Switching from mice to rats,when to?

I fed my bp an adult mouse yesterday, it took him about 5 minutes to swallow completely. The lump was obvious in his throat and upper body, but after he moved it down further there was no evidence that he even ate.. Is this a sign that I should start him on rats and if so, what size? Feeder rats are difficult to find here, would now be a good time to buy a pair and breed them? Or is this normal and he's fine with mice still?

I start mine on rats from the off, they only get tried on mice if they dont take rats, then i will try multis( all F/T)
If it is a male, I'm not too fussed if its a mouser, it just gets a bit much with the bigger girls, but at the mo i am lucky as all mine are F/T rat eaters apart from one who will not take anything but multi's.
Oh and as for rat size, a small weaner is about the next step up from a ex large mouse(well in the UK, you may have different names for certain sizes in the US, but normally 10-15% of snakes bodyweight)

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Originally Posted by piedmad

I start mine on rats from the off, they only get tried on mice if they dont take rats, then i will try multis( all F/T)
If it is a male, I'm not too fussed if its a mouser, it just gets a bit much with the bigger girls, but at the mo i am lucky as all mine are F/T rat eaters apart from one who will not take anything but multi's.

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Same here. We attempt rats first before considering mice. Just easier to keep them on rats than try to switch later.

You can keep him on mice if you'd like, you just have to increase the number you feed. If one isn't enough feed 2. It's just much easier to feed one rat when they get bigger than 3-5 mice ;)

I'm not sure if he's male or female only about 4 months old but he's thick, a few inches shy of 2ft and about 2-2 1/2 inches wide at his widest point. He looks short and fat to me. Adult feeder mice only come in one size that I've found here and that's about 3inches long without the tail and skinny in my opinion. He eats live so I'm at a downfall in finding any rats, let alone baby rats. Unless I buy 20$± "fancy" pet rats and they are pretty much full grown. I haven't seen them here as a f/t option either.So, would getting a pair and breeding be a good option to look into in the near future? I have a few friends who drive 2+ hours to get rats for their cold blooded babies, over population wouldn't become an issue.

I've always started my hatchlings on hopper mice, they seem to get triggered by the movement. My first season (2010) I offered rats after they took adult mice readily a few times. The switched them over to weaned rats which most took right away. If not I put the rats in the container I picked mice up in for about 10-15 mins to marinate then offered again an it usually worked fine. The reason I kept them on mice was that someone told me there was more calcium in the bones of the adult mouse than in the younger rats. 2012 I still started with hopper mice but have started breeding my own rats and started offering rats earlier and it didn't seem to matter. They all seem to eat readily. Breeding rats only seems to be worth it when you have a larger collection. But in your case where you have a longer dvive or can sell to your friends it may be a good idea. I waited til I had 10 snakes. Good luck.