Mice Size

[greenmonkey51]

I've got a pastel male thats about 125-150g that I got last week, its come time to feed but I can't get any rat pinks till sunday. I can't remember if the small mice at Petco are small enough for a ball at that size or not. Or should I just wait till Sunday.

[hoo-t]

Has he been eating rat pinks? If so, I'd wait til Sunday. If you switch him now to mice, you may have problems getting him to go back to rats. If you don't have a problem with feeding mice long term, then you can go that route. I'd stick with a SMALL mouse though. Sometimes an adult mouse can be intimidating to a snake that size.

Steve

[ECLARK]

Tanner, your pastel will eat rat pinks or hopper mice. try to always feed rats, but in a pinch mice are ok.

[xdeus]

Rats or mice will be fine for the life of your snake. Feed what is most convenient to you in the long run, although you should just stick to one or the other. Also, Balls tend to prefer mice over rats, so you might have a hard time going back to rats after he's had a taste of a few mice.

Rat pinks are probably too small, though. I just hatched out a clutch and they're feeding fine on small rat pups even though they only weigh about 65 grams.

Oh, and one more thing... you don't have to worry about skipping a few days before you feed. He won't starve.

[rabernet]

Also, Balls tend to prefer mice over rats, so you might have a hard time going back to rats after he's had a taste of a few mice.

I had never heard this before. I've offered a random rat to different girls in my collection, as I currently feed only mice (with 100 gram weight gains each month on some of these girls with just 2 med mice a week) - but plan to start breeding rats soon. Each one I've offered a rat to so far took it with no hesitation. I was expecting some resistence - but my girls don't seem to care. If it's warm and furry - it's fair game! LOL

[frankykeno]

Personally I'd say wait till Sunday. If this snake is a successful feeder on pinkie or even fuzzie rats I wouldn't switch just to save a few days that in the end won't make a bit of difference to a healthy BP of any age. Being a strongly prey specific snake you might either get a refusal on the mouse or end up not being able to get the snake back over to rats. As far as preference for mice over rats I've never encountered that either. I have some that will only take rats, some that will only take mice, some that really could care less as long as it's feeding day LOL. Rats or mice, it's never been proven that one is better than the other as prey for BP's. As long as the prey animal itself is healthy and of good body weight and the snake gets the appropriate total volume of prey, whichever you feed is really up to you, your preference and what you can purchase consistently. Also up to the snake, of course, which it will accept with a strong feeding response (I have one 06 BP female that I swear hates the very sight/smell of rat pups but will nail an adult mouse so fast you wouldn't believe it LOL).

[xdeus]

I had never heard this before. I've offered a random rat to different girls in my collection, as I currently feed only mice (with 100 gram weight gains each month on some of these girls with just 2 med mice a week) - but plan to start breeding rats soon. Each one I've offered a rat to so far took it with no hesitation. I was expecting some resistence - but my girls don't seem to care. If it's warm and furry - it's fair game! LOL

I've had a couple picky rat eaters that stopped eating to start taking them again by scenting with mice or mouse bedding. It could be that they were mouse eaters to begin with and ate rats a few times for me, but I've heard about the mouse preference from a few different sources... although I'm not sure how reliable those sources are and what methods they used to back up their claims.