When to switch to rats?

I currently feed my mouse one feeder mouse a week. When should I switch her over to rats? How do I know when she will be able to handle one? Thanks.

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Originally Posted by MissionHockey086

I currently feed my mouse one feeder mouse a week. When should I switch her over to rats? How do I know when she will be able to handle one? Thanks.

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May I ask why you are feeding mice to mice?>>>>> J/K

When to switch well maybe never Ihave a 3 footer that still only eats mice. The general rule of thumb is not to feed a prey item that is larger than the widest point of there body, so once your snake is large of size you can try and change over.

i thought you can feed them rats about one and a half times the thickest part of their body?

When you bp is as round as the rat, then you can feed the rat....

but who says you have to go to rats :) You could always feed two mice. Both of my bps get two mice a week.

Go with what is best for you. I just wanted to offer another option :)

Depends on the size of the rat and your BPs willingness to switch - do it when you can.

We now have such an abundance of multi-sized rats that even the smallest of our BPs take them. We've had some leftover mice from rodentpro in the freezer for quite some time we still need to finish up.

i switched this past week and all went very well i would just suggest that you try to keep everything as similair as possible like color of the prey and feeding enclosure (whether u do it in the cage like me or in a seperate tank) so ur lil' reptile friend wont get stressed

and if u feed live (like me) then watch it VERY carefully i think that a rat could do a lot more damage to a snake than a mouse could