Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if mice can be a staple diet for ball pythons exclusively, and how many would adult balls usually eat each feeding time.

thanks

steve

Not a good idea. Mice have a lower protein content and higher fat content and they have hollow bones providing a much lower level of calcium to help the Ball grow its own bones. rats are the ONLY thing I feed my balls.

MICE are food.....food is good..........snakes grow with food...period.....

they need like 3 huge mice a week and at times I feed twice a week and at times they don't eat for months...

yes I use rats,mice,4 types hamsters and deer mice.even guinea pigs and had chicks already and rabbits.....

they eat.........they do fine.......
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...........TO , TWO , TOO , THU , TU ,T THIOU , TIEU,,,,,THIEU ,,,,,,2.........

guinea pigs for balls?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)

I feed alot of mine adult mice, and as long as they stay on feed I have no problems getting my female or males up to wieght. I feed my adults females 3-4 adult mice a week.
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www.trueimagereptiles.com

Rats are better for ball pythons but if you have some that will not take a rat mice will do fine.
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www.trueimagereptiles.com

Not sure where people keep getting that rats are better for snakes than mice - studies show otherwise - they are very close per gram weight but mice are a bit more nutrional overall. Many snakes are rasied strickly on mice and have no problems whatsoever - if anything it's more likely your snake will be lean and muscular as opposed to being chubby.

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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

that you are incorrect.

Let's assume that you are either feeding your snake adult mice or adult rats. Also assume that you will feed more mice than rats, but that the MASS consumed will be the same (ex. 150g of mice or rats per week). With these valid assumptions made, we can look at rats vs. mice on a gram basis.

Rats (150g)
33.9% dry matter = 50.85g dry matter rat
61.8% of 50.85g is protein = 31.43g
32.6% of 50.85g is fat = 16.58g
6.37 kcal/g = 323.91 kcal

Mice (150g)
32.7% dry matter = 49.05g dry matter mouse
55.8% of 49.05g is protein = 27.37g
23.6% of 49.05g is fat = 11.58g
5.25 kcal/g = 257.51 kcal

The mineral content difference between adult rats and adult mice is minimal.

So in summary, gram per gram, rats have more fat, protein, and calories than mice! Not only that, but feeding 1 large rat a week will be cheaper and less work.

As stated by others, food is food. The snake will grow faster on rats, but will do fine on mice.

Your calculations are correct - however there is a minimal protein difference and rats have a higher fat content - since when is a higher fat content good? It's not - that is why rat fed snakes get fatter quicker. You can live on eating chicken and you can live on eating pork - but whos going to be healthier? Like I said in there first place there really isn't a big difference between the two but unless you count high fat content there is nothing "better" about rats.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

feed all adult balls 2 medium / large rats per week......feed them fat rats.......that way they grow to be 4000 gram balls in little over 2 years or so (* yet still have the head of a year old snake ).........they will be huge and fat and look really cool with the little head.......they will lay 6 eggs or so at 22 months of age and you will breed really really fast...after laying give them 3 medium rats a week for awhile to get them even fatter.......

cool

this way.you see....they will crash and burn out or die faster and they will all need to be replaced....this is how we all cn keep on sleling baby balls to people throughout the next 20 years.........and have a steady supply of people needing new babies........

right?........

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.do they call you "Tader-salad"?? ..............
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...........TO , TWO , TOO , THU , TU ,T THIOU , TIEU,,,,,THIEU ,,,,,,2.........

I like those reasons for rats and lots of food. its all about us anyway, not the snakes lol.

steve

LOL, the 'business' mind at work.

Quig

why would you want them to die faster? your in it for the money arent you?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)

I agree with you! Rats make them grow faster ,but that isn't really helping the animal in the end, as rats can cause a build up of fat around the heart and that is obviously a bad thing not a good thing..I feed rats sometimes but I feed mice as my main food source. I have adult females here that lay 11-13 egg clutches and they see less than a handful of rats a year , 99% of what they eat is adult mice... So to say rats are the only way to go is a bit overrated in my book.. Besides if your like me and feed live you would find that if a rat bites your snake it may go off feed for months , balls are intimidated by rats alot moreso than mice it's a fact that anyone can see by comparison, small rats seem to be less stressful on them but you may as well be feeding mice if your feeding small rats as I don't think the higher fat content of a rat is a good thing anyway. Feed whatever you want , the best thing in theory would be to feed both mice and rats and vary the diet, just my 2 cents! Anthony McCain-McCain's Reptiles.

Thanks Anthony

thats interesting to hear that also.

take my albino boa (please lol) she is about 5 years old and only now is she maybe at a size to breed, she was fed a limited diet as a youngster (alot of mice but she was never hungry, not at all. she is now very healthy looking and she will hopefully live alot longer than the ones that have been overfed to get to breeding size quiker. she eats jumbo rats now, and still only one every 2 weeks or sometimes 3 weeks.

thanks for your insight

steve

I asked this because mice are easier to get over here, and if I wanted to breed something, it wouldn't be rats.

actually thr whole frozen food thing sucks in this country, I have trouble just about all the time. And guess how much I've seen frozen large rats for over here, well get this, I've seen them in two places for 16 Euros, thats 16 Dollars EACH. where they get this price from I don't know lol, but it sure isn't from this earth.

thanks alot for your help

steve

where do you live?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)

I Live in northern Finland

steve