Sub adult stuck on mice

I have a early 06' cb female weighing in at 600 grams. She used to eat rats all the time and now she just backs away from them. She didnt eat for two months in the winter and since then shes been only eating one mouse at a time, she usually refuses the second. If I offer one the next day she usually takes it. Should I just let her eat the mice or try to get her back on rats.

Have you changed the location where you bought the rats? I know when I had to bring my BP up to college with me, she wouldn't touch the live PetCo mice until the next day, but if I went home for the weekend and brought a mouse from a reptile store, she'd pounce on it right away. Apperantly they can be very picky about their smell as well. If she's eating mice just fine, then I really don't see too much of a problem with it. She will eat more when she's hungry, whether it be one or two mice, or later on switching back over to rats.
If you would really rather have her on rats, I would suggest trying a size smaller rat than what you had been feeding her.

I have a few mice eaters. Mice work just fine for BP's. I feed whatever works for them. Some prefer mice over rats and visa versa. If yours likes mice and mice are doing the feeding trick for her then I say stick with it. It's better then having a snake that just won't eat because you wish she would eat rats again. She may pick back up on eating rats at a later date but eating a mouse will be fine also.

Just an update on my girl being stuck on mice. She hasnt missed a feeding in the last month. She's now eating two to three mice at a sitting. So a few days ago I offered her a 42 gram rat that was still nursing. Took it right away no problem. I'm going to up the size of the rat each week til shes eating 75-85 gram rats regularly.

What do you guys think is the biggest rat you should offer to a 3' ball python?

Keep offering her those 42g rats, or even smaller... If you were feeding her those 80g rats, no wonder she fasted. For an '06, that is ALOT of food.. My '06 babies might get 1-2 mice apiece, even the 800g pastel. They just don't need that much food to grow and maintain their weight.

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Originally Posted by moespeaking

What do you guys think is the biggest rat you should offer to a 3' ball python?

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You should feed a prey slightly smaller then the girth size and nothing larger then a small rat (4 weeks old 45-55 grams) once a week.

If you feed 2 small preys such as 2 mice do it in one feeding and not one, one day and the other the next day as mentioned in your previous post.

Common mistake is to overfeed snakes in captivity, if you want a BP that feed with consistency feed smaller prey. If you overfeed your BP will fast has you already have experienced.

I feed all my BP an appropriate size meal and even my biggest girls don't get anything larger then a small rat (4 weeks old 45-55 grams) once a week, or 1 to 2 mice for the mousers.

Maybe try a smaller rat? I have one snake (SoCo) that will shy away from a too-large rat, but if offered a smaller one minutes later, will eat it. They are weird little boogers sometimes.

I think I will be forced to feed her a combination of mice and rats from now on which isnt a big deal. Just because we only have rats that size for a week or so then they grow very fast as you guys know. I regret feeding her 75-85g rats but I didnt know better then. I learned my lesson as it is very frustrating for a snake not to eat regularly. If I did feed her a medium rat 65-75 grams I would give her two weeks between. a 45 gram rat stretched out is only half the girth of my girl if that.

fed her a 74gram rat today which really wasnt very big. Im not going to go bigger than this, but she got it right down in about 4-5 minutes.

we have one female ball-python who only eats mice multpiles at each feeding she's a year old comming in around 1100 to 1200 grams. So if she eats mice feed her mice nice thing about mice she can deside if more then one is enough. Don't get me wrong hate buying mice to feed some snakes but can't raise them and all the mice eater's seem to eat year round some of the rat eaters seem to take a bit more time off but weight wise have large young rat eaters and large young mice eaters and some that will eat mice and rat's, mice or rats, so as long as they are eating you should be fine.