Mice or rats?

Right now, Im feeding my baby boy f/t small mouse every 7 days, but I may move it up every 5 days. Anywho, should I move him to rats? Or would he be good on mice? And if be does switch to rats, when?

Try to switch to rats as soon as possible, the older they get the harder to switch

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Originally Posted by kiyomi2426

Right now, Im feeding my baby boy f/t small mouse every 7 days, but I may move it up every 5 days. Anywho, should I move him to rats? Or would he be good on mice? And if be does switch to rats, when?

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Rats are more convenient for larger snakes as you would have to feed multiple mice per feeding to make a meal as large as, say, a medium rat. There's not really a specific time to switch to rats...you can start hatchlings off on rat pups. For my hatchlings that won't take rat pups, they get live hopper mice for about a month and then it's back to trying f/t rat pups. I can usually get 50% of my babies on rat pups right away. The rest get transitioned as they cooperate.

Just an opinion but rats>>>>mice. Its a lot easier to throw a big girl a large rat than it is 8+ mice. As soon as they hatch I am offering rats and hoping they take and if they do not I am working to get them to take them.

Better to be on rats for the reasons listed above. Something I did the first time I tried feeding a rat was to thaw both together in the room at the same time (I thaw at room temp), so the smell of the mouse was also in the air, then I rubbed the mouse on the rat. She took it on the first go. I don't know if that actually helped or not though, but I figured if she rejected the rat I would just feed the mouse. My BP is a very strong eater though, she has never rejected a feed when in my care, even in shed. Good luck transitioning :)