Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have rarely ever feed my snakes anything other than white mice. On a rare occasion I have gotten one brown and one black mice in with my orders, which both fed fine. I've heard or problems people have had feeding different colored mice and rats and I would like to avoid this problem if at all possible. I think I've only ever heard about the color of mice being a problem in the aspect of a snake already not eating though. I currently have two white female lab rats I'm planning on breeding and I am having a hard time finding an all white male to breed them with. If I get a fancy rat it'll cause mixed litters and I don't want this to affect my snakes feedings. Also these rats are nasty. What are some tips in handling these things? Also one last question. I've read that mice need to be 16 weeks before they're bred, but I've heard they reach sexual maturity at the age of 5 weeks. Is it nessesary to wait in the case of feeder rats? Oh wait one more. Is inbreeding a large concern with feeders or would it be ok to hold back a few females when my breeders are getting ready to retire? Or would buying new stock be better?

A: I've never had a problem feeding any color combo of rats or mice to my snakes. They eat whatever I put in with them without issue. I think color imprinting is rare.

B: I'd feed off the mean female rats and find some tame ones. The last thing you want is defensive mothers chomping on you when you go to feed off baby rats. TRUST ME. I have scars...
My current colony...I could reach in and take a baby OFF the mother as it's feeding if I wanted to and they don't care.

C: Inbreeding can cause problems. What I generally do is keep females (since my local Petco only sells males...and the one with females is 45 minutes away) and buy a new male when I set up a new colony.
I didn't think inbreeding was an issue until I started getting babies that were...well...getting really puffy and dying (almost exploding). Looked it up and they had a gene defect called Megacolon. It's nasty...

I split up that bunch of rats, bought a new male that was unrelated to the females and that wasn't a problem from that point on.

Hope this helps.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)