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Lorraine
Yearling
United Kingdom
480 Posts |
 Posted - 25/08/2011 : 21:47:12
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I've been reading the threads and just read one on feeding problems with getting royals onto rats.
Why is it more convenient to feed them rats?
Why is it harder to get them onto rats?
Why are rats better for them?
Do they eat less rats than they do mice?
Sure I'll think of more questions, but that'll do for now lol. |
1.0.0 CB11 Normal Royal, Oscar.
1.0.0 German Shepherd, Bailey.
Still lots to learn. |
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Evolution Morphs
Old Royal - I Post too much!
United Kingdom
2265 Posts |
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anatess
Sub Adult
USA
669 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2011 : 22:05:38
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An adult royal will require more food than the biggest mouse. So, you will either have 2 choices: feed him multiple mice or feed him a rat.
Feeding multiple prey items is more stressful to a royal than just feeding one prey item. And, it is definitely more convenient to thaw out one rat instead of multiple mice.
A royal who started on mice will eventually have to be switched to rats.
Since royals are born big enough to swallow a rat pinky, then it's better to start them off with rats at the onset to avoid having to swtich later.
It is not harder to get them onto rats. It is harder to get them switched once they get used to a prey item - regardless if switching from mice to rats or rats to hamsters or black rats to white rats or barn rats to multimammate rats, etc. It can be a stress factor.
There's no such thing as less rats than mice. The appropriate feeding of a royal depends on the prey size, not the number of prey - regardless of whether you're feeding mouse or rat. If your rat is too small, you'll be needing to feed bigger rats or multiples.
There are rare cases where royals will refuse to eat a rat in favor of a mouse. These guys go through the inconvenience of feeding multiple mice instead of one rat to keep their royals healthy.
Nutritionally, there's not much difference between the two on protein/fat/ash content. Most will argue that rats have bigger bone mass and would therefore have more calcium, but there's no official study on how that impacts a royal's health. |
        
Snake owner since Oct 2008, so yeah, I'm no expert.
0.1.0 pastel royal
1.0.0 spider royal
0.1.0 albino royal
1.0.0 bumblebee royal
1.0.0 yellowbelly royal
0.0.1 wild-type royal
1.0.0 normal western hognose |
Edited by - anatess on 25/08/2011 22:06:17 |
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7384 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2011 : 22:12:00
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Ah.
Adult mice have less fat content than rats; for snakes that only feed part of the year, rats are more nutritious.
A full grown royal may need several mice at a sitting as opposed to one appropriately sized rat - as Dl3 says, rats are bigger. Therefore rats are more convenient.
For example - a snake of 1300g+ is going to need 4xlarge mice (@45g each) as opposed to one medium rat of 160g ...
It isn't always harder to get them on to rats but the earlier the better, may as well start as you mean to go on. And there ARE mouse junkies ... |
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7384 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2011 : 22:14:14
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| Ah, Anatess we overlapped |
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7384 Posts |
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Lorraine
Yearling
United Kingdom
480 Posts |
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 14:57:49
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Thanks for that guys. Interesting.
That's a great post BATS and yes, it made me laugh lol.
Oh, yeah. I found out that Oscar is indeed Captive bred. :o) |
1.0.0 CB11 Normal Royal, Oscar.
1.0.0 German Shepherd, Bailey.
Still lots to learn. |
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Robert
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
957 Posts |
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 18:34:56
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| Always feed rats as soon as you can for all the above reasons hey are bigger and more nutritious, I have fed hatchlings mice until they grow big enough to transition onto rats and they have done that without any problems. |
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hodgie
Fully Grown Royal
United Kingdom
1197 Posts |
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 21:12:16
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As above, always feed rats right from the word go.
I have one Royal that was started on mice and she shows little interest in feeding until she smells a mouse. So i have to give her a mouse followed by a rat. |
Royals owned "lots"
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Royalbob
Royal Python Moderator
United Kingdom
1115 Posts |
Posted - 28/08/2011 : 22:39:20
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wish my big girl would even fall for that trick. Only mice and thats 3-4 at a time AGHHH.
Rats rats rats |
1.0 Enchi butter
1.0 Enchi X Pastel
1.0 Fire het clown
1.0 Bumblebee
1.0 pinstripe
0.1 Enchi Fire
0.1 Pastel calico
0.1 Yellow belly Pinstripe
0.1 Lemon pastel poss het clown
0.1 Het clown
0.1 Yellow belly
0.1 Green Mojave
0.1 HC Albino
0.2 Normals
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hodgie
Fully Grown Royal
United Kingdom
1197 Posts |
Posted - 30/08/2011 : 20:43:50
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Royalbob, theres a bit more to it though
as the mouse is going down the hatch i hold the rat with a pair of tongs tightly on its neck and basically without any force position its nose up the mouses backside and more times than not the my fussy Royal just keeps on eating. |
Royals owned "lots"
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Lorraine
Yearling
United Kingdom
480 Posts |
Posted - 30/08/2011 : 21:32:48
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| Ha, ha. Clever hodgie. |
1.0.0 CB11 Normal Royal, Oscar.
1.0.0 German Shepherd, Bailey.
Still lots to learn. |
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Mice v Rats
