Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just picked up a pair of Brazilian Rainbows. I have some experience with a Columbian redtail, but a question has come up.

The redtail is easy to feed--I give her something just larger than her body thickness. But she's much thicker than the rainbows, which are nearly 2 feet in length already but no thicker than my index finger.

I've had the rainbows 2 weeks now and been feeding them pre-killed hoppers. That makes a hell of a lump, but the rainbows swallow them easily. The question is whether it is better to give them 2 smaller rodents or just go with one larger rodent?

I don't want to power feed them, but I do want to keep them properly fed.

Thanks in advance.

p.s. Any nutritional difference between mice and rats? Does it matter at all?

Iblis,
. I have 2003 BRBs here which are a little larger than yours and I feed them one small adult mouse per week. Two hoppers would be fine for them also. I want to have young BRBs grow an inch or so every month and I feed them meals large enough to get them growing at this rate. I switch them to rats pups which are about the size and weight of jumbo adult mice when they are 30 to 36 inches long. I think that mice and rats are equally good for BRBs. There have been years when I had no mice and just fed rats to my babies and they did fine. All of my adult BRBs eat medium to large rats.
Jeff

>>Just picked up a pair of Brazilian Rainbows. I have some experience with a Columbian redtail, but a question has come up.
>>
>>The redtail is easy to feed--I give her something just larger than her body thickness. But she's much thicker than the rainbows, which are nearly 2 feet in length already but no thicker than my index finger.
>>
>>I've had the rainbows 2 weeks now and been feeding them pre-killed hoppers. That makes a hell of a lump, but the rainbows swallow them easily. The question is whether it is better to give them 2 smaller rodents or just go with one larger rodent?
>>
>>I don't want to power feed them, but I do want to keep them properly fed.
>>
>>Thanks in advance.
>>
>>p.s. Any nutritional difference between mice and rats? Does it matter at all?