Anyone feed their collection a combo of mice and rats?

[Marrissa]

Sooo I'm probably going to be getting some show mice to start breeding soon. This should be my first breeding season so I figure the mice will really help get any stubborn hatchlings started. Plus the clown and the pied girl are pickier eaters and need a lot of movement, but not so much the size. And honestly I just want to have fun breeding show mice and rats.

So on point, does anyone feed their collection a combo of rats and mice? I would think if I kept them eating both they wouldn't get stuck on the mice. I haven't had a problem switching any of mine to rats so far, even ones that only ate mice at their breeders took a rat for me a few days after arriving.

[decensored]

When I was breeding (bps, rats and asf) I started all my bps on live asf. 3 neals in they were switched to rats. 6 weeks f/t. Nwver had a problem switching once they got started on the asf. At that age once you get them going (in my experience) you can pretty much switch up their prey items without issues, back and forth, they pretty much go for anything. But if I started them on norway rats sometimes it took them a while to take their first meal. I mean, ultimately you want them on rats -but I found that as long as I started offering frozen by the 4th month (at the latest) I bever had a problem switching

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Hatchling are generally voracious and tend to switch very easily whether it is to rats or f/t

I would not go back and forth with the prey type but starting hatchling on mice is a non issue as they usually switch to rat later on without any problem.

I start most on mice and never had any issues converting them however once I change prey I stick to it.


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[Marrissa]

Thanks for the responses. My reason to ask about feeding both is when they grow out of mice size, I'll still need to keep the colony going so I'll need to be able to feed off and cull.

[Wapadi]

I feed mine both....mainly because rats are soooo dang expensive here and sometimes I don't produce enough rats on my own and on top of that I have a friend who needs help getting rid of his extra mice. So I will get a tub full of mice about once a month and everybody get as many mice as they want to eat. I have never had a problem of anyone getting stuck on just the mice....

[kc261]

I raised my own mice for a long time. I did have a few snakes I got that had been feeding on rats at their previous home that were a little slow to switch, but they all did. Those were a couple of juvie girls, around 800 grams, so they'd been eating rats exclusively for a long time.

Then, I decided to switch to raising my own rats because when I got enough snakes my mouse colony got to a certain size it became impossible to keep that ammonia smell from the male mice under control. Again there were a couple of snakes that were reluctant to switch, but they all did.

I have not done the back & forth switching that you are talking about with having both rats & mice available at all times. But I have read on the forums about people who do it, and the general impression I've gotten is that most snakes will be fine with it. A few may get stuck on one or the other, but since your plan is to have both available, it shouldn't be an issue. If you are low on mice, just make sure the ones who don't like rats get priority, and vice versa when you are low on rats.

[OctagonGecko729]

I feed F/T mice and rats and live ASFs. Only a few picky eaters in a 30 BP collection. Breeding males and females that are fasting. The ones that are eating will switch between it all no problems.

[CptJack]

My pastel will switch easily between rats and mice. My normal is stuck on mice. When my normal refuses a meal or a part of a meal (he eats multiples), I toss them to the pastel without issues.

And, really? If you get into a situation you could always just get something like a corn or a kingsnake to act as a mouse garbage disposal.

[CORBIN911]

When they get to a certain size if you cant feed you can just F/T them and keep for later or sell to some local people with snakes!

[Starsnake]

I start all hatchlings on live hoppers and switch to rats as soon as possible. That being said i raise rats and mice, so I eventually feed live rats and mice as well as f/t rats and mice. They eat just about anything after awhile for me.