Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As we all know rats cost a significant amount more than mice for comparable weight. Often the weight of the rats are significantly less than the lower cost mice (i.e. medium mouse 18-24 grams vs. pinky rat 3-9 g both for 47 cents each). I have read many post about rats being better having more fat etc. But are they really that much better to charge so much more for equal weight? In the above example, the weights are not even close. Is this belief that rats are more nutritious all anecdotal? Do you guys think that it's worth paying far more for far less grams of food? Thanks

Alton

Rodent breeders aren't basing their prices on nutritional/fat content. They base their prices on the cost of production. Rats require more space and more food than mice - thus, they cost more to produce.

Tim

Third Eye

Thanks, Tim. That makes plenty of sense, but there must be a market to sustain this pricing. Many people must prefer baby rats to large mice or there would be no market for high priced baby rats. I guess my main question is: is it worth it for smaller sized snakes? Thanks again

one, I think roughage is important as mice with hair is better then a rat with no hair.

Second, the rest is up to you. All you have to do is try each and see which works best for you. It would not take that long and it would be fun.

Keep two similar snakes alike and feed one rats and one mice and see which works best.

Oh, I feed mice because I breed them. Cheers

A while ago some one posted a link that compared nutritional values of different food types. I don't remember there being much difference between rat pups and mice.

The only advantage I have with rat pups is for snakes that will only eat live. A rat pup is less likely to harm a snake then a mouse is.
-----
"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which ones pink?"

RodentPro lists "Nutrient Composition of Whole Vertebrate Prey" in the "Articles" section of their website. I'm pretty sure the chart indicates that there's hardly any difference between mice and rats when it comes to nutritional value.

Tim

I think that adult mice are more nutritionally complete than a similarly sized rat pup, mainly due to fat content, and lack of a varied diet.

No one has mentioned the size of the snake being fed. Would you rather feed a large boa 20 mice or two adult rats? The same applies to adult Pine Snakes and other large animals. Rats would make more sense with a large animal.

Dave
-----
One man with faith equals the majority.
Thomas Jefferson

That is a great point to ponder!!!!

Being that most of my collection is bulls, pines, and gophers, ( however, not everyone is a full adult ), along with kings, I feed all my collection mice until they reach such a size that it would be best to feed small rats in terms of quantity of feeder items per snake. All my adult pits either eat really huge large adult/retired breeder mice or small rats.
-----
Genesis 1:1