Not eating Rats

[jjsnakedude]

My little normal Has not eaten anything except a small fuzzie mouse since the 8th of Jan. I have tried every thing to get her to eat rats. She was fed mice her whole life. Ive tried scenting, giving her a mouse then putting a rat in her mouth, scenting a live rat, putting her in a small space with a rat and nothing. I am at a loss about what to do.

[rabernet]

How old is she? If she'll eat mice right now, feed her mice - but I don't ever feed fuzzy mice - all mine start on hopper mice (eyes and ears just opened). After about 3 meals, they've moved up to small adult mice.

When she's bigger (I'm assuming she's small if she's feeding on fuzzy mice), and can afford to miss a few meals, then you can try to switch her.

[jjsnakedude]

She is 7 months old and she weighed 350 grams when she stopped eating mice. But now she weighs 300. I fed her the fuzzy because my brothers little hatchling normal didnt eat it and we didnt want to re-freeze it so we just fed it to her. Is there any trick to help her start on rat pups?

[rabernet]

When you pick up your feeders, ask the store to give you a little bit of mouse bedding. Put a handful of mouse bedding at the front of her enclosure. When she starts to actively come out and looking for the mouse that she smells, drop in an albino rat of the similar size mouse she's used to eating.

[jjsnakedude]

Live or F/T? After eating her first rat she'll take them normally right?

[rabernet]

Live or F/T? After eating her first rat she'll take them normally right?

Live. No, it doesn't mean she'll take them normally - it may take a few times.

[zantedeschia]

Is there some reason you don't want to feed her mice? If that's what she prefers, why are you trying to switch her?

Not criticizing, just curious.

[Patricia]

I'm in the same boat. Our BP is 620g and I've tried twice to offer a f/t rat, the second time being last week. Even left it overnight. No go. I'd already rubbed prior mice on it before feeding them to Patriot to transfer the rat and mouse smells both ways, but that didn't work, even though he was clearly hungry.

I've been waiting for him to start taking rats before I put in a bulk order online, but I'm giving up and will order a pack of jumbo mice (30g-50g). Ugh, I could've been doing that for the past couple of months instead of spending $11 for a pack of four 20g mice at Petsmart!

I was under the impression that a small rat is a better size for BPs.

[jjsnakedude]

Is there some reason you don't want to feed her mice? If that's what she prefers, why are you trying to switch her?

Not criticizing, just curious.

Because: 1. Its more economical to buy 1 $1.50 rat than buying 2 1.00 mouse every time you feed them ( even more when they get reall big).
2. Rats have more nutrients in them that help the snake get bigger and healthy faster.

[rabernet]

Because: 1. Its more economical to buy 1 $1.50 rat than buying 2 1.00 mouse every time you feed them ( even more when they get reall big).
2. Rats have more nutrients in them that help the snake get bigger and healthy faster.

Number 2 is debatable. We don't know what the nutritional requirements for ball pythons are. For all we know, all the extra "nutrients" in rats may be expelled as waste. Gram for gram - there's no conclusive evidence that rats are better for BP's than mice. If you feed the same number of grams in mice as you do rats, you're likely going to have the same growth rate.

I raised up most of my females a few years ago only on mice. They were growing at a rate of ~100 grams a month on average. All of my adults are now on rats for reason #1, but not for reason #2. I have experienced no difference in the rate of growth when fed the same number of grams of prey per feeding, whether it was rats or mice.