Zach worte..."Like I said, the question is not whether or not a good diet is important, the real question is whether or not rodents make a good diet?"

Of course, they make a good diet.....especially for animals that eat them all the time.....I'd have to argue whether a 100% diet was "good" for animals that don't though.

I guess if you are making sure that the fat's aren't too high.....you'll be just fine. (And of course, you would have to know what food source is being fed from the commercial breeders before making that call...unless you're breeding your own)

Problem is...at least with BHPs....is that.... most keepers don't know what is an exceptable fat diet.
That's been proven to me time and time again when BHP keepers call and ask why their 7 foot 6 year old female is dead with fat babies loading down the internal organs.

Nobody is questioning whether rodents are an acceptable food item....it's whether they are acceptable as a 100% food item to animals....that don't eat them.

Obviously, if you know what the fat content of the animals you feed is....and, it's a low fat diet....then you should be cool.

Just be aware of it....was all I was ever saying to begin with.

Zach wrote..." So is a rodent diet really why my anthill eggs and your BHP eggs aren't hatching?"

Never said it was....I threw out a suggestion for improving hatch rate..... by changing diet.
In your particular case... I would say it was keeper error on the incubation method.

I think if I was raising my own rodents...and, knew what those rodents were getting....I wouldn't be so worried about it.

I know at least 10 BHP keepers who have had animals die on them from being overfed (Fat bodies in or on the internal organs)...so.... It DOES make a difference...at least in BHPs.
I don't see overfeeding to be as much of a problem with rodent eaters....yeah, they may get fat....but, to just roll over and die?...Haven't heard about it...(not saying it couldn't happen but)....never heard anybody mention killing a carpet or retic from over feeding rodents.Haha.

But, people often overlook what they are feeding their animals in order to....
"Get them to breeding size"
"Get larger clutches"
"The female needs to be up to weight"
etc....

What I'm getting at is.....there are a million and one reasons why a keeper would want to over feed their animals. This is why I say the things I do about diet because... I feel most keepers over feed their animals. (Just like a lot of people want to over eat....then get larger and have complications from it.)

That said....I believe that mice have about 10% less body fat than rats...If I remember correctly.

Cheers,
D.

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