My snake is addicted!

To mice. I tried feeding her her first rat today, she wasn't interested!

I even rubbed mouse bedding all over the rat.


How do you guys ween your bp's off mice, to rats?

should this have gone in the general bp section?

Wait a little bit. Try again later, maybe she'll come around and take a rat anyway. Later being next week. :gj:

Some remain mouse eaters for their whole lives. Be patient and keep trying, but if you have a mouser on your hands, it' not the end of the world. Many keepers have a mouser or two in their collections.

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Originally Posted by Slim

Some remain mouse eaters for their whole lives. Be patient and keep trying, but if you have a mouser on your hands, it' not the end of the world. Many keepers have a mouser or two in their collections.

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im cool with her eating mice and all but being that they are smaller and i would have to get 3-4 it, gets expensive.

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Originally Posted by zackw419

im cool with her eating mice and all but being that they are smaller and i would have to get 3-4 it, gets expensive.

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Trust me, I totally understand that, and you should keep trying to make the switch, but I just wanted you to know that some never do.

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Originally Posted by Slim

Trust me, I totally understand that, and you should keep trying to make the switch, but I just wanted you to know that some never do.

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Alright, well thanks for your input. Im going to persist :)

You could try one trick that helped me with my JCP... if you really want him to try to feed on rats, you can give him a regular sized mouse and then when he's swallowing that, *GENTLY* place a very small rat inside his mouth. He should continue to swallow the rat along with the mouse.

If I am switching a snake over and making any changes, I ALWAYS skip the first meal, sometimes two depending on the snake.

Letting them build up some hunger can be a VERY good thing.

Bruce

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Originally Posted by DutchHerp

You could try one trick that helped me with my JCP... if you really want him to try to feed on rats, you can give him a regular sized mouse and then when he's swallowing that, *GENTLY* place a very small rat inside his mouth. He should continue to swallow the rat along with the mouse.

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is he able to register that he just ate a rat after that? I want her, to want to eat rats.

thanks bruce im going to try to do so.

I've only heard about it with carpets, and the guy had a very picky JCP, who after several of the feedings just described had his snake take rats voluntarily.

:)

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Originally Posted by DutchHerp

I've only heard about it with carpets, and the guy had a very picky JCP, who after several of the feedings just described had his snake take rats voluntarily.

:)

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hm, interesting

My snakes used to reject rats too! My best suggestion would to ask the petstore to drop the rat in with the mice for a few minutes, so the rat will smell like a mouse. (or take the rat home in mouse bedding) Eventually, your snake will associate rats with food again. :)

When we've changed mousers over we just did the tough love deal. No mice, no smell of mice, skip 2 weeks of food offering, then offer a nice plump rat of a small size (pink, fuzzy or very young pup). Something easy for that size of snake to catch. Most of ours switched over fairly easily. I do have some VERY dedicated ASF's eaters but they tend to be the wild caught rescues we've taken in and a couple of picky eaters.

Some bp's like Slim said are very prey specific so you can only try and see how it goes.

I'd hate to just feed mice... I mean, my normal is only 570g but he would have to take at least four at a time...

I hated feeding live mice for two reasons - #1 mice stink! one or two mice in the snake room stink worse than 100 of my rats I swear! - #2 for some really stupid reason I'm afraid of mice. I can work all day long with big rats and the ASF's and I'm good to go, a mouse feeder gets loose and I'm on a chair screeching like a damn fool. :oops:

Mice are very nasty creatures. Funny that rats get the bad rap, and a Mouse runs Disney Land.

That mouse had a better PR agent! :mad:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

When we've changed mousers over we just did the tough love deal. No mice, no smell of mice, skip 2 weeks of food offering, then offer a nice plump rat of a small size (pink, fuzzy or very young pup). Something easy for that size of snake to catch. Most of ours switched over fairly easily. I do have some VERY dedicated ASF's eaters but they tend to be the wild caught rescues we've taken in and a couple of picky eaters.

Some bp's like Slim said are very prey specific so you can only try and see how it goes.

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so its a good idea to start small. the rat I am offering is bigger than the mice she has been eating. I should of though of this. :oops:

Kevin McCurley shared a trick with me that worked a time or two. When you pick up your rat from the pet store, ask them for a small handful of dirty mouse bedding. Put a handful into the snake's enclosure at the front and watch your snake. When he/she starts coming out of their hide, actively tongue flicking and looking for that mouse it can smell, drop in the small rat.

Worked like a charm for a few weeks, until she caught onto the trick! LOL

After that - I've converted every mouser in my colony to rats by using tough love (note, this should only be used on animals that are healthy weight, and older - I wouldn't use this on babies). I'd offer a rat each week, never a mouse. Eventually, they've all converted.

If you "give in" and give them a mouse because you feel badly that they haven't eaten, then you need to start the tough love clock over again.

With all that said - the animal's health always comes first - if they are rapidly losing weight (which a healthy animal shouldn't) - stop tough love and give them them the mice.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Kevin McCurley shared a trick with me that worked a time or two. When you pick up your rat from the pet store, ask them for a small handful of dirty mouse bedding. Put a handful into the snake's enclosure at the front and watch your snake. When he/she starts coming out of their hide, actively tongue flicking and looking for that mouse it can smell, drop in the small rat.

Worked like a charm for a few weeks, until she caught onto the trick! LOL

After that - I've converted every mouser in my colony to rats by using tough love (note, this should only be used on animals that are healthy weight, and older - I wouldn't use this on babies). I'd offer a rat each week, never a mouse. Eventually, they've all converted.

If you "give in" and give them a mouse because you feel badly that they haven't eaten, then you need to start the tough love clock over again.

With all that said - the animal's health always comes first - if they are rapidly losing weight (which a healthy animal shouldn't) - stop tough love and give them them the mice.

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Yeah, i tried scenting the rat with mouse bedding already. Im going to try the tough love thing for a few weeks. My first step is getting a smaller rat.