Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if you took two balls with identical weight and fed one strictly rats and the other strictly mice equal to each other by weight.
i.e. one snake gets a 150 gram rat and the other gets 150 grams of mice.
do they grow at the same rate or has one been clinically proven better than the other for a food source.
i know its better for the keeper to feed rats once a ball hits a specific size just because you wont need so many but just out of curiosity i was wondering if one was actually better than the other respectfully.
adam jeffery
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" a.k.a. farfrumugen "
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

I haven't done any digging for others who may have done this research, but I was considering doing something similar to this in the near future. I am currently doing an experiment to see how much efficency there is in a ball python turning food into growth. We have noticed slight differences between feeding frozen and live so far. Have not noticed anything major as to species of food yet though. When I have a couple of months of data I am intending upon posting it.

I used to feed mice and rats (both bred by me and fed the same diet). I now only feed live or prekilled mice. For me, they seem to grow faster on mice. For example: I had 3 het vpi snow females from the same clutch. They were all within 20-30 grams of each other when I bought them. The female that only ate mice is now over double the size and weight of her sisters who ate almost only rats. I experienced the same thing with several other Balls in my collection. I am convinced that mice make for better growth. The down side is that my 2000 gram females will eat 10 mice in a sitting. I did not do this scientifically so this is just my opinion.

Kevin

Heres a chart produced by Rodent Pro with the total crude fat and gross energy rating for a variety of different prey items I hope this helps..

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

from what i can tell from the chart an adult rat is better if your snake is eating adult rats. but if your snake is eating anything under 50 grams then either adult mice or rats it doesnt really matter so much. the real differance is in the adult stages. rats are better than mice when they are adults but other than that it does not matter.
huh...i was thinking their would be a bigger differance and i must say im surprised.
adam jeffery
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" a.k.a. farfrumugen "
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

friend noticed mice eaters are leaner and better muscled
rat eaters for sure IF fed too much will grow faster...and have a pinhead look if they grow fast enough........and it doesn't matter...I use mice, I grow them big IF they want to grow big....

and if they hit the 700 gram wall...it don't matter if they eat baby elephants......bam..........
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........JY....
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we try to feed rats whenever possible....we have better luck with females that laid and eat rats putting their weight back on for the upcoming season the fastest...matter of fact those females tend to add quite of additional weight too....our babies that are started on rats seem to bulk up faster as well
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Wayne and Ryan
Dark Continent Reptiles
www.darkcontinentreptiles.com

thanks for the reply.
hard proof and experience is always better fro me than charts and graphs.
adam jeffery
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" a.k.a. farfrumugen "
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.