Switched to rats....in a big way!

[Brion99]

So I've been mentioning to my brother every once in awhile that I (like pretty much everyone) wants to switch my mouser to rats eventually, perfectly normal. Well he knows I have a rat eating Enchi coming in a few weeks and I guess he figured now was a good time, as I sent him to get my Lessers weekly 2 sm mice/smallish medium mouse (as of 2 weeks ago he weighed in at 262 grams), well he comes home with a small rat, being told by the pet store guys that was the equivalent to his 2 sm mouse regular meal..... After getting a look at this rat all I could think was, oh ****, and the store is now closed, so no exchanges. Well I figured let's dangle him in there and we'll just see what happens (my snakes been pretty good at not eating anything too big or small....will either kill it and leave it or just ignore it), and sure enough (after I finally got a good grip on him....not used to something that strong & lively), whack, a perfect head shot, and a second later our little rat friend is deeply in a choke hold with his head firmly controlled so no worries about biting, though i did have to hold his back legs up...he was a fighter, and with such a small snake I was pretty worried. Well anyway, after a lot less problem than I thought he'd have he pounded down the rat and is now chillin in his hide (i friggin love this snake....eats like a monster). Assuming he keeps it down where should I go from here?...another sm rat, if so, how soon?? If not, what should I feed him?

Thx for any help.


Pretty damn pumped he coulda cared less about the rat thing and 0 probs switchin him over.

[spud6]

stay on the same schedual with a rat from now on then id say if they are equivalent in sizes

[slapdirty]

If I think Ive overfed, I usually wait for a poop..

[Brion99]

stay on the same schedual with a rat from now on then id say if they are equivalent in sizes

So another small rat in a week?....thought that'd be more for a 6-700 gram snake (thou he did seem to not have too much of a prob with it).

[Brion99]

If I think Ive overfed, I usually wait for a poop..

What am I looking for?

[Raverthug]

What am I looking for?

lol youll look for a turd. I try to find the thickest point of the snake. thats how big around you want the rat to be. If hes not hungry try feeding again in a day or 2

[Brion99]

lol youll look for a turd. I try to find the thickest point of the snake. thats how big around you want the rat to be. If hes not hungry try feeding again in a day or 2

Oh, just make sure he's not blocked up from it?? He's fairly regular so I should know if thats the case. Just trying to make sure it's not too much.

[Raverthug]

Thats part of it. Some people like to wait untill they are empty to feed others just do it every x days. Just depends.

[RichL]

I think you would be surprised at how small they actually are. For instance, my '11 Pastel male is now @ 186g. When he was at about 150 ish, a couple of weeks ago, I went to get him his weekly food. They didn't have exactly what I needed, so I got the smallest rat I could. It had just been weaned and was eating on it's own. I was worried about it being too big, so I weighed it. Only 21g. Which was on the higher scale of the 'food item should be 10-15% of your snakes weight' idea.

He took it down with no worries in just a few minutes. I of course did step back to the 'regular' size ( pup's ) the next week as not to overfeed him.

I have done the same thing to my female normal that is currently @ about 1100g. I've had to feed her a large rat from time to time. She seems to take it down with ease in a matter of minutes.

They can handle larger meals with ease generally, I just don't think it's recommended on a regular basis.

[Brion99]

I think you would be surprised at how small they actually are. For instance, my '11 Pastel male is now @ 186g. When he was at about 150 ish, a couple of weeks ago, I went to get him his weekly food. They didn't have exactly what I needed, so I got the smallest rat I could. It had just been weaned and was eating on it's own. I was worried about it being too big, so I weighed it. Only 21g. Which was on the higher scale of the 'food item should be 10-15% of your snakes weight' idea.

He took it down with no worries in just a few minutes. I of course did step back to the 'regular' size ( pup's ) the next week as not to overfeed him.

I have done the same thing to my female normal that is currently @ about 1100g. I've had to feed her a large rat from time to time. She seems to take it down with ease in a matter of minutes.

They can handle larger meals with ease generally, I just don't think it's recommended on a regular basis.

That's what I was trying to get at...thank you. The thing is now I want to keep him on rats but I'm not sure if I should stick with the smalls....maybe I'll just get the smallest small they have and go from there, cuz it really didn't seem to be a prob for him to woof that thing down (maybe a little longer than usual, but not by that much), and it's not like he had some huge bulge anywhere or anything.

I just checked what they're supposed to weigh abd theres no way that rat was twice the size of the med mice I've fed him so I'm thinkin that pet store just doesn't know the right sizes for rats and/or mice. I'll have to gie them a call this week.