Mice Vs Rats

[dsmalex97]

Ok. Heres what I'm trying to figure out. I'm really into the Ball Python thing, so I think its inevitble that I am eventually going to breed them on a fairly large scale. I'm thinking that by next year or so I will have 20+ snakes in my collection, and those are just the breeders. Not to mention the amount of babies I will have from all these. Now, I have been hearing a lot that you can feed adult balls mice forver as long as you are feeding them the right size, and amount. So i was thinking just sticking with the mice being that they seem so easy to breed, and you can fit more of them in rack systems. What do you guys think I should do??

[Clear]

Mice stink a lot more then rats do, ASF smell a lot better than both of them. I would suggest try to go with ASF.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It is up to YOU, breed and feed what works and is convenient to YOU

Personally I breed Rats, Mice and ASF

There are pros and cons with all of them.

[dmaricle]

we breed rats and mice and are about to start breeding asf rats also so we have a variety of foods at all times.

[dsmalex97]

I live in NY where can I get a hold of these guys?

[truthsdeceit]

If you breed an sell BP's I'd only breed regular rats or mice.

ASF's can be 'addictive' to BP's and so your buyers could have a hard time feeding there new baby ball pythons. Since ASF's are not readily available unless you breed your own, all those people who order f/t couldn't get them.
If you do decide to breed ASF only feed to your keepers and breeders not the to balls you plan to sell.

Mice smell worse than rats in that the male urine is really distinct. I solve this problem by only having one or two males that I rotate through my tubs containing females. That and regular cleaning keeps the smell down to almost nothing in my very small apartment.

Rats are easier to handle and grow to feeder size faster. Downside is they take up more space and can get to big for bp's to eat (with the exception of large breeding female bp's) They smell more musky than mice but most people prefer the smell to that of urine. Again regular cleaning and minimizing my #of breeders by rotating males helps.

So there's my take. Hope it helps.