Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if these critters could cause a serious bite to a sanke.I feed adult rats and mice pre-killed. Would I need to do this with fuzzys also. I'd be feeding them to a group of large king snakes as a substitute for adult mice.

thanks,
Cameron

I pre-kill everything not just for the reptiles safty but when it comes to the larger snakes I dont want them to ever know what live food is. My Anaconda and my Bloods dont even constrict there food. I feed my kingsnakes prekilled weanling rats. And mice...well they just suck. Smelly little bast##ds. Eric

Good point I hadn't thought about that with larger snakes. Well happy herping.
Camreon

if you already buy the feeders frozen from a frozen feeder place, i would keep using the adult mice, because they contain more calcium than the fuzzies. Also fuzzies rats are smaller than adult mice.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Actually, not really. Fuzzy rats have already started to ossify their bones together.. In comparison Adult mice have thinner bones because they aren't built to take the eventual weight like a rat would be. Besides the fact... depending on diet..and how many siblings the rat pup has, they can be a bigger and better meal for an animal than an adult mouse. They also hold more fat and more vitamins from mother's milk than an adult mouse.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

i thought rats/mice didn't start getting their bones until like 2/3 weeks old. Thanks for the info.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Alll vertebrate animals are born with bones... They're just soft and in many more pieces than they will be when they're adults. By 2 or 3 weeks most rat pups are either weaning or being weaned.. Same for mice. Their skeletal structure hardens up within the first week of life..Or else they wouldn't be able to support their body weight and they'd be breaking bones all the time. I pull half my pups at 17 days to feed soft food to.. that way I can control what they're eating and how much fat they put on. By 21 days they're fully weaned to adult food. The other half of my pups are left to grow a bit more in grow out tanks.. but I cull out the half I took away at 28 days for my snakes.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)