Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings

We have a small (compared to boas) baby rat snake who is currently eating f/t pinky mice-- the largest in the bag--twice per week. We've been feeding 2 on Sundays and 1 on Thursdays. Sometimes she's still hungry. We think she's still too small to move up to the frozen pinky rats we have. Can she have 2 mice per feeding? More? What would be the right limit? We have no need to gorge her.

Antigone

My only advice is to encourage feedings of larger mice. Pinks are nothing but fatty tissue. If your juvie will handle slightly larger, more developed mice, better for it in terms of calcium & other minerals.
Dan.

I agree with Dan wholeheartedly. Fuzzy mice will undoubtedly be better meals than 2-3 pinkies. However, if you're trying to use frozen pinks to get rid of them, go ahead and bump both feedings up to 2 pinkies. If your snake has a good appetite, it's pretty hard to overfeed North American rats!

Hi

We are trying to use up a bag of 50 between our baby rat and our baby corn. But thank you for letting me know that I should be thinking the next size up for the rat snake

Antigone

No problem. I hope they both do well for you!

Ronnie

I have to agree with Dan. (I hate to... He gets all arrogant when he's right!)
If you must first get rid of alot of F/T Pinks, tear the skin on their backs and put a pinch of powdered calcium in the pouch formed.
I've read somewhere to stay away from calcium with D3, but I've never seen a difference.
.
In nature a young ratsnake's diet is rarely all nestling rodents. There are usually a good amount of tree frogs and lizards. They can be raised fine on mice, but the more mature mice have more going for them.
Try this for fun:
www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/WholePreyFinal02May29.pdf
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Regards, Bill McGighan

"Arrogant"!! Bill, that hurts. And coming from someone who'd rip the backs off little helpless mice ( so what if they're dead? } Honestly, I'd never choose to be impolite when other options are available. Did I do so? Sorry for that.
Regards, my friend,
Dan.
And you hopefully know my sense of humor.

"Animals trust me.
I should have been a vivisectionist"
~Beatles' movie, Help

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Regards, Bill McGighan

Huh??