African soft furred rats

[Laughingman868]

Hey guys, yet another question. I searched the chondro section and came up with a few hits but not pertaining to this exactly.

I was listening to GTPkeeper I think it was, or maybe MPR but someone mentioned the ASF rats and I became interested. It seems sometimes that mice are too small but adult rats are WAY too big and my pet store never ever gets medium rats. My GTP will eat F/T and the jungle carpet will eat stunned/mostly dead mice so I think he will go for a thawed one. IF my BRB eats a thawed one then I can buy online and feed these instead of buying live from my pet store. It would save me money thats for sure but I think buying regular mice would be cheaper still. What do you guys think? I believe one of the chondro breeders said he wanted to have his switched to these since their hair isn't as coarse as the regular rats.

This doesn't need to happen soon just a thought for the near (maybe 6 months) future when one mouse no longer fills these guys up

[Hillsberry]

Most GTP keepers feed their GTPs mice for all of their lives. At least that is was from what I have seen. For an adult male GTP Large to XL mice should be fine and same for a female. There is always talk about who feeds their GTPs what, whether it be rats or mice. If you think that feeding your GTP mice will be easier for you then stick with feeding him/her mice. Hope this helped.

[Laughingman868]

hey thanks for the reply Hillsberry, and yes I have heard people stick with mice also. I think I will stick with mice but start buying frozen in bulk but it seems that when he gets to be an adult one will not be enough. I guess I'm just trying to find out what would be more cost effective, 2-3 mice when he gets that big or one soft furred rat. Ill probably just crunch some numbers and which ever seems more reasonable is what ill go with. I really dont like regular rats though.

[yeloowtang]

mice for life is a good plan, when adult just get an adult mouse and if your GTP gets that big that an adult mouse seems way to small get extra big mice :)
i would niot recommend feeding mutiple prey items in one feeding..
i myself have fed them both mice and rats, the one i have now is feeding on rats..
nothing wrong with rats, but they are more nutritious and can fatten up a GTP if fed to often !!
remember the don't feed to much rule :)
i feed mine rats but feed smaller rats than what i would a mouse for her size and at longer intervales..
these are slow growing snakes, nothing like other snakes that you see a lump after the meal..
rats have bigger bones and thicker fur, some will say this is cause for prolapses.
I have never had a problem with that, but then i feed smaller prey, but it could verry well happen, so care is a must..
in fact my arboreal years have made me a strong believer of feeding smaller more often then big less often.
i do this with all my snakes. even my adult ball pythons only get a large rat once a week
they grow nice and slow versus getting fat fast.. last thing you want is a fat GTP
best thing is to go with what you have available.
if you can stick with mice, do so
if you need bigger, rats are good but feed smaller
soft furs are great , don't know about the area you are , but in general, they are more expensive, and are harder to find.. plus many snakes will refuse anytrhing else after soft furs, so if they are hard to find !!! you may create yourself a problem you'd be best avoiding..

[Laughingman868]

excellent points yeloowtang, you seem to be answering many of my posts so thank you lol. For now regular mice are fine since he's small but just to save money in the future I plan to buy frozen in bulk to save cash and just feed mice to all of them. I think that maybe the mice at my pet store that they say are adults are actually really small adults. I think If i bought extra large mice online they would be a lot larger. As for the soft furs, I was going to buy them online also but if they may not eat anything else after trying them I think ill stick to mice. I will probably have to feed my jungle and BRB rats eventually though so I should probably just get used to it.

I too believe that smaller meals more often is smarter and seems better for the snake. I hate to see them eat a huge meal then not move for a week and a half. Mine all defecate regularly and begin moving a few days after they eat which I like to see.