Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey again everyone, I was wondering, I see it a lot on these posts with carpets, what is the deal about getting a snake to mature to eating rats instead of mice? The way I see it, they are both rodents and should smell the same to the snake, so what is the problem that everyone has? I have never had a problem with either but just wanted to know what all the hullabaloo is about.
Thanks,
Susan

I guess the main concern is that an adult jungle or even an irian jaya can eat a half dozen mice or more for one meal. One nice sized rat would also be a nice meal, costs less, and is way less time consuming to feed.
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Jaremy Douglas

Not to mention that rats are better for the snake anyway. Mice are very fatty...

Correct me if im wrong, but I thought that rats had higher fat content and that that was a good thing!?

Actually Diamonds and Jungles have their little preferences wether it be for or against eating rats. I raised a few and seen the like and dislikes, fortunately mine would cross over to rats but I had one that would not eat brown or grey rats only white. Rats smell quite different than mice, even I can tell that with my lame sense of smell, so you can only imagine the differences a snake can sense with its AWESOME and very sensesistive taste sensors.

Well really....mice are not really fatty, just less nutritional when compared to a rat. Rats, have more fat and muscle mass. larger organs etc... better all the way. I tried a test myself, took two baby boas of same size and fed one mice and the other equal size rat. within a short time the one eating rats was litterly two times the size. As for the smell, rats and mice are like night and day. I raise them. All anyone needs to do is raise them and you will know what I am talking about. Some pythons are hard to switch to rats, you can offer chicks to help better diet, but if you could get over to rats, your snake will be better off. Andy

I posted not too long ago about this. I raise mice, so since I got my '02 female jungle back in April that is just about all she has been fed (she ate one small rat, other than that, all mice). I usually feed her 4-6 large mice every 5-7 days. In April she was around 880g, now she is around 2700g and is looking like she will lay a nice clutch this summer. It does take more food items, but it worked fine for her. Luckily with her all I have to do is leave a pile of FT and when I come back they are all gone! So not too time consuming at all.

I also have 4 IJs that are between 500g and 900g, and they are all eating 2-4 mice every 5-7 days. But they too are great eaters for me. But if you don't raise your own mice, it would for sure be more expensive doing it the mouse way. There's my .02
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Ben