• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Rat Size?

chaoticstone

chaoticstone

New member
My wife decided that her 4 1/2 ft adult male Kinky needed more then an adult mouse. She got him at a local pet store and felt sorry for him, his tail is totally kinked after cloaca (no his not going to be breed). I never bought rats before so when I went to the shop that we buy or frozen mice at I asked to see a mouse vs rat. She said it was a weaned rat, looked bigger then mouse. Got home and weighed it out was only 30g so only 2grams more then the avg mouse in freezer. I'll attach a pic that shows him mid body and head with prey. (mouse is square they put in tupperware tightly and it stayed that way once thawed) I was going to order some in bulk but my wife thinks it's still not big enough. So here is my dilemma there is a supplier that is within an hour drive and his sizes go weaned 30-44g, small 45-84. For those of you that have had corns awhile which size would you go with? I don't have a scale to weigh him the one I have he doesn't fit on. We feed him every 7days and once put back in his viv after feeding he is VERY active for about 24hrs thats why my wife thinks his looking for more to eat. My 08's all go and hide right after their meals for 2days before being seen again. Thanks for any advice.
Chaotic
 

Attachments

  • rezied.jpg
    rezied.jpg
    90 KB · Views: 97
I know my big boy (900g) ate jumbo mice (40-50g) for a while, he got them down ok, but they were definitely in the max range of what he could physically swallow. After a few, maybe 3 or 4, he started regurging them. I wouldn't suggest going any bigger than a regular adult mouse (35g or so), do 2 if you want.
 
Kieran ate small rats for awhile, but then they seemed to get bigger and he seemed to take longer to get them down and I began to worry. We don't have jumbo mice around here, so I'm feeding him rat pups. Doesn't leave much of a bump, but he's fed every 6-7 days and he's not losing weight.

I'd recommend going with rat pups if you can get them or the jumbo mice. As long as he's not losing weight, there is no reason to push an adult to his maximum capability. You just need to maintain his weight.
 
I agree with Ginger. Remember you are not trying to put on weight. Also keep in mind that Rats are long and skinny compared to mice. A 30-gram rat is not as big around as a 30-gram mouse.

That rat in your picture is not too big for that snake. I think it could go even a little bigger. It is not a bad idea to have a scale and weigh your snake 4 or 5 times a year. It is a good indication of overall health if he is maintaining a good healthy weight.
 
Another thing to note is that rat pups tend to be a bit more fatty than adult mice. So if you are going to switch to rats, keep that in mind, and cut back a little on the feeding days so your boy doesn't get overweight.
 
The scale I got for my 08's won't weigh him it only goes to 500grams. I haven't figured out where to get one that goes above that locally so was going to wait until we go to a reptile show next month to try and pick one up. I wasn't going to go above weaned rats, but was wondering what the avg weight of a weaned rat would be. (I thought he could eat a little bigger but didn't want to go too big) That rat was 30gr and the lot of the local guy goes up to 44 so wasn't sure in size how that would compare to him if I'm making any sense.
 
chaoticstone said:
The scale I got for my 08's won't weigh him it only goes to 500grams. I haven't figured out where to get one that goes above that locally so was going to wait until we go to a reptile show next month to try and pick one up. I wasn't going to go above weaned rats, but was wondering what the avg weight of a weaned rat would be. (I thought he could eat a little bigger but didn't want to go too big) That rat was 30gr and the lot of the local guy goes up to 44 so wasn't sure in size how that would compare to him if I'm making any sense.
Click to expand...

I got my scale from the local Wal-Marts. I'm not sure exactly how high it goes, but it wasn't running out of numbers when Kieran was up to over 900grams.

Robbie, Kieran actually lost weight when he went from rats to rat pups. He wasn't fat, but since he insists on being fed when everyone else is being fed or thereabout, the pups helps him maintain his weight better. I actually thought about feeding him two this time, but decided it against it. The last rat I fed him really scared me... took him over an hour to get it down... talk about sweating and wondering if there was anyway I could get it out without damaging him.... I have another rat in the freezer bought at the same time and I'm guessing it will stay in the freezer. I got way to old with fear that I was killing my beloved pet.
 
Weebonilass said:
I got my scale from the local Wal-Marts. I'm not sure exactly how high it goes, but it wasn't running out of numbers when Kieran was up to over 900grams.

Robbie, Kieran actually lost weight when he went from rats to rat pups. He wasn't fat, but since he insists on being fed when everyone else is being fed or thereabout, the pups helps him maintain his weight better. I actually thought about feeding him two this time, but decided it against it. The last rat I fed him really scared me... took him over an hour to get it down... talk about sweating and wondering if there was anyway I could get it out without damaging him.... I have another rat in the freezer bought at the same time and I'm guessing it will stay in the freezer. I got way to old with fear that I was killing my beloved pet.
Click to expand...

We bought a scale at walmart wasn't digital and it didn't work at all. Was the only one that I could find with grams on it from there. So I went to the local smoke shop and got a gram scale from there. None of my snakes have every taking that long to get something down, that would concern me. My biggest thing is that the female I got from Lee after she gets ahold of hers she waits forever to even start eating. She doesn't even wrap it all the way, maybe only a half wrap and I guess waits for it to die, even though it's F/T.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top