Adult Ball only eats mice

[captin_crash]

I have a adult ball python that will only eat live mice I haven’t tried to get her onto f/t just yet I just want to get her onto rats at the moment.
She takes 4/5 mice a week depending on the weight of the mice. I have rubbed mice on the rats to get the scent on them but I am thinking that it’s just the size of the rats that intimidates her.
Does anyone else have a ball python that just refuses to move onto rats?

[joshn6805]

There are tons of tricks to switch ball's from mice to rats, but your gonna have to have a very determined attitude because it can be very difficult to switch from mice to rat's.

Have you tried putting some mouse bedding in the front of the enclosure and than dropping a rat in?

Unfortunately, there are some ball's that never make the switch to rat's. I have never had that problem so far and hope I don't as I couldn't imagine feeding my breeder's 4 or 5 mice at a time.

Are you trying F/T or live?

[Karbon]

I have never had that problem so far and hope I don't as I couldn't imagine feeding my breeder's 4 or 5 mice at a time.

Are you trying F/T or live?

Lol. Well... my Normal girl won't eat rats as of yet and i'm up to 6 adult mice per week with her! I really really hope she starts eating rats soon!

I've tried all kinds of ways to get her to switch over but she's so dang picky. I'll get her to switch one of these days, I swear it!

[Jenn]

I have a mouser too. It's not that big of a deal for me because I always have a nice selection of mice and rats available.

I think a good way to make the switch would be a combination of the mouse bedding trick, a small rat, and a "very hungry" snake.

[greghall]

Mousers are hard to switch but it can be done first get them real hungery

[cgator]

each of my snakes gets a small rat and a mice every week they eat both its kinda like dinner with a desert at the end

[Lolo76]

My sub-adult Delilah has NEVER taken a rat, no matter what size or how alive/dead it was... so now that she's getting big (~700g), I just feed 3-4 adult mice at a time. It's kind of a pain, but I don't want to bother attempting to switch - especially now that I'm breeding my own mice.

[coldbloodaddict]

I've had a few over the years that would only eat mice...

[Quiet Tempest]

I have an 8 year old jungle carpet python that refuses to eat anything but mice. I've tricked him twice into eating a rat. The first time I believe it was mostly just dumb luck and a hungry snake. The second time was when I was finishing up feeding the rest of my snakes. I buy live and kill them prior to offering them to the snakes and had just emptied a small tub of mice. I put a small rat in that tub for about 15 minutes or so while I was finishing up with some other snakes. When I retrieved the rat I noticed it smelled very much like mouse urine so I offered it to my reluctant snake and he struck and coiled it instantly. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to replicate that scenario since and have to feed him half a dozen mice at a sitting.

I know how aggravating it can be to have a mouser on your hands. Hopefully you'll get him switched over. I'm crossing my fingers for you!

[Big Gunns]

I have a adult ball python that will only eat live mice I haven’t tried to get her onto f/t just yet I just want to get her onto rats at the moment.
She takes 4/5 mice a week depending on the weight of the mice. I have rubbed mice on the rats to get the scent on them but I am thinking that it’s just the size of the rats that intimidates her.
Does anyone else have a ball python that just refuses to move onto rats?

Yes...don't worry about it. There are many large breeders that have snakes that will only eat mice. They're fine. You can continually try to witch it over, but your snake will be fine if it never eats a rat for the rest of it's life. Big Gunns 100% guarantees it.