When to switch from mice to rats?

I picked up my first boa a few weeks ago. He is doing great and eating great. My question is right now he is eating a hopper mouse every seven days and I was wondering how soon I should try to switch him to rats? I have kept ball pythons in the past and have always heard for them to switch to rats as soon as possible because they can be picky. Even though from what I have read boa's aren't nearly as picky, should I still try to switch sooner rather than later or wait until he can eat a certain size rat? Thanks everyone in advance for the advice!

Here is a picture of the little guy...

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Originally Posted by Bluedevil0584

I picked up my first boa a few weeks ago. He is doing great and eating great. My question is right now he is eating a hopper mouse every seven days and I was wondering how soon I should try to switch him to rats? I have kept ball pythons in the past and have always heard for them to switch to rats as soon as possible because they can be picky. Even though from what I have read boa's aren't nearly as picky, should I still try to switch sooner rather than later or wait until he can eat a certain size rat? Thanks everyone in advance for the advice!

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You don't say how old or what type your little boa is but I presume it's from this years litter , with being on hopper mice it's probably not long been born , I personally work the way up the sizes of mice approx change 6-8wks in general and weekly feeding. once there on large mice I then switch to small rat weeners and so on till large rats on adult boas , normally there approx 1 Yr old when I change. unless you have a dwarf boa and there smaller so may take a bit longer to get to taking rats . as boas have a slower metabolism than pythons and soon can obese if over fed, remember rats have a higher fat content
I've also never had a problem with switching over from mice to rats

I never feed a meal that's much bigger than the thickest part of the body either
Hope this helps
Cheers Rich

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Really nice looking boa, looking at the size of your boa now there's a photo I would be surprised if a hopper mouse would fill him up at all, is he always roaming after food

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So far he is definitely not shy and seems to stay out and explore a lot of the time. He is always super alert and does perk up as soon as you walk over to his cage.

Boas are great for that, alot of them are really curious and alert, does the food you give him leave much of lump when he's had it, if not you may want to up to small mice

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Whether rats or mice, it's better to feed the "oldest" (closest to adult) rodent that is of the proper size for the snake. So it's better to up-size the mice to adult
mice, before switching to rats of equal or slightly larger size. Boas aren't normally picky the way BPs are.

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Boas are great for that, alot of them are really curious and alert, does the food you give him leave much of lump when he's had it, if not you may want to up to small mice

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I don’t leave a lump at all so I think I will try to go up a size. Thanks everyone for the responses!


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