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a case of mistaken pinks. (mice vs rats?)

RosieReal

New member
so i get my pinkies from a local petstore that a friend of mine works at. she's pretty well informed about my needs, she's kept snakes and keeps aquarium fish also so i feel pretty good about going to her when i need something. I picked up a new batch of pinkies last week or so, and when i got them home i thought they looked bigger than normal. i had none of the other ones to compair them to, and it was feeding day, so i didnt think too much about it and selected one of the smaller ones in the package and fed yoshi as usual. when i got the pink and snake next to eachother, i realized it was bigger than what he had ben eating, but i've been planning on feeding double pinks for a while and it was not too big for him to eat. he ate, no problemo (like always, such a good boy).
Now to the question part. I was just on TMF because i would like to start ordering what i need. Now i'm SURE beyond a doubt positive i was given rat pinkies, not mouse pinkies.I dont really know much about the differance between the two, I've heard rats are higher fat than mice, and they're obviously bigger...but is it ok to be feeding Yoshi rats for a couple weeks? he's had the rat pinkies twice. I havent noticed any change in his behavior, but I'm concerned because I dont know alot about feeders as food...will the change bother him? or would it have done that alredy if its going to?
I've only just started weighing him and his food, unfortunetly i didnt have batteries yesterday...but starting next feeding i'm going to be keeping a record of how much he weighs and how much the food weighs. If its alright I would like to hold off on ordering more for the moment. If the rats are ok for him to eat I've got a handful left I'd prefer not to throw away (but if it comes down to it being better for the snake I will of course).
so...what are your thoughts?
 
Rat pinkies are normally 2-3 times bigger than mouse pinkies, so that should have been pretty obvious. Maybe you got a batch of peach fuzzies...or just older pinkies than you were used to. As long as they aren't too big he should be perfectly fine with rat pinkies. They are higher in fat than mice. Here is a nutritional value chart from RodentPro (http://rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp).
 
My thoughts are, in my experience, rat pinks are about the size of a good, chunky mouse fuzzy. They are bigger than a double pink meal. Are you positive you got rat pinks, not peach fuzzy mice? Okay, if you are positive they are rat pinks, AND when you compare the size of the pink to the diameter of your snake at the snake's widest part, the rat pink does not exceed, even by a little bit, 1.5 times the diameter of the snake, then it won't hurt to feed them off. OR just buy the right sized pinks and save the rat pinks for when you make the change to mouse fuzzies and maybe alternate until you use them up.
 
OR just buy the right sized pinks and save the rat pinks for when you make the change to mouse fuzzies and maybe alternate until you use them up.

Sounds like the best plan. I really -hate- making do, when i could just go get the proper item. I may even take them back, just because i know the girl and she may use them for her own pets. Thanks!
 
If your snake can eat them and not overgorge, or regurges them later that week. Then its fine. Smaller snakes can use the extra fat, in moderation. Feeding a rat fuzzy a few times will not kill your snake. I agree with Josh. What I would do is feed them out, as long as the snake can do so (dont push the size limit, it can hurt your snake). I would do this just because most rats/mice dont last a long time in my freezer.(3-6 months pending if I vaccum seal or not).
 
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