Mousers...

[BHReptiles]

I have a female spider that I recently acquired. I've tried everything under the sun to get her to eat rats. She refused to eat rats. After watching her lose about 10% of her body mass, I decided to try a hopper mouse. She ate it without hesitation. I do believe she has claimed herself to be my most finiky eater. All my others will eat anything that comes into their cage. She, however, must eat when I'm not watching and apparently, it must also be a mouse.

I know a lot about feeding mice to corn snakes, but not a whole lot about feeding mice to BPs. Is there a certain rule to follow that's different from the 10-15% of their body mass? Also, is it better to feed her larger meals (like 2-3 mice a meal once she outgrows just one mouse) or just one mouse (like a jumbo mouse) in a shorter span. For example: is it better to feed her two jumbo mice every week or one jumbo mouse every 4 days for the rest of her life? I want to make sure she's getting adequate nutrition for optimum growth.

And a final question, is it possible that she will decide a rat is good enough to eat? or is her diliberately turning her nose to them but gobbling down a mouse a sign that she will never like rats? I don't mind feeding her mice as long as she'll eat them, I was just more curious than anything.

[Annarose15]

Depending on her size and the size of the mice you are feeding, 10% weight loss could have just been a good pee/poo. I would try waiting her out longer, and maybe scent the rat with mouse bedding. If you stick with mice, feeding a series in one sitting is probably better (IMO), because then you can go longer between feedings, but I feed rats so that's just a guess. Good luck!

[BHReptiles]

I do spot cleaning of all my tubs on a daily basis (unless they've just eaten and I usually leave their tubs alone for 24-48 hours) and I've not seen any urates, pee, or poop from her. She was only 79g when I got her and now she's around 70g. The hopper mouse I fed her tonight was 9g. I'll try to get some weight back on her and try again. I feed F/T...so it's hard to get mice-scented rats. I'll definitely try to get her back on rats once she out grows her hopper mice because rats are more convenient for me and I'd rather only have to feed her one rat once a week when she's older. I've just never had a problem with finicky BPs. I've been very lucky with my rescue. She eats anything I throw in the tub! LOL

[Annarose15]

Oh, ok. Yeah, I would wait on the "tough love" until she's about 150g, then try again. Then she'll have a little chunkiness that won't be risky to lose.

[BHReptiles]

yeah. I was getting worried. So I thought to myself, "I'll just see if she takes the hopper... -watches in amazement as she gobbles it down-". I'll feed her mice until she's at least 150-200 grams then try to switch her back. Hopefully she'll decide rats are just as good. One can hope.

[Annarose15]

Oh, and for scenting, you can thaw a smaller mouse in the same bag as a smaller rat (total weight of the two to equal one meal). Then, feed the mouse and offer the rat about twenty minutes later. Sometimes it helps to get them in the "mode" to help them forget it's not exactly what they want. The next time, only offer the scented rat (toss the mouse), and then don't scent the rat at the third meal.

[BHReptiles]

That's a good idea! I can always use the mouse for one of my corns (I would bet she would take it rat scented). I'll definitely have to try that!

[I-KandyReptiles]

All but one of my snakes eats mice. It is frustrating at times, but I don't mind it.

I feed every 5 days, just because some will refuse to eat more than one mouse per feeding. My one girl on rats gets a small rat every 7 days.

[meowmeowkazoo]

My spider ball is exactly the same. Eventually I gave in and got a breeding trio of african soft furs, and she switched to them with very little hesitation. It's nice because they're bigger than mice and they don't have the smell of mice.

[Seth702]

Just out of curiosity how close in size was the rat being offered to the hopper mouse? If the rat was noticably larger to you it probably rings the same for your snake. even a small size difference can trigger a different response for the more picky BP. When she gets bigger she may take rats with no problem. Id give her a while before you write her off as a mouser for life, especially if shes still under 100g. Good luck