How to switch from mouse to rat diet?

[tsblair]

I am looking for advice on how to switch my YB '07 male from a mouse diet to a rat diet. He has taken a small (live) rat before, but only after I kept the rat in a container of mouse bedding for a while. The person I bought him from fed him 3 mice a week for all of his first year. I would eventually like to get him eating F/T rats. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

[mainbutter]

When I switched from live to f/t, all I did was buy a f/t and offered it with my hemostats in front of the snake's face. Chomp, constrict, swallow. As easy as it could get. Not quite the same as switching from mice to rats, but I think a bit of theory still applies.

You probably have only two options to try out first if you eventually want your snake feeding on f/t rats, switching from mice:
1) offer a live rat
2) offer a f/t rat

live rat might get a better feeding response, but who knows. If your snake is a food feeder, hungry, in a good mood, not stressed etc. I'd say you have a decent chance of him taking a f/t rat if offered.

If the snake refuses.. well that's when you start needing to try different things.

[SugarFox03]

Don't feed the snake for 2-3 weeks, so they are really hungry. Offer the rat. Should have no problems if the snake was a healthy eater prior to fast. I use this method whenever I switch prey items (if they don't take it the first time I offer, of course) and also when I switched from live to f/t. I have all of my snakes (5 ball pythons, corn snake and two boas - haven't yet fed my new brazilian rainbow boa) eating frozen thawed prey.

The ONLY snake I ever had an issue with eating was a WC female ball I picked up directly from the importer 3-4 years ago. She didn't eat for a year, and finally took a small rat. Never had an issue after that first feeding.

Good luck.