Breaking a Mouser

[captainjack0000]

Our BP, like many BPs, had a nice healthy upbringing. She started on small mice and before long was taking down weaned rats and small rats. And then we started feeding her a small rat and a mouse. It seemed like the next logical step. She had never refused a rat before. It quickly turned into feeding the mouse first, and then the rat. And now it seems like all she wants are mice.

She will eat f/t and/or pre-killed. So we're not going to try anything living because I don't want that undone too.

It has only been 2 weeks since she last ate (harder for me than her I'm sure), which was the primer mouse, she refused the rat that followed.
Today I offered her a prekilled rat that had been living in a mouse bin. The pet shop assured me the rat had plenty of mouse smell. She was curious about the rat-mouse, but has refused this just now. It is now chilling in the freezer for next time.

As a note, I have tried the zombie dance and just leaving it in there. It seems that if she really wants it, she'll hit like a Mack truck. I have seen her investigate the f/t for 20 min and then just kinda swallow it. No striking or coiling. She's always struck the mice, and usually kinda just ate the rats, unless primed by a mouse.

She has given the signs of hunger such as looking around (periscoping) when the other snakes get fed, and pacing the cage in the evenings.

1. How long, at the minimum, should I wait before next feeding?

2. What are some other techniques to break a mouser. What has worked for you?

I'll welcome any other advice as well.

[Andybill]

For one I would never have offered mice in conjunction with a rat thats just asking for your snake to become a mouser. When a snake goes from mice to rats its never a good idea to offer a mouse again, IMO. How big is your snake? Just keep to a schedule i.e. offer every 7 days. If it eats it eats. I turned one of my mousers into a "ratter" by offering pups that were scented at first so they smelled like mice and were roughly the same size. Each week I offered a slightly larger meal. Now he is on Med live rats and eats voraciously.

[captainjack0000]

When a snake goes from mice to rats its never a good idea to offer a mouse again

Yeah, I learned this one a bit too late. I was thinking all that mattered was getting the right amount of food, not the type.


The snake is ~1200g, so she can stand to go a while without food.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I have snakes that I can feed whatever and it doesnt matter.
Then again it really helps that I breed my own rats and mice so I just have to go out to the shed to get "dinner".
I have a 1300g pastel male that has been a mouser for the almost 3 years I have had him and we also have a normal girl that just broke 1000g and took her first rat ever.

I offer weekly and if they eat cool. If not then there is always next week.

- - - Updated - - -

BTW at 1200g, it wont hurt to have an extended hunger strike. Our spider was about 1100g when he went on a 10ish month hunger strike and lost about 300g.

[Andybill]

I have snakes that I can feed whatever and it doesnt matter.

Lucky! Lol. I dont have too many problems with my snakes. I have only one at the moment that is a mouser and he is being really stubborn. I breed my own rats but I am thinking that I may have to breed a couple lady mice for this guy. Boo!

[PitOnTheProwl]

Mice stink to all hell but are handy to have around
I just have 5 tubs of 2.5 but they dont produce consistant.

[captainjack0000]

After not much luck, I thought that maybe it wasn't the mouse itself that she liked, but the size of the prey item. I tried a smaller rat, but still no luck.

Last feeding I dropped in a mouse fuzzy after trying a rat, yeah a tiny little fuzzy, and she struck and coiled it, which was funny. That got her primed and I then proceeded to feed her the rat.

This time, I tried a rat first, and she struck, but missed the rat and clipped my finger. But, she came back around and took the rat. I dropped in a second rat and she took that too.

So finally, this is the first feed in a while where she ate no mice!

[Annarose15]

After not much luck, I thought that maybe it wasn't the mouse itself that she liked, but the size of the prey item. I tried a smaller rat, but still no luck.

Last feeding I dropped in a mouse fuzzy after trying a rat, yeah a tiny little fuzzy, and she struck and coiled it, which was funny. That got her primed and I then proceeded to feed her the rat.

This time, I tried a rat first, and she struck, but missed the rat and clipped my finger. But, she came back around and took the rat. I dropped in a second rat and she took that too.

So finally, this is the first feed in a while where she ate no mice!

This would be why I ALWAYS use feeding tongs. If she missed, you may not have been heating them up enough, so she had trouble finding a heat signature to hunt.

[captainjack0000]

I do have a "stick" to wiggle it around, but given her previous 6 months of expressing no interest in rat, I didn't think much about it when I reached in to remove the rat. That's actually when she struck, when I was trying to remove the rat.

The good news is she ate only rat today.

[BillinIndiana]

Very new to the snake world, my daughter talked me into getting her a BP. Why do you all dislike mice? Just curious, this is not the 1st time I have came across a read where people say rats are the way to feed..