My lemon patel the MOUSER

[twoyrbrat]

Four days ago, I got my male hatchling Lemon pastel ( 2 mos). What a fabulous little boy he is and so YELLOW. I bought him from a local BP breeder/Collector and he has informed me that this little guy will only eat mice. He has tried a fuzzy rat...to no avail. He is fixed on hopper mice and will more than likely stay with older mice as he grows. A first for me, and a first for my friend who has been around these BP for many years. I am convinced that each of my snakes are so different from one another, just like people.
FWI...tried and experiment with feeding this guy. My friend says he always ate from his hide. I put him in my feeder box. Hopper mouse was consumed at lightning speed. Well done.

[loonunit]

He's only 2 months old? You can probably switch him pretty easy. I switch them over by feeding smaller two prey items per meal, one right after the other. Like this guy, he can easily eat two hopper mice in a row... and they tend to be less picky about the 2nd item than they are about the first. So feed him a hopper, then follow with a rat fuzzy. If he takes it, you can try leading with a rat fuzzy next time.

ps. is he eating f/t or live?

[ewaldrep]

Live, pre-k, or f/t? I have a baby ball that is around 2-3 months old that has only been fed live mice and I want to switch him over to f/t rats, any tips would be welcome. Thanks and glad to hear the new addition is doing well!

[loonunit]

Same advice. I switch them from live to f/t the exact same way. For hatchlings it generally takes 3 or so feedings to make the switch; adults can take months.

(But every single animal in my collection older than 3 months is currently eating f/t rats. Boo-yah!)

(That took some doing, let me tell you...)

[JKPCONSTRICTORS]

Here's the method I use:

First, like has been mentioned, I'll feed them 2 mice at a time, one right after the other, for a few weeks or so. Sometimes I keep them on the 2 mice per feeding for a few months if they're slow growers.

When it's approaching feeding day again and I'm going to offer a rat for the first time I'll move one of the rat tubs near their cage and leave it. I'll move it near their cage maybe 3 days before they're going to be fed so they've been steadily catching the scent. I like to check on them a lot to see if they're roaming around. I don't offer the rat until I've noticed behavior that says to me they're ready to eat. When I do offer the rat they usually tag it immediately. I haven't had very many that have been stubborn about switching over, so maybe I've just been lucky, but I've been using this method for a little over 10 years and it's always worked. If it doesn't work the first time, keep doing it. The longest I've ever had to keep this up for was maybe a month.

I breed my own mice and rats, so it's obviously easier for me than it would be somebody who doesn't, but even if you just buy a rat a few days ahead of time and can keep it in a little cage near your snake's enclosure it should work the same.

If you use f/t, instead of thawing the rat out in water set in on paper tower and let it thaw out overnight near your snake and you should get a similar result.