Mousers...

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Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

My spider ball is exactly the same. Eventually I gave in and got a breeding trio of african soft furs, and she switched to them with very little hesitation. It's nice because they're bigger than mice and they don't have the smell of mice.

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If she won't switch to rats on her own, I may try ASF. My supplier just doesn't sell them so I'd have to find another F/T supplier.

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Originally Posted by Seth702

Just out of curiosity how close in size was the rat being offered to the hopper mouse? If the rat was noticably larger to you it probably rings the same for your snake. even a small size difference can trigger a different response for the more picky BP. When she gets bigger she may take rats with no problem. Id give her a while before you write her off as a mouser for life, especially if shes still under 100g. Good luck

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Well, I tried rat pups (about 15g), rat fuzzies (around 10g), and rat pinkies (6-7g). She wanted nothing to do with them. The hopper and rat pinkie were around the same size. The hopper was just more "furry".

Hopefully she'll eventually decide rats are etible. It could be worse...she could only eat live mice.... -knocks on wood-

Try putting both a rat and a mouse together in the enclosure during her next feeding time. My first snake was a mouser when I got him from the breeder. I fed him mice the first few times to make sure he was an established eater. Then I eventually put in a rat fuzzy with the hopper mouse. I didn't think he would take the rat, but I put it in there anyways. He took the mouse like expected. But after, he ate the rat too. I was quite surprised. He's been on rats ever since. I think he was still in 'hunting mode' after the initial mouse on top of the enclosure smelling like mouse.

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I'd also wait until your snake hit in the 150 200 gm mark she is quite small to be skipping many meals. I have a mouser she will take rats on occasion but tends to always accept mice. It is a pain as she is the only one. I have tough loved her for a year but 6 meals a year seems like a bad idea so now I offer a jumbo mouse and a big weanling or small small rat as a second meal sometimes she takes it. I would suggest rats simply on ease it sucks to feed mice. I have switched a number but for what ever reason she simply will not. It happens hopefully you will not be so difficult but when the animal starts to drop weight 20% + it is time to eat what ever it will take.


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