Mice Vs Rats

Mice Vs Rats

I have notice that a lot of users on this forum feed adult cornsnakes several mice when it’s feeding time… Why? I thought that it was bad to feed snakes a lot of small meals all at once instead of one large one. When you notice that your snake eats about 5-6 mice don’t you think that it is time to move onto bigger source of food like small/med rats? Another thing I have read (somewhere), rats contain a better source of nutrition for snakes than mice… Is this true?

What I have observed about feeding Mice Vs Rats to my snakes…

When I was feeding my 4ft king and my 3ft corn several mice once every two weeks they would shed once every 1.5-2 months. When I switched to rats they would shed about a week or a week and a half after eating. They would look a little bit on the obese side so I fed them once a month instead of every two weeks. Since I noticed that my snakes gained weight w/rats, I would only feed my breeders rats to prepare them for the season.

Wouldn’t rats be a better food source for breeders? Have anyone noticed this besides me?

Joel

I think rats have a higher caloric value. I noticed my snakes gaining a lot of weight when i had them on rats. Because of this, I have switched almost completely back to mice. I have a few stubborn snakes that only want the rats, though.

I thought that it was bad to feed snakes a lot of small meals all at once instead of one large one.

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As far as I am aware, it is not so good to feed small meals often, i.e. say a mouse every 2 to 3 days, but rather it is preferred to feed a bigger meal say every 7 to 10 days. This makes no reference to the way the larger meal is made up. If you are feeding a certain weight of feeding matter, then it is partly choice and availability that will determine the composition of the meal at that time.

I choose to feed mice as they are readily available to me, and with the largest size of mouse I use, I only need one mouse per feeding for even my largest adult corns. I would question why anyone was needing to offer 5 to 6 mice in a single feeding unless they were not offering adult mice.

Skye

Right now I've fed off all my spare mice, and half my breeders, and I'm just about "out" of mice. While I'm getting my mouse breeding groups back up to speed, all the snakes are getting rats... pinkie rats for the littlest snakes, and juvie rats for the largest snakes. All my corns are '01 or younger snakes, and I just can't imagine them eating anything larger than a large fuzzy rat, or maybe a very small hopper rat. The only snakes that eat larger rats are my largest cal king (51"), my Ball Pythons, and my jungle carpet python. (Silly JCP... snuck out of her cage and knocked over a rack of DVD's in the night... *yawn*)

I believe that if you took 75 grams of lean adult mouse and 75 grams of lean young rat, and fed a snake one or the other meal, the overall nutrition will be approximately the same. If you take a retired breeder mouse that is very FATTY it will compare differently with a lean hopper rat.

I have been known (when the mice are in their overproduction phase, which isn't NOW), to feed four hoppers (small ones) to a corn or a king, or even half a dozen to ten fuzzies to one of my most picky kings (he won't eat adult mice, won't eat fuzzy rats, just wants fuzzy mice). If you were to try to feed your king or cornsnake a single meal every single day, or even every other day, it would tax his/her system to not have time to fully digest and process one meal.

Neither?

I feed my pal exclusively on day old f/t chicks, she seems happy and healthy... is there any reason I should change?
:uhoh:

I feed all my breeders rats only. Hatchlings get started on mice, but get rat pinkies as soon as they're large enough. Although rats cost more you don't have to feed as often or as many. I've found it to be more economical to feed rats.

Cindy, Ive been feeding my snake f/t day old chicks for ages. The only bad effect of feeding chicks instead of mice is that the poop is slightly smellier and a little less solid. I think US cornkeepers feed mice or rats because they are cheaper and thus more economical for a large collection. For some reason, day-old chicks are MUCH cheaper than mice or rats in the UK.

I breed my own rodents (mice and rats) since I have too many snakes to buy rodents for. I try to get mine over to rat pups when they are big enough. Though I have a few that will not take them even though they are more than large enough. It's just easier when feeding over a hundred snakes to have one larger food item than to feed multiple smaller ones. As it is, it takes the better part of the weekend for me to feed everyone.

I usually feed them mice, but sometimes I will feed small or medium rats if I can find them.

I voted for both.

my corn is about 4ft long and is eating 1 weaned rat (36g) every 10-14 days. I'm not sure how much my corn weighs (I need a larger scale). I've been feeding rats in the 35-40g range.
I think that rats also have less fur, which is better for digestion.

I also voted for both rats and mice. I feed more mice though because I have them in greater supply of them now, but I actually prefer feeding rat pups.