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Mice or Rats?

A

Asphalt_World

New member
My local reptile specialist told me today the corn snakes can often to better when fed on rat pups instead of young mice. This is due to the bone density in rats being different making it easier to digest..

Anyone here use rat pups?
 
Rat's have less fat and higher protein, which is the reason they are more nutritious to your snake!

if your pal is big enough to handle it, i'd say go for it!
 
Only <10g rat pups are lower fat than equivalent-sized mice, otherwise they are higher. Animal fats provide energy over a longer period of time, so it could be beneficial to feed slightly larger meals on a lengthier feed schedule when on higher fat foods.
 
Have any of you tried Reptilinks? As soon as mini rabbit links are in stock, I might order some..
 
Well I tried my 58g and 34g snakes on rat pups and they have never struck so quickly in their life. They also managed to get then pay their head and down to their stomach quickly.

Seemed to be a big success. Will monitor their weight gain over the coming weeks as I continue on pups.
 
I am thawing reptilinks for my cayenne boy as I type, and I'll be converting my peach motley and strawberry plasma when they arrive sometime next month.
 
Theoretically, reptilinks sound way better. Was converting him easy?


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Dragonling said:
Only <10g rat pups are lower fat than equivalent-sized mice, otherwise they are higher. Animal fats provide energy over a longer period of time, so it could be beneficial to feed slightly larger meals on a lengthier feed schedule when on higher fat foods.
Click to expand...

This.
The only time I have fed rats of any sort to my Corns was for a female recovering from egg laying.
I later switched to injecting their regular mice with vitamin supplements when they're recovering.

I actually feed my Carpet Python babies mice until they are at the XL Adult sized mice, then switch to rats, because the mice are more developed, and the higher propensity for prolapsing when fed rat pinkies.

Corns don't need rat sized prey, and can end up overweight. The majority of overweight Corns I have seen were fed rats.

I have recently started some of my babies on Reptilinks (thank you Laura for getting me setup on that) and I'd feed Reptilinks before rats, any day.
 
If fed on a lengthier time schedule, they get a much more nutritious meal. It's been studied by the USDA among others and the studied all show that rats have higher protein, calcium and the fat does provide more energy for the snakes (including corn snakes) the only problem I see is that newer snake owners don't understand the issues with over feeding and obesity and all they want is for their snake to grow fast. Here lately, I've seen way too many people with corn snakes at the age of just ten months already over four ft and 200+ grams. I can't stress enough to people that over feeding only shortens the life span and can lead to obesity. There's no need for any corn snake to grow that fast. That's why I cringe when I hear someone saying they use the Munson plan for feeding their snake.

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