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Adult Mouse vs. Baby Rat-- which is better?

What do you prefer to feed your adult corns?

  • Adult mice for as long as I can

    Votes: 16 59.3%

  • Juvenile rats, as quickly as I can get them switched

    Votes: 3 11.1%

  • Depends/ Other/ Not sure

    Votes: 8 29.6%
  • Total voters
    27
Hypancistrus

Hypancistrus

New member
I have heard arguments for and against both, and am wondering what everyone else thinks. I personally feed mice. I have read that an adult mouse is more calcified than a juvenile rat. In addition, mice are cheaper.

But... juvenile rats do not have fur, for easier digestion. And others have told me rats naturally have more calcium than mice, so they go with rats.

Thoughts?
 
I prefer adult mice. My understanding is rats contain more fat than mice. I would think adult mice contain enough calcium due to the fact they have a fully developed skeleton which is easily digested by the snake. I also stick to mice only for the fact I don't want to get into a situation where my corns will refuse mice. Just my .02 cents Canadian funds:)
 
For corns, I stick with mice. Unless they're feeding on 2+large adult mice, then I bump them up to a rat pup/very small rat. If memory serves correctly, rat pinks are incredibly fatty, just like mouse pinks.You have to remember: humans aren't the only animals with baby fat!
 
hmmmm the rat pups I feed Kieran definitely have hair... so you must be talking about pinkies. I feed Kieran rat pups because they are slightly larger than the adult mice I can get around here. He eats one every 6-7 days and isn't getting fat from them. I suppose I could feed him two adult mice, but I prefer to just feed one prey item. It's the only reason I can see for feeding rats over mice... at least in my case.
 
I stick with rats.
I have noticed as soon as I switch over to rat pups, the snake's growth rate doubles. Rats pups are easier to digest, and if you must feed a snake live, they are much less likely to injure your snake.
But that's not the only reason.
For me, it's an economy of scale thing.
If you got a ton of babies to feed, then obviously mice make a lot more sense.
But if you're primarily feeding juveniles or adult snakes, the rats again make more sense.
It takes a smaller number of rats to get a certain number of adult mice sized feeders, they also don't smell nearly as much as the mice do.
It's more space efficient for me.
This is, of course, only my opinion, but it's what I've seen.
 
caz223 said:
Rats pups are easier to digest, and if you must feed a snake live, they are much less likely to injure your snake.
Click to expand...

I disagree on this part. I have one snake who fed on live rat pups for a while (he refused to switch to fresh killed). He wound up getting a very bad bite off of one when his strike missed. There was a hole on one of his ventral scales for about 8 sheds. Please take care to remember that if it has teeth, and it's alive, it can hurt your snake.
 
RobbiesCornField said:
I disagree on this part. I have one snake who fed on live rat pups for a while (he refused to switch to fresh killed). He wound up getting a very bad bite off of one when his strike missed. There was a hole on one of his ventral scales for about 8 sheds. Please take care to remember that if it has teeth, and it's alive, it can hurt your snake.
Click to expand...

Everyone has a snake or 2 that just refuse f/t for some reason.
For these, I feed rat pups with their eyes not open yet. As many as it takes.
I assure you that rat pups with their eyes not open are much safer than adult mice.
Also, if you do it right, you can usually scent a f/t with live rat pinks and if you heat a f/t up, scent it, and offer it right after the snake finished a rat pink, the snake just keeps on eating. Once they get into feeding mode, they will most likely take f/t.
It sounds like you fed a weaned rat.
If you want safer rats, simply feed a few off right away, leaving a litter of 5 or so.
They grow much more quickly, but don't develop any faster. Once their eyes are open, they should be fed off immediately, or be considered a threat.
 
caz223 said:
Everyone has a snake or 2 that just refuse f/t for some reason.
For these, I feed rat pups with their eyes not open yet. As many as it takes.
I assure you that rat pups with their eyes not open are much safer than adult mice.
Also, if you do it right, you can usually scent a f/t with live rat pinks and if you heat a f/t up, scent it, and offer it right after the snake finished a rat pink, the snake just keeps on eating. Once they get into feeding mode, they will most likely take f/t.
It sounds like you fed a weaned rat.
If you want safer rats, simply feed a few off right away, leaving a litter of 5 or so.
They grow much more quickly, but don't develop any faster. Once their eyes are open, they should be fed off immediately, or be considered a threat.
Click to expand...

I did manage to switch him over to fresh killed. But from my understanding, rat pups are weaned rats. Anything else is a rat pink or fuzzy. Not pup. Just my take on it.
 
O, no doubt. Pet stores in particular don't seem to be very consistent. My local mom & pop has weanlings as smalls, smalls as mediums...So yeah, it can be pretty confusing.
 
I have been wondering about the nutritional value of ASF rat pups... I have a few corns that are picky about f/t and was raising mice for them.. But the ASF breed like rabbits! I try to rotate it so they don't get a lot of ASF in a row...
 
I feed both, depending upon a variety of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to:
A) What my own colonies have been producing recently (which boils down to what I might have available in the freezer or if I need something live)
B) Have I been able to get rats at a sale price (I've seen rat pups cheaper than the same size mouse) when I needed to place a RodentPro order because my colonies haven't been able to keep up with demand
C) Does any particular snake(s) need something special, like females that have recently laid their clutch and need a few "fatter" meals
 
I have used both weaned rats and adult mice. Last year I bought a bunch of weaned rats on sale. They were cheaper than adult mice. I thought it would be better for expecting females, higher fat and all. I had two snakes that would never take the rats though.

Also I noticed snake poop smells worse after a rat meal than a mouse meal? Maybe it's me and my sensitive nose?

The biggest factor to me is price. My snakes are healthy on mice or rats, if they take them. I'm going with mice for the next five months because of Rodent Pro's killer deal on XL adult mice. If weaned rats are cheaper in five months I'll go with them.
 
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