Just thought I would share.

[JB_Orchidguy]

Hello everyone. Remember when I first got here and said I had some picky snakes who would only eat mice. It was suggested to me that the cool temp maybe what made them picky. Well they are warmer now. They are still in the same tub, but that will not be for long. Flexwatt is on the way. Any how. I bought a couple of smaller med rats today. They should have been fine to be eaten by my adults. Well I dropped one in the box with my male and he was scared of the thing. Tucked his head about about formed a ball to get away from the rat. I thought that was a little strange. Maybe its the smell of the rat or something, but he would not touch it. The female just seemed not interested. I am thinking I should just stick to mice since it is what they seem to like and are used to and not try to get them to rats. IS that the same opinion of the other keepers here? Just stick with what works and get the babies on rats when I happen to get more? Still trying to talk wife into that one LOL. Thanks everyone.

[ddbjdealer]

Yes... stick with what works.

A few tips though...

1. If you get your rodents from a pet store, ask them to put some mouse bedding in the travel cage they give you for your rat. This will "scent" the rat to smell more like a mouse.
2. If your snakes are in their own room, or in that viv with a screen lid, put the critter keeper (or whatever you use for transporting the rodents home) on top of the screen, and leave the room for about 20-30 minutes.
3. Feed in their enclosure, not in a seperate bin/tank/etc..
4. Leave all "furniture" in the cage. Don't take out hides, waterbowls, etc..
5. Drop the rodent on the oposite side of the cage.
6. Observe the snake and rodent's activity & be patient. Don't get right on top of the snake while he's feeding... let him feel secure by watching from across the room.

I would bet that your snake will feed without a problem if you follow all of the scenting ideas.

Good luck, and I hope this helps! But like I said, stick with what they're eating... there's nothing wrong with feeding even a 4000g BP three mice in a feeding.

[frankykeno]

Maybe the combination of some changes in their housing/husbandry and a pretty big jump in prey size as well as different prey put them off. Adult mice to med rats even small ones is a big step up I figure.

Maybe if they are good mouse eaters leave them on multiple mice till you have changed them over to their seperate enclosures and had a couple of successful mice feedings in that new setup. Then try a smaller rat like a just weaned one that's been scented in mouse bedding.

You could leave them on mice their whole lives though. Adam's often posted here that he has perfectly healthy large adult bp's that eat nothing but mice and do just as good as his rat eaters.


~~Jo~~