Feeding Question

[Naf Eeknay]

Hi all! I have a 2 year old ball, Monty, and he is around 3 feet long right now. I am working on getting him on a weekly feeding schedule as when I got him, the person was only feeding him once a month large feeding. Yesterday I gave him a small rat but here's my question. Instead of giving him one small rat could I give him a couple of mice instead each week? Is the nutritional value the same? The reason I am asking this is that my local pet store charges $6.50 for a rat and $1.50 for a medium/large mouse. As you can see, over time the mice would be the cheaper way to go. Just wondering on what your opinions are.

Peace!

[Freakie_frog]

It is my understanding that rats hold a higher nutritional value than mice. If your snake will eat enough of the mice to grow then sustain then great. My sugestion would be switching your snake over to F/T rats. They are way cheaper and you can buy them in bulk. Try WWW.Rodentpro.com or the like. At Rodentpro you can get 20 F/T small rats for like 15.80 plus shipping. Thats $ .79 a rat thats a better deal than your mice.
Hope this helps.

[xdeus]

Two mice a week will be fine. I'm sure the nutritional value is different than a rat, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be better or worse for your snake. Nobody knows that nutritional requirements for a Ball, but we do know that Balls can and do thrive on a diet of mice.

[joepythons]

Your snake may not take mice nor frozen thawed rats.If he has only been eating once a month he is in that pattern now.See if you can buy 1 frozen rat from your pet store first before you spend a good amount on something he may not even want.Or you could buy a extra rat ,kill it and freeze it yourself then try it.Please do not put a dollar value on your snakes health and happyness.

[xdeus]

Please do not put a dollar value on your snakes health and happyness.

I'm not sure why switching to mice would have anything to do with the health or happiness of his snake, although I agree that he shouldn't place a large order of F/T rats unless he knows his snake will eat them. You're right that Balls are imprint feeders and it may be difficult to switch him to F/T, however it's usually not difficult to switch them to mice as they seem to prefer them over rats. There's nothing wrong with saving money if it's not going to affect his snake at all.

[Naf Eeknay]

Your snake may not take mice nor frozen thawed rats.If he has only been eating once a month he is in that pattern now.See if you can buy 1 frozen rat from your pet store first before you spend a good amount on something he may not even want.Or you could buy a extra rat ,kill it and freeze it yourself then try it.Please do not put a dollar value on your snakes health and happyness.

First off, I am not putting a dollar value on the "happiness" of my snake or am I looking to compromise his health. I was just asking the question as he has already been eating mice as well. He won't take dead food so I have to feed him live so the rat is a greater risk to him. I would just as soon feed him more mice if that is equal to one rat. BTW... so far he has adjusted nicely to weekly feedings so that is a plus as well! I wish I could order bulk feeders but my wife absolutely refuses to let me keep them! I can only get them the same day as feeding. HEHE.

Peace.

[frankykeno]

If he takes mice as easily as rats and you don't mind feeding the two mice rather than the one rat I say go for it. There's nothing wrong with being responsible to your budget and I don't see that as "putting a dollar value" on his snake's health and happiness. It's been proven over and over that mice and rats are both good prey items and there's no real appreciable difference in growth/health from a mouse fed to a rat fed snake.