Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i cant rember what the nutritional values of diffrent food items are. ie some say rats are better in nutritional value than mice. how many of you differ in the types of food items feed. im asking because their was an ad last year that it said in the ad he was feeding smalll rabbits to this female ball that was for sale and said he had to stop feeding rabbits due to getting to big. does any body else remember the ad i have it some place i just cant seem to find it. does anybody else feed rabbits to their female balls to get that extra weight for breeding season and what Repercussions could their be to this other than cost of food.

thanks
bg

RodentPro included a great article on their website. Here is the link to the article:

www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

I've seen the article elsewhere, but can't remember where that was. It is from an actual study of the nutrient content of whole prey. Some of the prey items listed are not actually whole, in which case the state of the animals evaluated is explained. If I remember correctly, the study was conducted for the benefit if zoo personnel. There is definitely a little bit of everything included.

Hope this helps.

~Rebecca
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1.0.0 Dumeril's Boa '04
1.1.1 Ball Pythons
[1.0.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1.0 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

This was pointed out to me a few months ago during a discussion on prey items and related nutrition -- perhaps rats may have more calcium and protein than mice (or vice versa, I don't know off hand), but what good does that information do if we don't know what a ball python's nutritional requirements are? We don't know how much protein/calcium/fat/vitamin D/etc that they should have per day, or per week, or per month. So we can't determine what to feed them based on anything nutrition-wise. Not to mention that snakes have different growth rates regardless of food source. For instance, some people feed their snakes only mice and they have them get up to very nice sizes. I fed mice to one snake that would not eat anything else, and in 3 years she never made it past 900g. I started feeding her African rats, and she finally pushed past 1000g in just a few weeks. But she is still small now at 4 years old.

Everyone feeds the prey that they feel are best for their snakes, as well as what is most convenient for them (this includes live vs. frozen). I choose rats because I dislike mice and find it easier to feed 2-3 weaned rats to my adults than feeding a whole bunch of mice per feeding. I choose not to feed anything bigger than a small rat, but others feed large rats to various large females because they don't like dealing with multiple prey -- one shot one kill is easier for them.

Another thing to think about is that some ball pythons are easily imprinted on food. That female I mentioned above is now stuck on African rats and will never eat anything else -- so the odds of selling her would be very slim because most people don't have those rodents to feed her and don't want to deal with it. The same could go for ball pythons that are imprinted on mice or rabbits -- they may not be as marketable because some people don't want mouse feeders or may not be able to get rabbits.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

< it was probably me who said that

All 35 of my Ball Pythons eat mice. The adults get 4-5 medium adult mice if they are bulking up after laying, and normally they get 2-3. The males get 1-2 because I want them lean but muscular. Fat snakes don't breed well, or at all. I go through about 60-65 mice a week, skipping a week here and there to keep the snakes on their toes(spurs?).

50g of mice is the same as a 50g rat, except maybe fat content, but if you're comparing fat content, is it healthier to eat a lean sirloin(mouse) or is it healthier to eat brisket(rat)?

Both prey items work well as feeders and the snakes grow equally well on either. One of my females is actually overweight and has passed her pre-breeding weight of last year. She laid in late May So she's getting cut way back to 1-2 mice a week until I start cycling everyone in January/February.

And Jen, that female may just be small-statured. I have one 05 female who came to me at 450g. She ONLY eats mice and would only eat 1 at a time, maybe every other week. After I stuck her in a 15qt tub, with the heat at 95/84, and gave ger a hide. She's now shooting out of her tub to get those mice, and taking 3 in a sitting. She's up to almost 800g now. I just treated her like a WC, no handling unless I had to clean, and she eventually turned around. This is a CBB female too.. I prefer my CH girls over her any day. Some snakes will just be big pains in the rear.
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-Becky Brown, RVT-
1.0 Lemon Pastel Classic Jungle(NERD)
1.0 Black Pastel
2.13 Normals
1.0 NERD Yellow/Green Hypo
1.1 Spiders(BHB)
1.1 Yellowbellies(BHB)
1.0 100% Het Pied Classic Jungle(Don Kaye)
0.1 50% Poss. Het Pied(Gary Kettring)
0.1 Classic Jungle
1.0 66% Poss Het Ax Genetic Granite(VPI)
18 07 Hatchlings