Question on mice eating females

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Originally Posted by loonunit

When I really want to push a point like that (you WILL eat f/t, you WILL eat rats), it usually involves some sneaky stuff like that? But mostly it involves out-waiting the snake. Basically, I wait until July or August, when they're really, really hungry, and then I simply won't feed them if they won't eat rats. (You WILL eat rats, because there are no mice in the house. No rat = no meal.)

This is hard with females, because I desperately want them to eat and gain weight before October. And sometimes going through this means they won't be ready to breed in the autumn if we go through the hassle of switching to rats, when they would have been borderline if I left them on a mouse diet.

... so now I have a 1300 gram het lavender female who finally eats f/t and gave me 5 good eggs. But she gives even live rats the evil eye and won't bite.

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Yup. I refuse to feed mice to ANY of our balls unless it means life or death. If I have a REAL problem feeder I use the good ole ASF trick. Better than a mouse, but not quite as good as a nice fat rat. I've got one female that had always been a rat eater that up and decided one day she doesn't want them anymore. After letting her get good and hungry I offered her an asf scented rat. Nope, still stubborn. I finally gave in and offered her an actual asf. She has been slamming them like crazy! Now that she is eating like a champ again, next comes the task of switching her back to rats, which hopefully isn't going to mean lots of scenting and waiting.

So as long as your ball is a healthy and has good weight on them, a little waiting isn't going to hurt them. Just be patient and you'll prevail. :gj:

I have a RTB neonate who likes mice. Noooooo ma'am! We're nipping this in the butt right now! I got her to take a rat last week by rubbing a mouse on it. Hopefully she'll decide next week that she likes rats. *sigh*

Wow didn't realize so many people had mice eating females. Maybe I'll just wait till she is really hungry and try again. She's hasn't eaten in a week so I'll try again in a couple days.

I had a confirmed mouser that I converted by a combination of two things. I got some dirty mouse bedding and I put a handful of it in the front of her enclosure. I waited until she came out of her hide, actively tongue flicking and looking for a mouse, then I dropped in a live white rat and she hit it immediately.

She got wise to that, so then, because she was in good body condition, I employed "tough love". I offered a rat once a week. If she refused, I didn't break down and give her mice. Eventually, she was hungry enough to eat rats and she took them from then on.

The "tough love" approach should only be done with an animal with good weight. If you get concerned about loss of weight, go back to mice, then try again later.

She's at a good weight so I'm probably gonna try that. If she don't wanna eat a rat then she ain't eating haha. See how long she can last without losing a drastic amount of weight

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I had a confirmed mouser that I converted by a combination of two things. I got some dirty mouse bedding and I put a handful of it in the front of her enclosure. I waited until she came out of her hide, actively tongue flicking and looking for a mouse, then I dropped in a live white rat and she hit it immediately.

She got wise to that, so then, because she was in good body condition, I employed "tough love". I offered a rat once a week. If she refused, I didn't break down and give her mice. Eventually, she was hungry enough to eat rats and she took them from then on.

The "tough love" approach should only be done with an animal with good weight. If you get concerned about loss of weight, go back to mice, then try again later.

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Yeah, we've gotten Lois-the-mouser to eat one live rat that way, but she wised up, too. "Tough love" is basically the only way I've ever converted anybody to anything.

Oh, and I did take the "wishy-washy" tough love approach with Lois' boyfriend: I offered him one teensy tiny live hopper every other week for several months, but showed him big fat f/t rats and mice every week. Basically, I was saying: I'll give you enough live mice to stay alive, buddy, but that's it. You can be hungry all the time... or you can eat these nice, fat f/t jumbos.

On the bright side: "tough love" usually saves you $20-30 in mice while they're not eating what you're offering. :P

I've been able to convert most all the females to rats via tough love. Fatten them up on as many mice as they will eat, then don't offer anything but rats until they eat! Washing and using mouse scented bedding helps!

Tough love is the key especially with older animals with some weight to them.

If she does not eat a rat do not offer anything until she does, it can take several months and you might need to give in at some point to try again later.

I have a female that finally switch for me after 4 years of on and off attempt to switch her.

Best time to switch for a female is after she lay eggs if you do intend on breeding her.