Question about upping food size...

[maverickgtr]

So my female bp is about 2 feet and still on medium mice. She's eating about two every week so I want to bump her up to rats, but I've heard that ball pythons should be gradually transferred to a new food type or they'll just refuse it. So would it be best to get large mice then to a proper sized rat or should I do large mice then small rats then a more appropriate sized rat? Or does it even matter and I'm just over-thinking it? She's never really just flat refused a meal except for a two month-ish winter fast this past winter and then a month fast in the spring when the temperatures plummeted again. She didn't even refuse a meal a few days after a cross country move and a move to new tanks upon arriving.

[grits]

A young rat the same size as the mice you were feeding is what I would start with.

[WingedWolfPsion]

If you dip the young rat in mouse pee, you'll have the best chance of her taking it on the first try.

[maverickgtr]

I don't really have access to mouse pee... I've heard about tuna juice and chicken broth instead, would that work too?

I forgot to mention she's on frozen thawed. I don't know if it would affect any advice or anything so I thought I'd mention it...

Wait... our male only takes live mice and they always pee in the box they give us them in, so would putting the f/t rat in that box be enough [kinda rub it a round a bit?] of a mouse scent do you think?

[iCandiBallPythons]

Ive always thawed mice with the rats and have never had a conversion problem

[Slashrocks01]

When i switched my male pastel to rats he took like a champ, hasnt refused a meal yet

[maverickgtr]

Unfortunately our male only takes live mice. We only have the two of them, though I'm always certainly looking... haha I can put the f/t rat in the box we get the mice in though, since we have to get live mice tomorrow as well as new f/t.

But pretty much the general consensus is to get a rat that's about the same size as the mice we've been feeding her and then upping the size of the rats later? And getting the rat/s to smell like the mice for the first couple times?

Also, if they're the same size, should I offer two rats? I last offered two medium mice and she readily took both so if they're the same size should I offer it just the same as I did before?

Sorry for all the questions. My bf was taking care of my bp for me after I first got her (my roommate wasn't too keen on the idea of snakes but we eased her into them and now she loves both my bp and my bf's bp [he moved in so both snakes are here now]) and I did research during all that time and still now but I'm trying to not ask him too many questions because I want to do it by myself. She is mine after all.

[iCandiBallPythons]

I would only go for 1 smal rat at a time for the time being then keep the prey around the size of the widest girth of the snake, the largest I feed is a medium rat to my adult bp's

[dr del]

Hi,

Sometimes you get lucky with the switch - a couple of feedings ago I switched three snakes over from F/T mice to F/T rats with no trouble at all. It all depends on the snakes but I would always just be prepared to eat the cost of two uneaten F/T rats for the first week of trying and probably for the next feeding after that as well before trying any tricks.

The extra weeks hunger might help persuade them on the second week.

I never feed any of my snakes anything larger than a small rat but I would try and get a rat about the same weight as two mice or even slightly smaller for the intitial switchover.

Just give the head an extra blast with the hair drier to see if that makes them a little more keen.


dr del