Another Thread on Mice to Rat

I have a female pewter, about 200 grams who would not take rats. When I first got her, she refused rats so I fed her mice for a month or two, and then switched to rats. She then took rats for maybe 3 or 4 months and now she is refusing rats. I'm back to feeding her mice.

When feeding her mice, she would target it like a missile lock and grab it instantly. I want to stop feeding her mice. Any tips?

M

Have you tried scenting a rat with a mouse? Rub a mouse all over the rat's head and it should trigger a strike. You'll have to repeat this process over and over, but eventually your BP should get the picture that rats taste pretty good...

Personally I put slightly smaller mouse with an equal size rat at the exact same time. Often after the snake eats the mouse, it will still be in feeding mode and take the rat right after. And I just offer rats from that point on and haven't gotten any refusals.

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I'm struggling with two of mine right now. My pin is doing what your pewter is doing except that I don't have mice so I've been scenting rats with dirty mouse bedding from Petsmart. That worked initially and he took a few rats no problem. Now he's back to being stubborn and the last scented rat I offered him he struck, constricted, and then left it there. My BEL hasn't eaten for me yet. I'm going to keep offering but I won't be able to order rodents until May so until then I'll just keep offering rats. I may run down to Petco, though, and buy a mouse for each of them just to get them eating again. Sometimes if they get on a good feeding streak they'll forget that they don't like rats.

The thing I found odd is that I was able to convert her to rats then all the sudden, she wants to go back to mice?

Yeah that sounds like my pin. I caved and bought him a mouse. That was also the ticket for my BEL. She just wanted a mouse. I guess I'll keep them on mice every 5 days for a while. :P

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She then took rats for maybe 3 or 4 months and now she is refusing rats.

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I had trouble switching mine, but then I decided that I should ONLY offer rats from then on out. She would eat when she was hungry. If you can get 'em to take rats, don't go back!*


*Of course unless some other more important issue that I am not experience enough to comment on crops up that requires mouse intervention