I picked up a yearling licorice black rat recently and while I haven't done a side by side comparison, he seems to be longer than all of my 09 corns, though not as thick as some. I ordered some frozen rodents a few weeks ago and loaded up on adult mice since all of my snakes are growing and will be taking them soon. The problem is, the bag of "weanlings" that was supposed to last them until then came in pretty much the same size as the adults. The snakes are taking them just fine, but it is a larger meal than I'd typically feed them.

What caught my attention is the fact that the corns all have a visible bulge for several days after eating, but the black rat seems completely slim and trim again after about 2 days. He definitely has a distinct bulge just like the others immediately after eating and he's kept in the same rack under the same conditions. I don't recall my previous non-corn rat snakes (I've kept bairds and black rats before) having faster metabolisms than my corns. Maybe it's something I just didn't notice though. I was just curious whether or not any of you have noticed a tendency for your North American rats to digest meals any faster than your corns?

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