Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm going to try to start my bp out on F/T from the very beginning, and I heard that rats are better than mice. Is this true? So for a hatchling, should I go with pinky rats (9 grams) or fuzzy rats (15g)? Thanks.

Really, there isn't much difference. If you feed your animals hole animals like a whole mouse or rat, then it will get all the nutrients it needs. With babies you need to feed it every 5-7 days prey item that is no wider than the snake widest part of the body, or the widest circumference. Some people feed it a large prey item and the snake doesn't have to eat for a while...however, this can result in the snake regurgitaing it's food, which in turn, can harm the snake physically. People tend to handle their snake, and after feeding them large prey items they can regurgitate.

its funny, ive been keeping snakes for quite some time now, ive heard the no bigger than this or that rule, there are dozens, never feed anything bigger than 3 times the size of the head, or thickest point...BLAH! maybe with colubrids thats a good rule, i dont have as much expierience with colubrids, but i can tell you ive seen tiny pink mice that put a huge lump in em and youd swear they were gonna split, and yet no regurge. now i keep mostly thinner more arboreal pythons, cept for my ball and my blood. they take decent sized meals that put a nice lump in em, my blood is a hair under 4 feet and she takes the largest of large rats with ease, probably almost time to switch to jumbo rats. my ball, shes a hatchling, takes small mice easily, in fact, if i had thought to buy full adult mice and not just smalls and jumbos, id have her on the regular adult mice right now. this is her 6th meal ever, and id say she could take a nice sized rat fuzzy, so next week im gonna do just that, after she sheds. most of these "rules of thumb" have been around longer than alot of herpers have been alive...use good judgement, you dont want to give something too large, but you also dont want to go too small, from expierience, most snakes wont eat something that they feel is too small. some, like my scrubs and carpets, will eat anything, at any time, im pretty sure theyd try to eat my car if it was white, fuzzy and about 100 degrees. from personal expierience, as long as the food item isnt grossly too large the snake should have no problems eatting it, and as long as you leave it alone for 24 to 48 hours after it eats there should be little if any worry about stress related regurge. good luck

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

>>I'm going to try to start my bp out on F/T from the very beginning, and I heard that rats are better than mice. Is this true? So for a hatchling, should I go with pinky rats (9 grams) or fuzzy rats (15g)? Thanks.

If/When it is mine to do I am trying rats first. The reasoning to me is that I don't want to have to switch the snake later, as it outgrows mice. That and I can get a pinky rat in no time and a fuzzy in a week compared to double that or more to grow a mouse that size.
You may have a baby not take a rat pink though and then have to fish around for something it takes. But starting from scratch mine are getting rats first.
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Sonya

It is my understanding, and please, someone correct me if I am wrong that a hatchling ball python can be started on rat pups? At least a rat pink. It will make the switch alot easier in the end. I personally would start with rat pinks.

Thanks for all the advice, I just gonna buy some frozen pinky rats and see where it goes from there. Thanks again, this website is the best source for information I have found yet and people are so friendly and helpfull.