Whole prey sizes

[cornking4]

I've got Zzyzx the 2.5 foot B&W and I need to re-order his whole prey from Aiken. What would you recommend, mice or rats? Which size of each should I feed him? I'm thinking he may be big enough to take two adult mice a week, but I'm not quite sure...

 

[Meg90]

Rats! They are much more nutritional....

I would say pups. Are you completely out of any other whole prey items? Cleo is around 22-23 inches and eats rat fuzzies...

Rodentpro.com has smaller "pups" then what I am used to. I get mine from my local breeder, and they have their eyes open (some do)

But I say ditch the mice and go for rats.

 

[cornking4]

She takes more than one rat pup per week, correct?

 

[Terry]

More smaller items are better then one or two larger items. Easier for them to digest and you get to spend more time feeding them. Rat's are better, because mice are higher in fat then rat's.

 

[cornking4]

I actually just researched it a bit, and I read that because tegus get most of their fat and calories from their ground turkey/beef liver mix, whole prey is fed mainly to supply calcium. I'm thinking that since mice will provide all the calcium a lizard needs, I should go with them instead of rats... Any ideas on that? :chin

 

[Meg90]

Rats have more bone density. And I try to give Cleo one or two pups a week. Snakes fed on rats grow faster than those fed on mice.

 

[cornking4]

I'll ask Dr. Driggers on Tuesday when I'm in the clinic. Anyone else have any opinions in the meantime? Let's get a conversation going.

 

[reptastic]

from my own research i found that rats provide a lot more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than mice i feed my 3 ft. tegu small to medium rats and i have noticed that since ive stated him on rats his growth has picked up more, he is really starting to fill out and his tail base is fatter and hes only been on rats 2 weeks now except for the occaisional rat pups he used to get just my 2 cents i would definatly go with the rats

 

[cornking4]

Well I found out that a pet store near me sells frozen day old chicks for 80 cents each so I'll have Zzyzx on a diet of one chick per day, 5 days a week, one adult mouse 2 days a week, plus dubias, Bobby's meat mixture, and the usual fruit. Sound like a good schedule?

 

[Sakara]

go with rabbits I have a local rabbit breeder here and a pink rabbit is the size of a small rat... so once he's big enough for a small rat sized item, I'd go rabbits... I can get pinks and fuzzies for cheap and everything else is a couple bucks a pound... If you want when he's big enough, I can ship you some

 

[cornking4]

Hey, sounds great! I'll let you know when he gets a little larger.