5g of rats = 1g of weight gain?

Bristen · 02-18-05, 09:13 AM

Hi everyone,

I've had a small CH03 male that was 575g in early november, but that was 774g in February... I've looked at the total weight of rats he ate and the weight gain and it came out to the formula specified in the subject line.. does it work out to about that for everybody? Just wondering if somebody has done calculations with their animals (hopefully on a larger sample size, over a longer period of time)... just curious what others have found.. I think somebody had posted something on this subject before, but I don't remember what the details were...

Thanks,
Bristen.

CamHanna · 02-18-05, 09:36 AM

Over the past month one of my CB04 males has eaten 125 grams and put on 62 grams. He hasn't pooed in 2 weeks though so that gained weight is not all flesh.

My other CB04 male has been off feed and has lost 2 grams.

One of my CB04 females has eaten 240 grams and gained 144 grams, again not all flesh.

My other CB04 female has eaten 135 grams and put on 22 grams of meat. She hasn't been growing as fast as the other two length-wise either though she is maintained the same and apparently healthy... individual variance I guess.

I'll update these weights when I get some poo.

Husbandry no doubt has a major influence on growth rate. I keep my snakes at 90F-95F on the warm side and room temp (normally about 78F-82F) on the cool side. I don't monitor my humidity closely but it is generally 55%-70%. I'm sure the growth rates are slower with a bigger snake.

Cam

mykee · 02-18-05, 10:16 AM

Bristen, funny you should ask that. I weigh my snakes before they're fed, I weigh their food and I do this consistently on a weekly basis, or whenever I feed. I compiled data over 8 months with over 20 snakes on just that topic. Over 8 months, feeding ONLY rats, I found that on average, the snakes kept 32.5% of the food they've eaten. Meaning, if one snake has eaten 1000g of rat over the course of two months, weighing first on an empty stomach and then again in two months on an empty stomach, to accurately determine overall weigh gain, that the average snake has kept 325g of the 1000g it was fed. Hope this helped.

Vengeance · 02-18-05, 10:21 AM

Wouldn't the age of the snake also play a factor in weight gain? I snake in it's first year is said to gain more weight and grow much faster then that of a snake that is a year or older. So would a snake less then a year in age experiance the same weight gain patterns as a snake that was over a year in age?

Bristen · 02-18-05, 10:25 AM

How interesting Mykee! Your ratio appears to be higher than what I calculated with my little male... you probably had females in your experiment as well right? I would expect females to generally absorb more of their food than males, but that's a guess and not based on any facts...

According to my formula, after eating 1000g of rats, the snake should of gained only 200g of weight.. in your case it was higher with a weight gain of 325g...

I agree with the previous post as well... husbundry, age, sex, breeding activities, etc will all be determining factors but I wonder if it's possible to determine a "general rule" kind of thing on that subject...

I've recently received a few females that were CH03, but very skinny.. I'm just trying to figure out if they'll ever be ready to breed in the '05 - '06 season, and how many truck loads of rats they will need...

Thanks for the replies folks, can't wait to hear more from other people!

Bristen.

mykee · 02-18-05, 01:23 PM

Bristen; of the 21 snakes used in this "study" 16 were female and all snakes ranged in age from 6 months to 11 years.
Vengeance; I think the actual weight that they gain from year one to year two is very similar if not the same. It's just that a 150g ball gaining 100g is more noticeable than a 1500g ball gaining 100g. From birth to their first birthday, my balls gain approx. 900-1400g. (1000-1500g at one year) First to second birthday, I would again say around 900-1200g (1900-2700g).

CamHanna · 02-18-05, 01:35 PM

I would wager though that your balls are fed more during their second year than during their first (simply because they are bigger and taking bigger feeders). This would mean that, while they gain the same amount of weight, they have a lower "weight gain : feeder weight" ratio and retain a smaller percent of the mass that you feed.

RandyRemington · 02-19-05, 08:53 AM

I suppose genetics might also tweak that conversion ratio.

I saw a post once where a guy claimed to use the ratio of food to weight gain to decide when it was time to treat for parasites. He reported that right after treating it would jump back up and slowly ease back down as the parasites accumulated again. Just another good endorsement for a lab rat colony!

greenman1867 · 03-28-05, 10:23 PM

Would it make a difference to your BP if you were feeding your rats a bight higher protien diets?

mykee · 03-28-05, 10:35 PM

Most of us I'm assuming feed Mazuri, and any "treats" I don't think would make that much of a difference.
Whether I eat a 96 ounce steak or 6 lbs. of bananas, I still going to end up (after taking the crap of all craps) "keeping" the same amount of weight.

Bristen · 03-29-05, 07:00 AM

LOL! You've got such a way with words Mykee hehe...

mykee · 03-29-05, 09:51 AM

I know, my mastery of the english language sometimes boggles me.