Feeding questions

We've been feeding our BP a large f/t mouse but it seems to be too small for him now so we tried a small f/t rat. He seemed interested but didn't eat it, so we thought maybe it was too big? Since the mouse seems too small we thought maybe we should offer 2, so my husband did and the snake gobbled them both up pretty quickly.

So we were wondering if it's ok to offer 2 mice and do we assume, since he ate both, that he was hungry enough for both or would he eat both if we offered even if he didn't want/need it?

He is about 2 feet long and I think he could eat the small rat (it's about the same size around as he is, I think). Are there ways to get them switched to rats from mice? And what would happen if he tried to eat the rat and it was too big?

Thanks in advance for any help :)

Basically you have 3 choices.

1. offer and it will eat it
2. offer and it will constrict it, kill it and slither off to a corner to chill with the first one in it's belly.
3. it will slither off to the corner and ignore your attempt to feed it.

I feed multiple small prey items all the time and have no issues.
Maybe the small rat is too big and a weanling size rat would be more appropriate?

It's also possible that the snake just doesn't recognize the scent of the rat as a prey scent because rats and mice smell a little different.

Yeah I wondered about that. Will he eventually learn that rats are food? And what should I do to help that? Keep offering it before we offer mice?

Are you feeding live or?

No, f/t. :)

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Originally Posted by sarbear

Yeah I wondered about that. Will he eventually learn that rats are food? And what should I do to help that? Keep offering it before we offer mice?

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you could try maybe thawing a rat along with a mouse or two to pick up the scent of the mouse and try to fool your snake into eating it until he realizes that it's edible

Some of my small ones are on adult mice, I have always thawed mice with rats in the same bin and have rarely had any problem switching the smaller ones over to small rats once they pass adult mice.

Ah ha, tricky! :P Thanks. I'll try that next feeding.

Would it harm him if he eats the rat and it's too big?

Ive always had great luck with that method, and my entire collection is on F/T.

Which method? Thawing both and hoping the smell of the mice helps him take the rat?

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Originally Posted by sarbear

Would it harm him if he eats the rat and it's too big?

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Well if the rat is obviously much larger than him I don't think he'd really try to ingest it (still not a good idea though), but as long as the rat isn't bigger at it's largest point than he is at his largest point, there should be no problem.

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Originally Posted by sarbear

Which method? Thawing both and hoping the smell of the mice helps him take the rat?

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Yes thawing both in the same bin.