mouse to rat transition (its a no go)

k, this is the second time i've tried feeding Pandora a rat. the first time she was scared of it and flew into her hide, and tonight she's just kinda starin at it. she'll go and practically rest her head on the dumb thing, and then look at it. i've tried waving the rat in front of her and doin the rat dance, but its no good. its been in her tank for about.... a half hour now, and nothing.

silly snakes.

anyone suggest anything?? :?

Shes been eating mice with no problem right?
If she isn't fasting, I'd scent the rats with a mouse.

yeah, she's great at eating mice. i'll try rubbin the mouse on the rat tomorrow or so.. hopefully that works!

You may wanna give her a couple of days between tries. That way she can calm back down and get a bit more hungry.

Yeah, I'd do what Carson says ... and give her a few days, after I'd scent the rats with the mouse.

hmmm....do you feed live, FT or PK? if you feeed ft try a PK rat it might have more of a scent....and if you feed PK you can try a live to see what happens

i feed her f/t.... i couldnt do the whole smashing the rats head thing. lol, my dad said he could kill the rat for me but i'd just feel too bad. im gona try to rub a mouse on it, hopefully it'll work

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BallPythonBabe448

hmmm....do you feed live, FT or PK? if you feeed ft try a PK rat it might have more of a scent....and if you feed PK you can try a live to see what happens

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The last thing in the world she should be doing is feeding live buddy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SemperFi2MyGuy

i feed her f/t.... i couldnt do the whole smashing the rats head thing. lol, my dad said he could kill the rat for me but i'd just feel too bad. im gona try to rub a mouse on it, hopefully it'll work

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I feed Tantrum a small rat about two weeks ago, the rat was kept in the same bag as the f/t mouse ... the horrible smell of the mouse pretty much rubbed off onto the rat.
A few days ago I tried feeding her a pre-killed rat and she wouldn't take it, most likely because it didn't smell like the mouse.

Maybe it's not thawed to a warm-enough temperature? I know that someone (I think it was Smulkin) suggested warming the thawed rodent with a heatlamp for a few seconds befpre feeding, so the prey gives off a better heat signal to the snake.
I know that one of My Bps, Goblin, will not touch f/t unless it's warmed pretty hot. You just don't want to cook the rat, though, which will cause chemical changes and lessen the nutritional value.

Helix sells heat strips that you can plug into the wall. They work great.

Hmm, I was wondering if anyone scents there rats or has scent there rats here.
Will you have to keep scenting them forever?

i agree with statements above, frozen is better, no parasites. and if they go off feed you can refreeze them. i soak my mice and rats in a pot of hot tap water for an hour or so. sometimes i drain and refill hot again right before feeding. bp have heat pits and sense the warm food. try a small rat and keep scenting with mice.
move the pot in the area of the snake 5 or 10 minutes prior to feeding this lets the rodent smell stimulate a feeding responce. ust keep trying weekly, you really want bigger bp to switch to rats, more nutrition and less stress on the snakes digestive system compared to feeding three or four mice in a row.

thanks

vaughn

I got Dixie to take a small rat this past week by having the pet shop put the rat in a bag with some used mouse bedding. The bedding will tend to have a stronger smell than just a mouse would, and it will rub off onto the rat a bit easier. Dixie so far only eats live, and once I have her pretty well established on eating rats, I'm going to get her on the transition to P/K.

That said, putting a small frozen rat in a bag with used mouse bedding (many pet shops will HAPPILY give you a small bag of it) and allowing it to slowly thaw to room temperature in that should impart a decent amount of mouse scent. Perhaps even more so if you put some of the bedding in a plastic bag with the rat and warm it up to about 100 degrees F in some warm water.

Sure can't hurt to try. Scenting the rat this way was the only way I managed to get Dixie to show any interest in anything but live mice.

k... i went to a pet store today (local pet store, not Petco) and i told the guy i wanted 2 frozen adult mice and i asked if he could give me some used mouse bedding. he gave me this odd look and asked why... so i explained how i want to scent my rat of mouse, and was basically like "that wont work. dont even try it, snakes dont care much about the smell." so i was like "hmmm well im giving it a try anyways, so can i have the mouse and bedding?" and the guy was all "no no, it wont work, dont waste your time." so then he pulls out 2 pinkies, and im like "no, i need ADULT mice please." so he gives me this look like ok, you're wasting my time. so then i got p*ssed and i was like "you know what? nevermind. you're the snake god, you know everything." and i bent over as if bowing down to him and left.

i then went to Petco, my favorite place, and explained to the lady working there about the scenting of my rats... she thought it was a GREAT idea and said to come back and tell her if it works, seeing as how she just got a BP.

i have a few mice and some bedding now.... i put half of the bedding in with the rats, and half in a plastic baggy with the mice. every time i go to feed pandora a rat, im gona let the rat sit in the bag with the mice overnight. wooooo

:)

Keep trying everything but you may just have a bp like my Ozzy who no matter what I tried will not eat rats, period.
It drives me crazy. I have done every suggestion and no luck.
But he will inhale a mouse. I buy the jumbo mice for now.
I will give it a few months and try again.
Keep trying.
A suggestion I got was to take a ceral box and mist it inside and place the bp in it w/ a pk or ft rat and close it up and place it in the cage where their hide box normally is and by morning they should eat it.