Rats vs Mice

psychocircus · 01-23-14, 10:57 AM

Hey guys,
I've been keeping snakes for over a year, but I just got my first "big" snake, a male Columbian boa.

Is there any advantage to an appropriately sized rat over an appropriately sized mouse? For example if an adult mouse and a fuzzy rat are the same size, is there a benefit to feeding the rat over the mouse?

Thanks!

Starbuck · 01-23-14, 11:17 AM

A 50g rat will tend to be less fatty than a 50g mouse, though one advantage of adult mice (vs baby rats) is they have a more oddities skeleton and developed internal organs. If your snake will need to beon rats at some point then I dont see any particular reason to wait to switch.

psychocircus · 01-23-14, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbuck

A 50g rat will tend to be less fatty than a 50g mouse, though one advantage of adult mice (vs baby rats) is they have a more oddities skeleton and developed internal organs. If your snake will need to beon rats at some point then I dont see any particular reason to wait to switch.

thanks,
repticon is here in a couple weeks so I'm going to wait until then to stock up on rats and mice. already have mice and was just making sure it wasn't essential to go out and buy rats before then.

BulkMice · 01-23-14, 01:36 PM

they are real close gram per gram, and in most cases the mouse per gram is gonna cost quite a bit less.

mclund · 01-23-14, 08:44 PM

I think biggest advantage for rats over mice is if you were breeding them yourself. It takes a lot longer for a mouse to get to 50 grams than it does a rat.

shaunyboy · 01-24-14, 12:14 AM

nutrition wise i don't think there's much difference between the two.....

the main reason i feed rats straight out the egg to my Carpet Pythons is...

sometimes the older a Carpet gets,the harder it can be to get them to swap over from mice to rats,and it takes an awefull lot of mice to feed an adult Carpet Python

cheers shaun

**EL Ziggy** · 01-24-14, 08:24 AM

New keeper question here- Is prey size the key advantage of rats over mice? Which I guess would be more cost effective, especially if you have larger snakes. One rat vs. 3-4mice could add up.

Starbuck · 01-24-14, 08:52 AM

Typically yes, ziggy. Rats can be pretty expensive, but I would ratherfeed 1 rat at 1.75 vs 4 large mice at 70c each... and add I mentioned earlier, a young adult rat will tend to have less fat than several old, fatty large breeder mice.
My personal opinion is that snakes should get one appropriately sized pretty item when possible (as opposed to multiples) but the differences between rats and mice of the same size are fairly small. It's up to you add a keeper to determine whether cost or availability etc dictates your choices.

psychocircus · 01-24-14, 11:20 AM

thanks everyone. there is some really misleading information out there, so a knowledgeable community is great.

TurboChris · 01-24-14, 03:47 PM

I talked with one of the feeder breeders when buying rat pups this last weekend about feeding large mice vs rat pups which were approximately the same overall size and he mentioned it would be easier to digest the rat pup with less fur, may be benefitial to larger baby snakes that start feeding on larger mice meals when they are starting out and already can be finicky to begin with.
This was for switching a corn over to rats anyways as far as what I was talking to him about.
Also I noticed comparing them is the rat pup looks easier for them to get down. The hips on the large mouse seem wider overall than the rat pups, where the rat pup is more the same size from head to butt just a larger head holding more weight.

jarich · 01-24-14, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurboChris

I talked with one of the feeder breeders when buying rat pups this last weekend about feeding large mice vs rat pups which were approximately the same overall size and he mentioned it would be easier to digest the rat pup with less fur, may be benefitial to larger baby snakes that start feeding on larger mice meals when they are starting out and already can be finicky to begin with.
This was for switching a corn over to rats anyways as far as what I was talking to him about.
Also I noticed comparing them is the rat pup looks easier for them to get down. The hips on the large mouse seem wider overall than the rat pups, where the rat pup is more the same size from head to butt just a larger head holding more weight.

Fur isnt digested either way, so its no easier or harder on them either way. However, rat pups have only slightly ossified skeletons, they are mostly cartilage. You want those bones as much as possible, especially for a growing snake, because that is where you get the majority of the minerals they need. So its always better to get a fuzzy over a pinky, an adult over a fuzzy, etc as they will have more developed, and therefore more mineralized, skeletons.