We have three snakes now. My son came home with an baby blood python
yesterday, I started breeding mice about 3 months ago and have three cages on the go. 1-1 male, female . I get around 30- 40 babies a month.
Our snakes are 1 red tail boa , 1 ball python, and now the 1 blood python.
My question is should I keep breeding mice and add more cages or stop with the mice and go to rats.

Well, mice only get so big, and to fill up your snakes, youll ave to feed alot. bloods get a nice girth to them same with bps, but bloods get wider. your red tail boa will need rats and when its full grown rabbits. or xxl rats. My suggestion is Rats.

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Well it depends on how big your snakes are. The general rule of thumb is to feed your snake a prey size thats of equal size to the largest part of your snake. If your snakes are bigger around at the biggest point than say 2 inches, I would definitely start into breeding & feeding rats. The thing is if you feed mice to a snake that should be eating rats, their head wont grow properly with the rest of the body. Hope this helps. Marine

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•2.2 Ball Python:Slytherin,Stitch,Neo
•1.1 Col Redtail Boa:Aphrodite
•0.1 Pastel Col Redtail Boa:Lyoness
•1.2 Dumerils Boa:Demi,Sausage
•0.0.1 Savanna Monitor:Georgia
•2.0 Bearded Dragon:Roo,PoohBear
•0.0.1 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink:Tigger
•1.0 Irian Jaya Blue Tongued Skink:George
•1.0 Red eared slider
•1.0 Yellow bellied slider
•2.0 Japanese Firebelly Newts
•1.0 African Pygmy Hedgehog:Spike
•1 hubby Travis•2 sons Seth & Keith•me Marine
http://www.myspace.com/coralmarine

I would go ahead and move them to rats. You are going to need rats soon anyways. And rat pups are about the size of an adult mouse.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I too would move up to rats.

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

thanks for your input ,, I have a show to go to nov 19 , i will try to pick up a lab breeding box or 2 to start, my mice are set up in cat pans . that work great for them,, small, easy to clean (that the word "clean") http://www.herpcenter.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

all three snake are baby they eat 1 to 2 large mice a week we got them in the summer time , I just don't want to waste to much time on breeding the wrong
rodent. red tail is about 2- 2 1/2 feet long one inch around ,,,the ball is 2 feet long 2 inch around - smaller head and neck and the blood is 6- 8 inch long 1/2 inch around I was told to setup breeding mice ,now that is starting to work it look like I have to start all over again ,, that ok I do it now and I will be ready later thanks but what with the small head if you feed smaller food

I think Marine is referring to what is known as the pin head effect. But that is not a result of feeding smaller or insufficient food which only stunts the growth of the snake and keeps it in a permanently hungry state,...watch your fingers!
What causes pin heading is powerfeeding, a technique used by some to try to increase the snakes growth rate by overfeeding. It has resulted in large bodies but the head and some organs can't keep up with the body's growth rate. And it will also take years off of your snakes life. Over eating isn't any healthier for snakes than it is for us.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I feed all my snakes rats,its healthier for them

We tried to breed the mice and ours died (years ago I breed them and had hundreds, but when I could really use them they die). If you lived closer I could take them off your hands for you. LOL

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Colleen