Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello Everyone,

I have always been under the impression that rats grow young snakes more quickly then mice... now I understand that if you feed your ball a 40gram mouse once a week vs a 100gram rat the rat feeder would obviously have a faster growth rate.

My question is this... are rats actually more nutritious gram per gram than mice?

So far I have not noticed any obvious differences... have any of you?

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-Ross Payan - www.LeosAnonymous.com

Leos Anonymous

Red Striped Tangerines, Carrot Tails and Screaming Amel Fat-Tails

I'm not sure about nutrition differences but I've noticed that my snakes seem to grow a little quicker on equivalent weights of rats rather than mice. Some other advantages are price, 1 medium sized rat is cheaper than 5 mice. Also they smell less, which is a plus if you're a breeder (like me) or even if you're just transporting them home live from the store...mice stink!

I've heard of people having tough times getting BPs to switch from mice to rats, I've never had this problem. I've had my snakes not eat for a long time, but when they come back its for rats!

I know what you mean...I have had two mice and they stunk up my room. Good ridden that they have passed-on.

Little-known fact: it's only the males that stink. It's some sort of musk they put out.

I think rats grow snakes faster too, but I'm not sure why.

Actually, now that I think about it, I do have a theory. Since they're so small, mice are mostly hair, skin and bone. Very little meat. So if you feed equal weight mice and rats, you're getting far more calories with the rat.