Struggling to feed rat to BP

[Blitzjg]

My 2.5 year old BP, who has been on frozen mice for awhile, he will eat 2 adults now, is big enough for larger prey. He tends to be somewhat fickle, but he has not shown much interest in thawed small rats. At first I thought it was a heat issue but I made sure this last attempt was really warm, he "smelled" and then retracted into his hide. Should I buy a live small rat and try that? Problem is I wouldn't know what to do if he didn't eat it. I just fed my corn so I couldn't try to pawn it off on him, and reptile stores are super far from where I live.

[JodanOrNoDan]

Make the rat mouse flavored. Freeze and warm the mouse and rat together then feed the rat. I had two snakes that wanted only mice. They are now "cured". I would reuse the mouse up to three times then feed the mouse off to my garbage disposal snake that will eat anything at any time. You get some really good mouse juice going this way. It is gross but it works. I don't know if it made a difference or not but I also used rats that were primary white like the mice that they had eaten previously. Eventually the snake will just take the rat without mouse sauce.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Sometimes switching requires tough love which means it could take months without food before the animal switches, and of course it should only be done if the animal is healthy and has a good body weight.

Also keep in mind not all will switch and the important is to feed what works, nothing wrong with feeding mice if that is what works.

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[200xth]

My 2.5 year old BP, who has been on frozen mice for awhile, he will eat 2 adults now, is big enough for larger prey. He tends to be somewhat fickle, but he has not shown much interest in thawed small rats. At first I thought it was a heat issue but I made sure this last attempt was really warm, he "smelled" and then retracted into his hide. Should I buy a live small rat and try that? Problem is I wouldn't know what to do if he didn't eat it. I just fed my corn so I couldn't try to pawn it off on him, and reptile stores are super far from where I live.

If you already have him on FT, you might want to avoid trying live. Sometimes they don't want to go back to frozen after eating live.

Some of them just don't like rats. If you try switching him and he doesn't take the FT rats, you may want to try jumbo mice.

They're about 35g to 40g, similar to a weaned rat.

Adult males don't need a lot of food. Some of them only eat four or five times a year, so a jumbo a week should be fine and you'll still have plenty of weeks where they don't eat. If you're really worried about him getting enough to eat in a single meal, you can give him two jumbos.

[Blitzjg]

How warm would you let the mouse/rat combo get before removing the mouse for refreezing?

I'd feel bad keeping it on adult mice since I assume he'll get big enough to need 3-4 per feed when he's larger

[JodanOrNoDan]

Just soft enough they mush together in the baggy. I defrost in ziplocks in warm water. Make sure you bring them up to a good temp together before you feed. I think it is the warm up that really gets the mouse stink on the rat. Also the hungrier the better. I try to make food changes a couple days after a shed or defecation. Good luck, I have heard some just will not convert but I have not had it happen to me yet.

[Kimchi~]

What I did is thaw both a mouse and a rat. But first I put the mouse on my feeding tongs and swung it around the cage to perk her interest and get her out of her hide. Then I immediately switched the mouse on the tongs for the rat, and shook the rat until it was striked. To make sure she ate the rat, I placed the mouse in the same cage near her while she ate the rat so she thought she was eating a rat, not a mouse.

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