Just Switched

Hello all,

Long time for me on here. Jubs is doing great. I just switched him this week to small rats. Was amazed he took it down great (he is about 25 inches).

My question is how often should I feed him the small rats. I was one a week on large mice. Should I go about every week and a half? Or should I stay with the same time period?

Thanks.

Stay the course, amigo - weekly is just fine.

What Smulkin said, except you will find it likely he'll refuse the next feed as his body adjusts. You might even want to stretch it out to 10 days for the next feeding or two to up your odds he'll accept the food.

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Originally Posted by Marla

What Smulkin said, except you will find it likely he'll refuse the next feed as his body adjusts. You might even want to stretch it out to 10 days for the next feeding or two to up your odds he'll accept the food.

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Gotta go with the two above responses, and add in that it is completely normal if he misses the next meal.

I feed Sophie every 10 days b/c she's getting rather plump since switching to small rats. Her 'girth' growth rate is far exceeding her length growth rate. She is a little heavier than Smitty now and he's 16 mos., whereas she's only 8 mos. old (approx). I fear obesity, so I considered going back to adult mice on a weekly basis, but decided against it. I would just monitor how he does and adjust accordingly.

Cool, thanks for the info, I will feed him a little late this next week, just to build up his appetite.

Good idea and Good luck! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marla

What Smulkin said, except you will find it likely he'll refuse the next feed as his body adjusts. You might even want to stretch it out to 10 days for the next feeding or two to up your odds he'll accept the food.

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Do rats digest differently than mice do?

Not necessarily digest differently, just the bigger prey.

That just seems to be the way it works, if you ask folks around here, that they are likely to refuse their first regularly scheduled feeding after switching to rats.

i'm gonna attempt to prove that theory wrong tonight. ok, well i guess i won't really be proving anything at all, but i am going to offer nellie her second rat, and see what happens. she hasn't missed a meal yet, so i'm crossing my fingers that she will keep her record going. :D

Good luck, mlededee. :)

:hungry:
the record stands--not a meal to be missed here!

however i'm kicking myself now for not getting bigger rats than i did. the petstore i go too is often out of the size i need, so about a month ago when i was there i figured i would go ahead and get 10 small rats while they had them since i knew i was going to be switching soon. they looked a little big at the time, but now...not so much. it barely left a lump! doh! these little snakes grow like crazy!

Congrats mlededee :). *sniff* they grow up so fast ;)

When I switched Monty Joe over to rats he ate rat's 2 consecutive feedings......Now he hasnt eaten since July........

pshaw! i'll have none of those bad vibes here!

sorry about monty joe though...maybe he's too busy looking for a girlfriend to think about food. it is that time of year afterall. (it'd be nice if human males would be too busy thinking about their girlfriends to have time to think about eating... :P)

Didnt mean to send any bad vibes.....

He is definetly on the look out for something, but it sure isnt food. Crazy male hormones make ya do all kinda weird stuff.

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(it'd be nice if human males would be too busy thinking about their girlfriends to have time to think about eating... )

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Just wont work. Thinking about women make me hungry...lol Girlfriend....pot roast........girlfriend.......pot roast......Hmmmm Pass the meat and taters please.

Congrats mlededee! Nellie is da champ. :)

thanks marla--she's just the best! :D

and carl, hee hee, i'm glad my fiance doesn't associate me with pot roast. not only because i've never actually made pot roast but because somehow associating me with a pot roast just doesn't seem that complimentary--i think it would make me feel a little, hmmm, plump, which i hope i'm not... but hey, to each his own! and may you get your meat and potatoes alongside your women! ;)