Renee,

...Some people say rats are more nutritious but I suspect that pound for pound they are pretty similar. I raise rats and always have rat pups available. The snakes that eat frozen and thawed mice usually are picky at times about them and so the ones on rats eat more regularly. If I had live mice all the time I suspect my mouse only little ones would grow as fast as the rat eaters. They all switch to rats eventually.

Jeff



>>Is he more active than your other yearlings? I'm wondering what fuels the appetite. Or is it simply that he was more physically ready to eat larger prey items, being thicker or having a sturdier digestion, etc.?

>>

>>Also, are rats a healthier food item for BRBs than similarly-sized mice---and does that speed growth?

>>

>>>>....He is 40 inches long and is the biggest of my yearlings. Most of my other yearlings are quite a bit smaller. He got onto bigger fuzzy rats earlier than the others. His average growth rate has been 2 inches a month. If you survey keepers on this forum I think you will find some who grow them this quickly but that most get a growth rate around one to one and a half inches per month when they are young. For the first 24 months they convert food into linear growth very efficiently.

>>>>Jeff

>>-----

>>Renee

>>1.0 BRB (Loki)

>>2.0 amel & anery corns (Foxfire & Daguerre)

>>0.1 blood python (Duchess, arriving later this month)

>>1.1 Cats (Nightshade & Cuzzy)

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