Rats vs Mice

[Jason9301]

Which do you prefer to feed your bp (mice or rats)and does one or the other have more nutrients/more healthy than the other ?????

[rabernet]

It really doesn't matter what the nutritional content is between the two - since no studies have been done on the nutritional requirements of ball pythons.


I currently feed mice and have great growth, but will soon be switching to rats since I'm beginning to breed my own.

[JLC]

I would feed whatever the BP preferred to eat. If I have a choice in the matter, I would choose rats...simply for the personal convenience of feeding one appropriately sized rat, rather than multiple mice to an adult BP. Not to mention that I'll someday be breeding my own rodents and I'd much rather deal with rats than mice.


That's all purely personal choice, though. Whatever your snake eats and whatever you can most readily provide is what is right for you.

There may be some nutritional difference between rats and mice...but since we don't know the nutritional requirements of BPs...those differences don't really mean anything to us. So long as they are getting whole prey of appropriate size...it's all good.

[Adam_Wysocki]

I have some animals that eat mice, some that eat rats ... they all grow the same ... feed what your snake will eat and don't worry about it.

-adam

[ZEKESMOM]

I feed rats, Zekes first 2 feeds with me were mice and the reptile store that I get my feeders from finally asked what I was feeding the mice to and when I told them a bp they said I should switch to rats so I did

[Kizerk]

for the people that breed rats,what do you do with the extra rats that get big... because ball pythons dont usually eat large rats...i was just wondering...

[Tefoe]

I really only breed rats,so all of my snakes get rats....


But I have other animals that take extra large
rats,its where most go,but I do have balls that take large rats too.

[rabernet]

for the people that breed rats,what do you do with the extra rats that get big... because ball pythons dont usually eat large rats...i was just wondering...

For me, the retired breeders have earned a happy rest of their life in my care and will die of old age, being well fed and wel loved.

[frankykeno]

for the people that breed rats,what do you do with the extra rats that get big... because ball pythons dont usually eat large rats...i was just wondering...

Depends. If it's a big older breeder it gets retired to live out it's life hanging out in the colony (my little thank you for it's contribution to the snakes). If it's a feeder that's simply overgrown it's useful size for the snakes we currently have then I generally sell it off to another BPNet member who has a bigger boa. When we had Rauri the rescue BCI with us he was very handy for cleaning up the feeder rats when we had extra's or they got a tad too big for the BP's.

[Jason9301]

for the people that breed rats,what do you do with the extra rats that get big... because ball pythons dont usually eat large rats...i was just wondering...

My cousin and i breeds rats for the corn snakes we are going to breed but all the rats that get 2 big normaly goes to "mikey" the burmese that eats anything and everything