At what point do you just say "she's a mouse/live eater"?

[hungba]

Everyone wants to switch their snakes to f/t rats which I understand why, but at what point if a snake either 1) eats nothing else than live mice after you've tried for 3/4 of a year, or 2) eats MUCH better on live mice (i.e. every week instead of once every 4 or 5), do you just say ok that one is a mouser/live eater?

Most of my snakes eat f/t rats but two fit the two descriptions above. I tried everything and finally got the non-eater to eat for the last three weeks straight by giving live mice (6-7 of them eat time, once per week). I tried live rat that was bigger but she is scared of it. And then tried with the one that wasn't eating well on f/t but did eat now and then (would constrict f/t rats if scented with mice once every 2 - 3 weeks, but only actually ate it every 2 - 3 times that it constricted), and she also took them mice every time.

I set up some mice breeding boxes and bought a colony that someone put on the classifieds not sure how that will work out they had one litter so far from a female that was already pregnant.

[John Marker]

While it took me a couple of years to admit that I couldn't get them to switch, I have 3 that are live mousers. Since I have started offering live mice to those snakes, they have put on weight so much faster than when I was attempting to get them to eat rats.

Yes, now I breed mice too, only because of them, but I have found that to be a very easy thing to do. I ended up with 3 colonies of 1.5 mice, in order to keep up with their appetites. At times I do have a few to many, my normal total count on mice is about 150 - 175, but it makes it real easy to start a new colony when one becomes in need of replacement.

Hope this helps,

John

[rabernet]

Not everyone wants to switch to f/t. I feed live exclusively. Don't get caught up in the f/t is better than live debate. It's simply not true. One is not better than the other.

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[TerrieL]

I'm glad to see this question posted too. I have 1 girl that I have spent the last year getting her to take F/T. What makes it so frustrating with her is that she will maybe take a f/t every 4th or 5th week offered. Since I knew she would take one occasionally, if she did not eat F/T when offered, I did not offer again till the next week. I have finally decided that I am happier to see her eat once a week even if it is live, than hoping each week that she will take a F/T and maybe only getting 1 meal in a month if I was lucky.

[ballpythonluvr]

My male normal is exclusively a mouser and will ONLY eat live mice. It can be a pain in the butt feeding multiple mice but he is growing just as well as if he were eating rats. This boy is very picky and is known for going on fasts so I am going to feed him whatever he wants. I am just glad that he is eating at all.

[hungba]

Yes, now I breed mice too, only because of them, but I have found that to be a very easy thing to do. I ended up with 3 colonies of 1.5 mice, in order to keep up with their appetites. At times I do have a few to many, my normal total count on mice is about 150 - 175, but it makes it real easy to start a new colony when one becomes in need of replacement.

Hope this helps,

John

Do you find the effort and cost of breeding the mice (mice food, substrate etc.) justifies it? Or am I better off just buying the mice every week? I have 2 colonies set up and two more boxes for keeping the weaned ones, and it doesn't smell as bad as I thought it would but it does smell. Also the mice food (I can find the mazuri brand) is not cheap. A 2 pound bag is same price as I would spend on the mice for those snakes per week and they are going through it quite fast, and I don't have enough to justify buying a 25 pound bag. Thus far the only litter has been the already pregnant female and its only been a bit over a week but none of the other females look pregnant or anything and I never saw any mating (though I don't look at them all the time).

Basically they are really yucky and I want to just feed them off and buy mice every week but the mice boxes I made are so well made and "cool" and it makes me feel smart so I don't want to give up yet! LOL!

There are reptile shops near my gym and I can pick them up easily. They are usually very small though about 18 - 20 gram mice not full grown ones.