No, I have not tried rats and will not. Mice don't outgrow my snakes and I can keep MANY around for weeks at a time without them getting too big. I also have pet rats and it's just out of the question to bring unquarantined rats into my house.

As you can see, she's a very thick, healthy girl and she has no problem gaining weight off of 3 adult mice a week(sometimes 4 if I have extras). She is so far from flabby it's funny. Very lean muscled female without alot of fat on her. She gained her weight back from laying last year VERY quickly.

And whoever is putting a medium rat into their snakes mouth while she's swallowing a mouse, that's called power feeding.. They don't need medium rats to thrive and grow, which is obvious by my 45 chunky mousers