mouse vs. rat as food...

[mykee]

My question to all of you is this; have any of you ever monitored the growth rate of their bp on rats vs. mice. I continue to hear that rats are much better nutrition-wise than mice. I am curious as to weight gain. I have a 10 month old fem. ball who is a strict rat eater, and she is 994 g, and her brother, a strict mouse eater is 480g. The major difference in weight in this particular scenario is the fact that my rat eater, has only refused 5 meals (fed on a weekly basis) in 9 mos. while my mouse eater, consistently eats every three weeks (1 food item). I am curious to know if you have any bp's that eat fairly consistently, on rats, or on mice, and what the size difference is between them.

[marisa]

I would like to see answers to this too! Thanks for posting that Mykee. I have been wondering myself.

Marisa

[mykee]

Marisa, it seems that this particular Forum hasn't seen any movement for the last little while, so I decided to throw out a few questions that have been burning a hole in my little brain for a while.........

[Edwin]

Hi mykee,

I can't answer all your questions, but the weight difference between your balls could also be due to their sex. Female balls usually grow bigger and heavier than males.

Concerning nutrition, someone previously posted a really good link to check out:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/Who...nal02May29.pdf

My herps are fed almost exclusively on rats, although they do get the occasional mouse or two.

Maybe I misunderstood you, but your mouse eater is fed once every 3 weeks? How many mice does it eat per feeding?

Hope this helps.

[BurmBaroness]

My ball pythons here that are under a year of age eat every 7 days. Then, after 18 months, go to 10 days. I don't even make my adults go 3 weeks. Sounds a little far apart between feedings. My adults eat rats, 2 med every 2 weeks, and the smaller ones are still on mice, due to their reluctance to switch, but they eat every 7 days.

[mykee]

Alright, you all seem to be misunderstanding me, or I didn't make myself clear. My mouse-eating ball will only accept food every three weeks. I offered him food every couple of days, but he refused it. He poops every 2 3/4 weeks, and WILL ONLY eat on an empty stomach. After about 4 months of having to throw out already thawed mice, I just started feeding him every three weeks. He's healthy enough, and I'm not worried.

[ballpython5000]

my babie eats one rat every 5 days, and my big girl has yet to eat.....

[Markus Jayne]

This is a tale of 3 sisters. They were born in October of 2001. They arrived in Canada shortly thereafter and weighed within grams of each other. All three were mice feeders.

Two of the sisters immediately switched to rats while the 3rd was ever so happy with mice. To this day she still eats mice and never hesitates to chow one or two down.

The other 2 sisters have the same appetite and very rarely miss a meal. The 2 rat feeders get 1 small rat per week and the mouse feeder gets 2 mice per feeding.

Here are their weights:

Female 1 (Rats) - 972 grams
Female 2 (Rats) - 871 grams
Female 3 (Mice) - 574 grams

You be the judge.

I hate mice!!!!

Hope this helps.

MJ

[mykee]

Mark, thanks for the post, I am aware of your unrational,deep-seated hatred of mice (???). It seems that as of yet, you are the only person to understand my original question. Thank you for that. P.S. What is the status of those "screamers"?

[BoidKeeper]

Well I think the proff is there. But also as the ball gets bigger so should the food. A 2000+g must have rats of appropriate size not a bunch of mice. Ask your self what is more convinient, 1 260g rat or the equivalent in mice.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

Problem with Balls is that they aren't like Carpets or Indo Pythons in that they'll eat zillion small items. Often they'll eat a mouse and then go hide. And that sucks, because a mouse-eater needs to eat like 7-10 mice to gain any significant weight. Fine if it does, but Balls don't (well, most of the time).

Get 'em on to rats ASAP!

[Markus Jayne]

Mykee,

First pastel clutch (the screamers you were referring to) due to lay in 10 days!

I'll keep you posted.

MJ

[fateamber]

My bp pooped like once every two weeks at first (when i first got him) but this week he has pooped twice and today before i've fed him. Is somthin wrong?

[Lisa]

We don't even bother feeding mice to our BPs. get them on rats. we went through fun with our first BP being picky. she wouldn't eat anything but white mice until we managed to get her on rats... boy does she love her rats.

[mykee]

Seems that only one person answered the question that I asked, all the other posts were way off topic. Got the info I needed, thanks all.