Perfect great when there eating , ace my banana Mojave had just shed wen I got him ,I defeated a small mouse and tried feed him but refused left it in beside him for few hours still nothing so picked it back up with tongs and bounced it gently off his nose and wham he took it ,no I just wave it outside his hide and wham takes it straight away
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Think it would be best to try transition him on to rats ASAP that will help get his weight up and it better for him than a mouse
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There is insufficient nutrients and protein in a mouse especially for an adult or sub adult this may be the reason your subadult is on the skinny side early transition from mouse to rat the better
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Also if you can get african soft fur rats in your area even better as this is there natural diet they pack even more nutrients and protein compared with standard rat but standard rats are still perfectly fine
That’s a misconception that rats are better while there is a difference in nutrition, it is very small difference not to mention that no study nutritional requirements has been done.
That means gram per gram it’s all the same and feeding what works is the way to go.
The main reason people feed rats is not because they are better it’s because you can feed one prey versus multiple but if a snake is fed let’s say 75 grams worth the prey each week whether it is rat, asf or mice it will be all the same.
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That’s not the case form the research i have done regarding asf vs standard rat
gram per gram nutritional value
I am no expert in nutrition but after hours and hours of research and gaining experience on ball pythons the general census amongst the majority of breeders is as I have stated
Research is one thing hands on experience another, I can tell you that after feeding over 7500 preys a year for 13 years it has not my experience.
A snake can thrive and show the same overall growth whether on mice, rats or asf if fed an identical amount of food.
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So you are telling me that if feed one snake mice
And one rats once a week
From day one
They will both grow at same rate and both be at healthy waight when adult
In fact research has been done on pray size were a study was done to show the effect
1 snake was fed one pray item and one snake was fed 2 pray item that swayed the same in gram
Snake one had 3 times the growth rate as snake 2
I am not saying anyone is wrong or right if the snake feeds sheds and poops then it’s all good
But my preference is to feed 1 rat per week
This is now a genuine question if you feed you female snakes mice how long does it take to get them up to breeding waight??
My preference is to feed what works for my animals, than what works for me. Do I prefer to feed 1 prey over multiples? Absolutely yes, but reallistacaly when you have large number OF animals that is not always feasible, you are bound to have animals that will at some point prefer mice and have to be fed multiples so what works for them is what goes.
I have raised females to breeding size on mice in 2 years just like I have raised females to breeding size on rats in 4 years, there is more than the prey type to take in consideration, genetics, feeding frequency and fast all play a role.
Yes what work for you animals is defo the right thing
But do you not try transition every snake to rat ?? Am I right in thinking that the ones that you feed multiple mice to have been unable to accept rats ??
And this is how you no what is best for you animal by trial and error.
Al I was saying to try and transition as everyone one else does
No harm.in him trying
Every snake is transitionned to rats as early as possible, however if some are reluctant which thanksfully is rare it might take longer a year or more but in the meantime I generally prefer to keep feeding what works rather than use though love, than again I breed I am not a pet owner.
Riiight, I suppose it may be smart to transition to rats purely because he’ll get bigger soon enough, and may need bigger feed. I’m not too sure on the nutritional thing but again don’t suppose there’s any harm in rats anyways. Cheers guys!
I know one thing…I’ve been here a short while but nothing is better than personal experience and its hard to judge to between a bunch of peoles “opinions” but you will see that in this hobby people do have strong opinions about whats right and wrong but at the end of the day you habe to learn most of our for youtself…that being said listen to the people that are less argumentative cause just like antythung else tjose are the ones that are right 99 times outta 100…even the smartest person in the room can be wrong
It’s really hard to tell what’s best for feeding in my opinion, just because finding a true cause and effect relationship is hard af. I’ve also heard that rats may be more nutritious by a few people, but some say it doesn’t matter. Having said that, I’ve got my ball on small weaner rats and we’ll see if he gains a little soon!
Thanks for the advice @brozzo1011 @stewart_reptiles & @dan88 !
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