Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My daughter decided that her science project is going to be to see the growth difference (if any) between two snakes - one will eat mice and the other will eat rats.

She has already started and will weigh them once every two weeks until March of 2005. All I had left for her were 2.0 100% het albinos. They should be nice and fat by then.

I'll post her results.
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Jay A. Martin

Sounds good. As a science teacher, I do see some problems (what grade, by the way?). First, we like to see repeated trials. In other words, it would be better to have several snakes on rats and several snakes on mice. Secondly, make sure she eliminates all other variables (i.e. Same sex, exact same temps, exact same accomidations, exact same water, same feeding schedule, etc.) - be sure to document this (judges will be impressed by the strict adherence to the scientific method). Make sure she records and logs the mass of the prey items as well. This would be an important step to make sure any results you see are in fact due to the different type of food and not amount of food.

As far as potential problems go...what if one snake, as BPs are so famous for, stops eating...she'll all of a sudden have a project with no real data to collect.

Thats about all I have to say at this point. I'm sure I've forgotten something. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions! Good luck!
Joe Pociask Pythons

We have all of that covered - Dad has a degree in Information Systems Management - pretty strict in terms of variables and controls.

I would love to use more snakes, however, all I have left are four hatchlings, 1 female and 1 male which are problem feeders and two males that eat consistently. They are the ones for the project. Besides 100% het albino test subjects are expensive.
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Jay A. Martin

Great idea......I think she will get a nice grade lots of documentation and work sheets.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

yes , jp proves some very good points , following the procedures of the scientific method concering constants is definately better then just stating what has been mentioned. I think that the project is most certaintly a very interesting one , and i would love to here the results , because the only thing ive heard on the subject is that rats will make the animal have a better growth rate because they have more calcium since they have bigger bones , but i have not seen any documentation proving this to be true.
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John woodward
JW REPTILES