Balls that eat Mice instead of ASF

[aureptiles]

Hey guys,

My Ball babies, 3 months old, wouldn't take ASF (neither hoppers, nor fuzzies). But they both take hopper mice easily, and I do mean EASY.

As for the ASFs, they just smell it and move away. Both of them! What's interesting is that the breeder had them on normal rats since birth.

So, just wondering if any of you have the same thing happening?

Where I'm located, there're ASFs just couple of blocks from my house, so Ideally, i'd like to get them on that. otherwise it's a 45 min drive to another city for mice.

[wax32]

Be glad they eat mice and order a pile of them frozen from rodent pro or mouse factory.

[twh]

i have two adults that won't eat ASFR's but demolish rats,go figure.you could scent the asfr's with mice to switch them over.

[PigsnPythons]

I breed ASFs, so its particularly frustrating to me to have a few that won't take them. I have 13 permanent snakes (i.e. not hatchlings that will get sold). At one point three of them wouldn't even touch the ASFs, then just one random month two of the three switched over and now eat anything. I still have one more girl that will pound rats or mice and won't touch the ASFs. The best advice I can give is to just keep randomly trying it. I've found with mine, that if you can get them to eat it one time, then they will eat it from then on...sorry I couldn't be more helpful. lol

[bpboy_87]

I bought a 09 pinstripe back in august and he would not eat for me at all. It got to the point where it was about 1 1/2 months before he took the first ASF. I don't use anything else other then the ASF's. I looked up BHB's website and watched a snake byte episode on probelm feeders. I tried the method of putting the snake into a small container with the fuzzy rat and no more then an hour later I was pleased to see he was finally eating. Anyways he was was originally on mice but I made the switch and he's been eating the ASF's ever since.

[Kaorte]

Hopper mice are too small for 3 month olds. You should at least be feeding them adult mice.

Mine eat anything you wave in front of them. I have never had a problem switching from rats to mice and back to rats. Live, F/T, whatever! They will eat it.

NOT eating ASFs isn't a bad thing. If anything its more convenient. ASFs are more of a last resort thing, unless you breed them as normal feeders.

[sho220]

NOT eating ASFs isn't a bad thing. If anything its more convenient. ASFs are more of a last resort thing, unless you breed them as normal feeders.

Did you miss this part?

"Where I'm located, there're ASFs just couple of blocks from my house"

[Haydenphoto]

Hopper mice are too small for 3 month olds. You should at least be feeding them adult mice.

Mine eat anything you wave in front of them. I have never had a problem switching from rats to mice and back to rats. Live, F/T, whatever! They will eat it.

NOT eating ASFs isn't a bad thing. If anything its more convenient. ASFs are more of a last resort thing, unless you breed them as normal feeders.

It's not the age it's the size of the snake ! it could be a smaller snake .

[sho220]

It's not the age it's the size of the snake ! it could be a smaller snake .

I start my hatchlings off on adult mice...hopper mice are probably too small.

[aureptiles]

Oops, I should clarify that they're taking 2 hopper mice each. judging from the size of 2 mice vs 1 rat, they're getting more out of it. Thanks for the kind concern though