Switching to Rats!

[jrabbit]

Hey guys! I've been having some trouble getting my bp to eat rat pups without having to scent the rat with dirty mouse bedding. During the last four feedings, I would place the rat in a ziplock bag full of dirty mouse bedding and pretty much leave it in there until it smelt like a mouse. I would offer him the scented rat pup and he would eat it within seconds, but today I tried to feed him without scenting it and he seemed pretty scared of it (would come up to smell it and then :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: his head back, almost trying to avoid it). But minutes later I had the same rat pup smelling like a mouse and I once again offered and he would strike before it even got near him. Am I transitioning him the wrong way or do I just have to be patient and offer him an unscented rat pup every couple of feedings? I just don't want to wait till he's hungry to eat the unscented rat pup since he's only 4 months old.

And I'm not sure if this matters, but in the past I've tried coating the rat pup's head with mice guts and it never worked. I've also tried exposing the brain liquid on the rat pup and it doesn't seem to interest him either. Scenting the rat pup in a bag full of dirty mouse bedding turned out to be the best way to get him to eat.

Any stories of getting bps to eat rats would be appreciated! Thank you.

[SRMD]

You could always try cracking the skull. Insert a cocktail stick into the brain expose blood on the head, heat the head with a hairdryer till reaches 110f. This is how I broke my BPs 10 month fast.

Good luck

[Porthos the BP]

I'd retry the experiment again because it might not be the same next time. I would also recommend that you let nature take it's course and just be patient. most reptiles break after 8 months or less.

[blk02ssmonte]

I had a bleep of a time switching mine over. I finally decided to just not buy mice anymore and feed rats. I have been using rats on all my others and eventually got all on rats. What I did was leave the crawler in for about thirty mins at a time each feeding day. Eventually I had to tap his nose with it. From then on no issues.

[jrabbit]

Ok thanks guys! I'm going to try and expose the brain and heat it up with the dryer. Hopefully that will do the trick.

[Cowtipper]

Carpets are notorious for having trouble switching to rats. I was thawing out frozen mice for my Carpet in the same bucket together with rats for a few months, then when it came time to switch him over to rats, he had no problems. Not all Carpets have trouble switching, and maybe mine wouldn't have had any issues, but maybe it helped too.