small rat- did not eat?

Ok so I bought the first small rat for my ball today .Before he was eating adult mice. The people at the store said to knock it out first so it could not attack my snake . So i did this and it was twitching in the box i feed my snake in (by the way i did not like the process at all). But my snake did not eat it. It just kept circling it and smelling it like it was about to. Im wondering did he not eat because the rat was not running around? Possibly just not hungry? Also not to mention he is under going his shedding cycle. And i know your not supposed to feed them during this but the pet store said it would be ok if the rat was knocked out. Im just confused because its the first time he did not eat.

Hmm how big is your snake? A small rat is a huge difference between an adult mouse. Some snakes like smaller meals and are intimidated by larger ones.

Also there are many ethical issues with have been debated millions of times. You can find any of these threads by doing search "Feeding" and I am sure you will find a debate. I never feed rats, but what from what I have heard and someone please correct me if I am wrong, but small rats teeth can't penetrate snake skin yet. So knocking it out was pointless.

Your snake also might not like p/k 'd food. What was he eating before?

My advice would be to not do what you did....by your description, it sounds like you didn't put enough into knocking it out...or "stunning" it...it sounds like you only made him suffer.

The chances of the rat doing anything to your snake is slim to.....most likely none. our snakes are professional killers. Next time, feed live and if your snake doesn't eat, have a set up so that you can house the rat for a week, and then try again.

If your snake is use to nothing but mice it may take a little while for it to switch to rats. Scent is a huge part in the way a snake perceives the world and it's food. It may also not like pre-killed as one poster already mentioned.

Just get another rat and try again but don't do anything to the rat. If the snake doesn't eat keep the rat and try again in a week.

There is couple of things here first switching can take time and sometime and you might have to practice tough love if your BP has a good body weight. There are also BP that have nothing to do with a rat (I have one).

When you fed mice were they live?

If you do, try offering a live rat pup (same size than adult mouse), and if at some point you want to switch to P/K or F/T do it one step at the time, once your BP is switched to rats and ate successfully 3 to 4 times, try to switch to PK or F/T if that is what you want.

Also avoid stunned rats this is cruel and not necessary, and could also cause problems making the rat more aggressive if he wakes up.

Balls can sometimes be pretty picky about their food so transitioning to a different type can sometimes be difficult. If you want to switch over to rats one thing that we have done is putting the scent of the mouse onto the rat. We have done this by putting dirty mouse bedding in with the rat for an hour or so. And if the ball eats it this way a few times you can stop using the mouse bedding and they will hopefully eat. I also believe that it is true that small rats cant penetrate the skin but that is just from my experience. And rats, especially younger ones will not try to "attack" the snake. I think rats are actually MUCH less aggressive than mice.

Rapheal (my snake) is an inch to an inch and a half in diameter at his thickest part is that to small? And ya im not going to stun the rats anymore it is cruel i hate it. So you guys would suggest just feed the rat live?

That's a debatable can of worms that we won't get in to.

Myself, among many others, have had great success with feeding live. If you feel comfortable doing it, then do it with supervision. If not, use f/t or p/k. You can also try using a CO2 method

im not big on the whole f/t feeding...

I don't mind it. My normal eats F/t adults mice. He will pretty much eat anything I throw in there. Ill work on my spider once I think she has established a good feeding schedule with me.

A lot of people don't like the idea of dead bagged mice in their freezer. I don't really mind it since it is sitting next to a bag of ground up dead cow, and sliced dead cow with some cut up chicken. Thats the way I look at it. Plus they are sealed.

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Originally Posted by bjfoste1

Rapheal (my snake) is an inch to an inch and a half in diameter at his thickest part is that to small? And ya im not going to stun the rats anymore it is cruel i hate it. So you guys would suggest just feed the rat live?

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Feeding live or F/T is up to you! Feed what work and what is convenient to you, however if you do want to feed F/T or P/K make sure to convert your BP to rat first if it is what you want to do, trying to switch to both rat and F/T or P/K in the same time will be very hard.

Like I said before one step at the time and remember starting with a rat the same size than the mouse you usually feed might be a good idea as well at least until your BP eats rats on a regular basis.

With mine, I went for quite some time feeding two live mice before switching to rats.

Mine switched easily but now that I think of it, he may have had some help. See, many months before I switched him I got a larger snake that eats rats. Whenever I got feeders from the store, they just chucked the mice and rat in a box together. So, he had been getting rat-scented mice for some time. Perhaps you could get them pre-scented at the store when you buy them?


btw, I can sympathize about the F/T thing. For some reason it just grosses me out. I feed my corn F/T and I just can't seem to get used to thawing those suckers out! :puke:

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Originally Posted by Brimstone111888

...A lot of people don't like the idea of dead bagged mice in their freezer. I don't really mind it since it is sitting next to a bag of ground up dead cow, and sliced dead cow with some cut up chicken. Thats the way I look at it. Plus they are sealed.

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Ditto...I put mine in a black plastic bag in the freezer. I was totally against F/T, but once I found out how convenient and cost-effective it was, I made the switch.

Fiancee still not too keen on it though...

I had just the opposite problem!!! My BP would only eat live baby rats. But then the "rodent police" at my local pet shop got wise to me and wouldn't sell me any more rats. I tried everything else, FT with the hair dryer trick, pre-scenting, and the little mouse dance, even live mice, to no avail.

I was finally able to get her to take a live mouse by keeping the room completely dark and just leaving her alone with it for a few hours. Obviously you wouldn't want to leave your BP alone with a live adult rat. I should have given much more thought to the availability of live food before I started with rats. I would like to switch her back some day but I will have breeders in place next time so the nice folks at Dave's Soda and Pet City can keep all their rats safe from me.

One poster mentioned scenting with another rodent.

I switched all my snakes to rats, and the ones that are on mice are on F/T. I didn't like raising mice and wasn't having much success keeping a consistent supply of feeders handy.

I kept the bedding from a few of the mice and would use it to scent my rat pups with. I would put them in it and use it to prescent the room.

Had a few refusals, and reluctant feeds, but managed to switch over the last few holdouts.

As noted, it takes time and may need to an incremental process.

Bruce