Converting a carpet to rats from mice.

So, now that I seem to have solved the feeding problems of my bp--he doesn't like tongs, but he'll at least take an appropriate rat if I drop it in his cage-- I'd like to get Evangeline switched over to rats, too. She's currently chowing down on 2 medium mice each week, never skipping once, switched from fresh killed to frozen thawed without a hitch. I've heard carpets imprint on mice notoriously, & she's been eating them for the whole year & 5 months of her life so far. Should I start by offering a fresh killed rat? Any helpful hints or suggestions are welcome. I won't brain a rat btw, too weak stomached for that. I'll stick with mice if nothing else works.

I never had problems switching carpets over myself. I would skip one weeks feeding and offer the f/t rat the next week. Most of the time they would make the switch to rats right away.

Back when I had a large collection of Jungles and Diamond X Jungles, it was in the somewhat early times for carpets...this was around 1993. I was unaware of the problems associated with getting jungles to take rats. Needless to say, I had a several large adults that would not touch a rat. Try to get them switched over as soon as possible. It's best to get them on rat pups as hatchlings. Trying to switch an adult or even a sub-adult can present problems. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by dragonboy4578

I never had problems switching carpets over myself. I would skip one weeks feeding and offer the f/t rat the next week. Most of the time they would make the switch to rats right away.

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x2. I've never had an issue. Carpets feeding response is so strong, if you play the patience game, eventually they'll eat anything you put in front of them. Including your face FYI.

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Originally Posted by dart

x2. I've never had an issue. Carpets feeding response is so strong, if you play the patience game, eventually they'll eat anything you put in front of them. Including your face FYI.

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This has never been the case for me especially with pure Jungles. If there is some Diamond or Coastal influence it's different. I don't know what it is about jungles that makes them imprint mice.

Today I offered my new girl a rat and she showed not interest what so ever. So I took a mouse and rubbed it all over the rat. I then reintroduced the rat and she nailed it before the rat ever reached her. This tricks worked for switching over a couple of my other snakes too.

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Originally Posted by Brewster320

Today I offered my new girl a rat and she showed not interest what so ever. So I took a mouse and rubbed it all over the rat. I then reintroduced the rat and she nailed it before the rat ever reached her. This tricks worked for switching over a couple of my other snakes too.

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was this with live or f/t?

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Originally Posted by mandalorian

was this with live or f/t?

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F/t. Although in order to get my rescue boa on rats I used live rat pups. But she was an extremely finicky feeder to begin with so I guess you could try that if f/t doesn't work. I'd try to keep her on the f/t though if you can because it was a pain getting my boa back on to it afterwards.

I have one jungle carpet python that is just giving me a headache for not accepting rats.
I have talked to Will Leary and a bunch of other hardcore snake people and I guess there's
1. Washing the F/T rat
2. Scenting the F/T rat with mice an mouse litter
3. Trying a live rat
Etc.. Etc..
I am going to try a new approach since the other haven't worked for me yet. I'm going to let a F/T rat sit in a bag with F/T thawed mice for at least twelve hours and maybe even mix room tempiture water in to get there scents mixed together then offer the rat.
Anyways,It's a learning experience!
Good luck!

I offered one of my pure JCP a rat pup instead of its normal F/T mouse that the original breeder kept it on, and the snake refused it pretty much immediately. I grabbed some of the Hog-nosed Snkaes mice and used them to rub all over the rat pup to transfer the scent. Reintroduced again to the snake, and she took it without a hitch. As others suggested, if this doesnt work, you may want to wash the rat off with ample water first then scent. Good luck!