Changing my adopted BP's eating habits.

I bought a pastel along with a terrarium from from a lady the other day. The snake seems to be in good health and is very docile when it comes to handling. She told me the snake is somewhere between 2-3 years old. I'm not sure what her weight is because i dont have a proper scale for that but I can tell you she is 4 feet long and almost as thick as a beer can. She only eats live which is not a problem, however the previous owners were only feeding her adult mice. I didn't get a very clear answer when it came to the duration and frequency of her feeding and all they really told me was "She eats 4 mice". Obviously these rodents are much too small for her and I would like to move her up to rats at the very least or possibly gerbils as soon as possible. I am just wondering if I should take some precautions when giving her bigger prey? I'm just worried that she might have a hard time killing it since she is used the smaller mice. I'd hate to see her get injured but I also hate to see her having such an unsatisfactory meal. BTW this is my first snake and I want to make sure I do everything correctly. Any responses would be much appreciated!

EDIT: Also, I bought 4 mice the day I got her and she ate one yesterday. How often do you think I should feed these to her? I would like to just have them gone. :cool:

Welcome to the club :D. First I would say make sure you get your husbandry is 100% setup and perfect and let her rest for a week or so to get acclimated to the transition. Even though she is in the same terrarium, being jostled and taken to a new place is still stressful so leave her be. After that you can try to give her a weaned rat and see if she takes it. This size rat should not be any danger to her and she will know how to take it down if she is interested. If she isn't, try scenting the rat with some mouse bedding to see if that interests her. I would caution against gerbils. Unless you will be breeding your own supply of them that can become a very expensive food source and I have heard of BPs imprinting on them and will take nothing else. Keep on trying with the scenting and offering rats as this can take some time for her to finally take it. As far as her getting injured, that is a possibility but the risks of injury can be greatly reduced. You as a responsible owner need to stay ready to interfere if there is an issue. A good pair of tongs or hemostats to prevent the rat from biting her is a must. She should be able to easily take down smalls to mediums without issue. It also may come down to it that she is just a mouser. It seems like she has been eating them her whole life so you may have to deal with that. All you can do is try. Good luck!! :gj:

Thanks for the response! I have done some research about feeding gerbils to these snakes and that is the thing I run across every time. They could become hooked on them and not eat anything else. I will step her up to rats after she is finished this batch of mice. I will also check out the price of gerbils when I am at the pet store to get an idea of what the price difference would be. It may be within my means. Either way I will just ween her up the food chain if I can.

Four mice at a time, once every week or two, is not so bad of a meal. BTW, it's better to give a bunch of mice once a week than one mouse every day. Pythons' systems are adapted for processing occasional large meals, not frequent small ones.

But if nothing else, it's definitely more convenient to give one rat than a bunch of mice. You could also try giving her pre-killed or thawed food, which is also more convenient and can't bite back.

You'll read lots of different recommendations for how much and how often to feed, but I suspect that for an adult that isn't breeding and isn't growing anymore, less is more. She doesn't need a medium rat every week.

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Originally Posted by Coluber42

Four mice at a time, once every week or two, is not so bad of a meal. BTW, it's better to give a bunch of mice once a week than one mouse every day. Pythons' systems are adapted for processing occasional large meals, not frequent small ones.

But if nothing else, it's definitely more convenient to give one rat than a bunch of mice. You could also try giving her pre-killed or thawed food, which is also more convenient and can't bite back.

You'll read lots of different recommendations for how much and how often to feed, but I suspect that for an adult that isn't breeding and isn't growing anymore, less is more. She doesn't need a medium rat every week.

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So would you recommend putting all the mice in at once? I put one in there yesterday and she ate it while I was at the gym. I put another one in there for a few hours and she seemed to show no interest.

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Originally Posted by Coluber42

Four mice at a time, once every week or two, is not so bad of a meal. BTW, it's better to give a bunch of mice once a week than one mouse every day. Pythons' systems are adapted for processing occasional large meals, not frequent small ones.

But if nothing else, it's definitely more convenient to give one rat than a bunch of mice. You could also try giving her pre-killed or thawed food, which is also more convenient and can't bite back.

You'll read lots of different recommendations for how much and how often to feed, but I suspect that for an adult that isn't breeding and isn't growing anymore, less is more. She doesn't need a medium rat every week.

