small rat- did not eat?

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Originally Posted by bjfoste1

Rapheal (my snake) is an inch to an inch and a half in diameter at his thickest part is that to small? And ya im not going to stun the rats anymore it is cruel i hate it. So you guys would suggest just feed the rat live?

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Feeding live or F/T is up to you! Feed what work and what is convenient to you, however if you do want to feed F/T or P/K make sure to convert your BP to rat first if it is what you want to do, trying to switch to both rat and F/T or P/K in the same time will be very hard.

Like I said before one step at the time and remember starting with a rat the same size than the mouse you usually feed might be a good idea as well at least until your BP eats rats on a regular basis.

With mine, I went for quite some time feeding two live mice before switching to rats.

Mine switched easily but now that I think of it, he may have had some help. See, many months before I switched him I got a larger snake that eats rats. Whenever I got feeders from the store, they just chucked the mice and rat in a box together. So, he had been getting rat-scented mice for some time. Perhaps you could get them pre-scented at the store when you buy them?


btw, I can sympathize about the F/T thing. For some reason it just grosses me out. I feed my corn F/T and I just can't seem to get used to thawing those suckers out! :puke:

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Originally Posted by Brimstone111888

...A lot of people don't like the idea of dead bagged mice in their freezer. I don't really mind it since it is sitting next to a bag of ground up dead cow, and sliced dead cow with some cut up chicken. Thats the way I look at it. Plus they are sealed.

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Ditto...I put mine in a black plastic bag in the freezer. I was totally against F/T, but once I found out how convenient and cost-effective it was, I made the switch.

Fiancee still not too keen on it though...

I had just the opposite problem!!! My BP would only eat live baby rats. But then the "rodent police" at my local pet shop got wise to me and wouldn't sell me any more rats. I tried everything else, FT with the hair dryer trick, pre-scenting, and the little mouse dance, even live mice, to no avail.

I was finally able to get her to take a live mouse by keeping the room completely dark and just leaving her alone with it for a few hours. Obviously you wouldn't want to leave your BP alone with a live adult rat. I should have given much more thought to the availability of live food before I started with rats. I would like to switch her back some day but I will have breeders in place next time so the nice folks at Dave's Soda and Pet City can keep all their rats safe from me.

One poster mentioned scenting with another rodent.

I switched all my snakes to rats, and the ones that are on mice are on F/T. I didn't like raising mice and wasn't having much success keeping a consistent supply of feeders handy.

I kept the bedding from a few of the mice and would use it to scent my rat pups with. I would put them in it and use it to prescent the room.

Had a few refusals, and reluctant feeds, but managed to switch over the last few holdouts.

As noted, it takes time and may need to an incremental process.

Bruce