Feeding Snakes - Rats vs Mice?

A question people sometimes debate with feeding  snakes, is whether to feed rats vs mice?

In this brief article I will discuss when to feed pythons rats or mice and the questions to ask to determine the right prey.

1. What is the snake used to?

The first thing that needs to be asked is what is the snake used to- is it a fussy feeder and only eats mice? Or will they eat both?

If so, I usually recommend going for mice when snakes are smaller, and rats when larger.

2. Why feed rats when the snake is larger?

My theory is that the nutrition is more likely to be balanced for the snake if fed prey old enough to have fur and to have been weaning/weaned. This way it has good quality, actual food in its stomach. This nutrition is also absorbed by the snakes when digesting their meal.

On the other hand, when they get to a larger prey size, I may feed them up until adult mice size, and then switch across to weaner rats, which are of equivalent size. I do this instead of using XL mice, because the large mice tend to be more fatty, which captive snakes fed routinely certainly don’t need!

3. What type of snake are you feeding?

If feeding large Black Headed Pythons and Woma pythons, I’d prefer to feed say two large rats, instead of XL or jumbos.

This is because in the wild, they are ‘reptile specialists,’ meaning they eat other reptiles, which are usually very lean.

So if repeatedly fed highly fatty prey, it may cause health issues down the track and contribute to obesity, particularly when they don’t have to move significant distances to find food.