? for those of you that have mouse eating BP's

Our male ball python only eats live albino mice. He used to eat rats but we think he got attacked by one once and now strictly refuses them. He also used to eat any color mouse. But now refuses anything other than white with red eyes mice. Ball pythons are just finicky eaters. She should be fine on just mice.

My 1400g het pied is a mouser (6-8/week!). I did have luck last week giving her 2 mice to stimulate her and then rubbing a rat down with the mouse and she took it.

Wow, 6-8 a week!? That's like 200 grams of mice a week! The breeder I bought my girl from fed her one adult mouse a week. I have given her two per week for the last couple and she is starting to put some descent weight on. I think I am going to put two mice in her tub, leave them for a couple hours so she eats them, rub a mouse on a weened rat and leave it in her tub after she eats the mice next week. Hopefully she does the same as your het pied. As long as she eats 50-75g of rodents (2-3 mice or 1 small rat) on a weekly basis, I really don't care. At that rate she will be healthy.

I havnt had my snake very long but the owner before me said the snake wouldnt eat anything but live mice. She tried F/T mice and rats but wouldnt take them. So i got him and fed him a large mouse every 3-4 days for 2 weeks and then decided what the hell, im gonna try a F/T small rat. Heated it up in hot water on the stove, dried with a paper towl, and the snake took it as soon as i dangled it in front of him. No hesitation, he put it down and has been a happy hiding snake since yesterday. Maybe mines not as picky of an eater as the previous owner made him out to be, or maybe some people just dont know what there doing. Has me wondering a little but i had zero issue changing my snake over to F/T rats after hes been eating strickly live mice for over 3 years.

The younger ball is not quite at the point where he will be eating rats, but the older refuses every time. Those two and my corn were strictly eating live and about a month ago I tried out f/t, the corn was the only one to eat it. Now they all accept f/t no problems, just not rats!

Not sure where I am going wrong here

I am not super experienced, but I have read just about everything I could on switching from live to F/T and mice to rats. I defrost my rats in warm water. Once the rats are defrosted, I let them sit in hot water for 10 minutes and get them nice and warm. I then pull the rat out and blow dry on low for a minute. After all of this, all my snakes are out and they know it is feeding time. I have tried this with a small and weened rat and she doesn't have any interest. Even with the mice on the first try, after he not eating for almost 3 weeks, she went up to the mouse, smelled it for 1-2 minutes, then backed off. It seems she is just really timid and when I leave the mice in the tub and go away, she eats it within an hour or two.

I have a bumble bee and a pastel female (fed live all their lives) that I acquired a month ago and neither one of them are interested in anyting I offer. I am determined to switch them but they are rat eaters. They are both a healthy weight and not losing weight so I am not giving in as far as feeding live rats......yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by angllady2

You can of course keep her on mice, but please be aware as she gets bigger, she'll eat 5 or 6 mice in a sitting, maybe more.

At 900 grams, 10% of her weight is 90 grams, so she'd need 3-4 25 gram mice just to maintain her weight.

I'm not saying it can't be done, I know people here who have mice eaters, but you better be prepared for the work it involves.

Gale

---

Hmmm, I grew up most of my girls on 2 mice a week - and they didn't require 10% of their body weight to maintain their weight. They grew just fine on 2 adult mice a week - all the way up to breeding weight. Some even gained 100 grams a month on that feeding schedule.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rj1204

Yeah, I'm not sure about the 10% rule (at least not for adults). I am considering purchasing a 3000g female and I do not see me feeding her more than one 90-100g rat every week.

---

If I remember correctly, that rule only applies up to about 1000g (of snake) - at that point you can settle on the current prey, be it a small-medium rat or multiple mice. I have a girl who weighs around 2500-2700g, and I'm not feeding 250g of prey every week! :O She takes 3-4 mice or a sm/med rat, and I think it's plenty for her.

I just bought an 06 proven breeder normal from a local breeder this weekend. She is 3500 grams and eats well. The breeder said he has been feeding her one small (60-70 gram) rat per week and that is what she has become/maintained in 4+ years......3500 grams. So, after all the posts (thanks everyone) and talking to other breeders, I know 2-3 mice should be fine......I am still going to try to switch her to one small rat eventually though!

talk to your mouse supplier......I did with mine and he holds back old breeders for me that have gotten too big and are not breeding anymore. I typically get 50 to 70 gram mice each week from him and it works out great for us.