Trouble switching from mice to rats

[JABA]

I am making the jump from large adult mice to approx. 50 gram rats. My spider female (400 grams) is not showing any interest. She does not seem to have the obvious stimulation by posture and tongue flicking that she does with mice.
What are some ideas to make the transition. I feed live by the way.
Thanks for any suggestions.

[Ash]

You could try using smaller rats. My snakes tend to be more enthusiastic if the food is smaller. Once you've got them eating smaller rats, work your way up to bigger ones.

You could also try scenting the rats with mice; considering the fact that you feed live this may be a little harder for you. Try putting the rat into a cage/box that was dirtied by a mouse before you offer it to the snake.

Making a transition to a different food item would be much easier during the summer, too. BPs tend to be more picky during the winter, sometimes even young ones. If you get impatient, there's no harm in feeding mice until the weather warms up, and even then she might never catch on. Some animals live their whole lives on mice without problems. Good luck!

[JayCee]

Agree with the smaller and you also might want to try "scenting".

I had an ASF only eater that I was able to switch over to rats that way. I just put weanling sized rat in with the ASF's for a few minutes (any more than that and the ASF's would try and kill them). At first he still wouldn't take them and I pulled rat out and put ASF in and he would instantly kill. After about a month of this he finally took a scented rat. I slowly fed off my other ASF's (I hate those things) so by the time they were all gone he had completely switched to rats.

[snakesRkewl]

Smaller prey item(30-35 grams) and prey to the ball gods.

I have 2 snakes that won't even look at a rat and I have given up hopes of switching them so I feed them asf's multiple times a week and they are gaining weight nicely.

I also do not like buying snakes that have been fed mice but since I breed asf's I have committed to feeding two asf's forever
I won't feed my "for sale" snakes mice so my customers won't ever have to switch a snake to real food(rats)

[llovelace]

I agree with all the above, smaller rat

[JABA]

I took your suggestions and was only successful with only one. My mojave male struck within seconds. I have tried the same technique with 3 others, and none of them are going for the rat. I suppose if they get hungry enough, they will have no choice. Thanks for the replies.

[TomC]

I am going thru the same thing right now switching from adult mice to just weaned rats. The thing is my snake has eaten baby rats before. I am currently letting my just weaned rat live in some old mouse bedding for a week and I am going to try it again.

[vangarret2000]

Skip acouple feeding to get it more hungry. Let time be on your side. It may take a long while but don't give up and eventually the snake will take the other food. Remeber snakes can go months without eatting so it can take a while, but they won't starve themselves to death. If you don't wait it out and give them a mouse thinking you can try again later, that jsut shows them that if they wait long enough they will jsut get what they want. Sometimes snakes will santchup a new prey pretty quick. I have had that happen a few times but I have also had to wait over 2 months before they would take the new prey a few times as well.

[JABA]

I have had better luck now. My pastel female (300 grams) downed a 40 gram rat; her first. My normal male (260 grams) struck within seconds. That was his first rat. He has never hesitated before.
The rats were in a small container of sub adult mice for over an hour. No fighting, no issues with that. Next feeding, I am going to try to use an unscented rat.
My spider female is becoming an issue. She just seems to be uninterested. My husbandry for her has not changed at all. She is not handled constantly. (every few day, 10 minutes at a time). She does not appear sick. She is not showing any interest in mice either.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

[TomC]

I figured out part of my problem my snakes eyes went blue today so she was starting a shed when I was trying to do the switcharoo. I am going to hold off till after the shed and I think she will take the rat then. Up to this point she has been a 100% eater.