Rat pups vs adult mice???

I have seen several people mention that they feed their adult /sub adult corns rat pups.

It has been about 10 years since I have owned and bred corn snakes, but I always felt that offering an adult mouse was nutritionally superior to a rat pup. The fully developed bones and gut contents were thought to have better nutritional value that the fatty tissues and milk of a weanling rat.

Has the thinking on this changed or am I just misreading posts?

Thanks!

Everything I've been reading on the matter so far indicates that corns grow larger when fed rats as opposed to mice. However, I don't know if they mean longer or just wider (possibly both) so I don't know if this is due to fat content or more nutrition in general.

Rats, being larger and more complex than mice, it's very well possible that it's not just the fat. They would seem to be more nutritious at all life stages.

At the largest, you would probably only be feeding a young rat instead of an adult mouse anyways, however, that doesn't mean that it would be any less nutritious.

I have also always read that adult mice are superior nutritionally to rat pups.

It would be great to have some actual data on this if anyone knows of any.

Skye

If people just feed rat pups to corns when most just eat large mice wouldn't that be classed as power feeding? If so i would NOT reccomend doing so in ANY case.

Rach

Rat pups aren't any bigger than an adult mouse. I don't think it would be considered power feeding. I know that weanling mice have less fat than adult mice. I wonder if rat pups would have more or less fat than adult mice.

I feed rat pups to some of my adults and mice to the rest (based on their preference). I also do this with my younger corns as well. I have not noticed a difference in growth rate.