My snake is a pig!

Been considering moving him from mice to small rats. Previous owner said he's six and been on F/T mice all his life. So after a couple months , I offered a small F/T rat last week. He hammered it right away and started to eat, but spat it out, so I gave him a mouse. Last night I tried again. No problem-o. Nailed it pronto and it was all gone in five minutes or so. Back-up mouse went in the trash. So happy.

Any reason why you are switching to rats? It isn't necessary.;)

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Originally Posted by _BoidFinatic_

Any reason why you are switching to rats? It isn't necessary.;)

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I'd have to dsagree - even a large mouse is a small meal for a decent sized BP.

rats, mice, its all the same as long as there getting enough food in them each week without it being too much. Some snakes refuse to eat rats and some refuse to eat mice. People who feed mice just have to offer multiple mice a week to equal the amount of a rat and fill their snake up right.

Adult mouse was smaller than his girth. Small rat matches almost perfectly--no noticeable bulge after ingestion. He wasn't interested in taking two mice at one sitting. Thus, the rat solution.

I think y'all are jealous that he switched so easily...

I have a few males and females that will eat anything. Live, F/T, mouse, rat they don't care.
I doubt they are jealous, but it is true that it was necessary to switch. They can eat multiple prey items to make up for lack of size.

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Originally Posted by digcolnagos

He wasn't interested in taking two mice at one sitting. Thus, the rat solution.

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There's where my reasoning was incorrect. I assumed that he would take multiple mice in a sitting. ;)

Rats have more body mass and more protein. I believe and prefer our snakes on rats. Even our corn snake. When we first got him he was 6months old and only 15inches long and on 1 pinky mouse a week. We started to feed him 2 pinky mice per week but then tried rats because our friend said that rats seemed to be better for snakes. So we decided "Hey why not, lets give it a try" and we switched to 1 pinky rat a week and (its the same size as two pinky mice) he grew faster and bigger and seemed to be not as skinny as he was when on pinky mice. Now as an adult and almost 6ft he is on a small-medium rat every 9 days. :):rockon:

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Originally Posted by digcolnagos

I think y'all are jealous that he switched so easily...

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LOL! I know I am! I can't get mine to switch at all! You're so lucky! ;)

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Originally Posted by Sapphire7

Rats have more body mass and more protein. I believe and prefer our snakes on rats. Even our corn snake. When we first got him he was 6months old and only 15inches long and on 1 pinky mouse a week. We started to feed him 2 pinky mice per week but then tried rats because our friend said that rats seemed to be better for snakes. So we decided "Hey why not, lets give it a try" and we switched to 1 pinky rat a week and (its the same size as two pinky mice) he grew faster and bigger and seemed to be not as skinny as he was when on pinky mice. Now as an adult and almost 6ft he is on a small-medium rat every 9 days. :):rockon:

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I also switch to rats ASAP on my snakes. Corns and Balls. I actually had to start my own rat breeding program because the next step up from an adult mouse that my supplier carries is small adult rats, and some of my corns are too big for one mouse, yet too small for a small adult rat. I prefer to fill my snakes up properly with one rodent rather than having them ingest several rodents in one sitting.