude protein, and a large mouse has 13 grams of crude protein, but a ball python when fed weekly will only digest and use 8 grams of crude protein, passing the remaining protein in it's body as waste, how does it even matter?

-adam

[mikehorton]

Ok so i shouold compare the girth of my Bp to that of the prey? the guy at the petstore was telling me to wait until her head is like so big before even thinking about trying it.

[cassandra]

Just feed one appropriate sized prey item once a week.

This is the rule...and that your feeder animals are clean and healthy (and properly defrosted if you are feeding f/t). =)

[cassandra]

Ok so i shouold compare the girth of my Bp to that of the prey? the guy at the petstore was telling me to wait until her head is like so big before even thinking about trying it.

You want a prey animal that is the same size or just under as the widest diameter of your snake. Snakes jaws expand massively when feeding, so that's not a good judge. =)