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So would you recommend putting all the mice in at once? I put one in there yesterday and she ate it while I was at the gym. I put another one in there for a few hours and she seemed to show no interest.

Don't leave live prey in unattended. If the snake isn't hungry, the mouse might get hungry and make a snack of the snake :/. So you want to be around to keep an eye on things.

I haven't fed live but when feeding multiple f/t, you want to put the next one in there as soon as the first one is down, so the snake is still in feeding mode. If you wait too long they go into digesting mode and don't want to eat.

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Originally Posted by Capermike

So would you recommend putting all the mice in at once? I put one in there yesterday and she ate it while I was at the gym. I put another one in there for a few hours and she seemed to show no interest.

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So would you recommend putting all the mice in at once? I put one in there yesterday and she ate it while I was at the gym. I put another one in there for a few hours and she seemed to show no interest.

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No, don't put them all in at once. The snake can easily get overwhelmed by mice all over the place, or distracted while in the process of constricting, then trying to find the head, then swallowing. Give her one, wait until she's finished swallowing it, then give her the next one while she's still in the food mood. If you wait too long, she might just figure meal time is over and go slither off to digest. Also, if they're live, they should not be in the cage unsupervised! That's why feeding a bunch of mice is inconvenient compared to one rat. ;)

Ok I will stay with her next time until she eats or I will take the mouse out. I figured with the size difference that she would be fine, but I suppose anything could happen. She was definitely in digestion mode when I got home. She wouldn't take another mouse. Should I wait a week before attempting to feed her again or maybe try sooner since she only ate one?

I would say wait until the next scheduled feeding day. Let her digest like normal and feed again as scheduled.

I was told that two snakes that I bought would only eat live mice and had been doing so for 2 years. The previous owner tried live rats and thawed with no success.

Rather than try to make changes twice, mice to rats, and live to frozen, I did both at once. I just didn't feed the snakes for a month. Then I offered mouse scented rats. Both snakes took them without hesitation. I did not pre-scent anymore rats after that.

Sounds good I will let her finish digesting before I try again. I also have no problem with just feeding her live as opposed to frozen. The main thing is I just want her to have a bigger meal. It's also worth noting that I found a local breeder online who sells gerbil's 3 for 15$. Although the ad says "looking for their forever homes" so I am not sure theyd be too happy once they find out that is in my BPs stomach. :snake: Lol

Be honest with any breeders about your feeding plans. Don't want to make a bad name for snake owners. But I'm sure most rodent breeders are going to be realistic about using rodents as feeders. I wouldn't recommend gerbils though---you don't want to get her hooked on expensive and hard-to-find feeders! And $5 per feeder is pretty steep. Gerbils aren't much larger than mice; it would be better to switch to rats if possible. Use mouse bedding to scent the rats first for a better chance of acceptance.

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Originally Posted by Willowy

Be honest with any breeders about your feeding plans. Don't want to make a bad name for snake owners. But I'm sure most rodent breeders are going to be realistic about using rodents as feeders. I wouldn't recommend gerbils though---you don't want to get her hooked on expensive and hard-to-find feeders! And $5 per feeder is pretty steep. Gerbils aren't much larger than mice; it would be better to switch to rats if possible. Use mouse bedding to scent the rats first for a better chance of acceptance.

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Yeah it is not cheap where I live. Considering the adult mice are 4$ a piece, paying 5$ for something much bigger is a good deal for me. I believe the only rats I can purchase here are the african soft furred type. They are about the same size as a gerbil and the pet store charges 7$ a piece if I am not mistaken.

Are you in the US? If so, and you can get the snake to take f/t meals, you can get them a lot cheaper than that (even with shipping).

I didn't think gerbils were much larger than mice, but I googled it and one gerbil site said an adult gerbil weighs about 80g. . .so that is about small rat size. So maybe that'll work.

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Originally Posted by Willowy

Are you in the US? If so, and you can get the snake to take f/t meals, you can get them a lot cheaper than that (even with shipping).

I didn't think gerbils were much larger than mice, but I googled it and one gerbil site said an adult gerbil weighs about 80g. . .so that is about small rat size. So maybe that'll work.

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I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Unfortunately things are just expensive here in general. I'm going to contact the gerbil breeders and see what they say about selling them for snake food. For now I still have three adult mice. My girl left a big steamy surprise in her tank for me this morning, so I'm thinking maybe I will try feeding her again sooner than a weeks time.