what is the next step?

[paroxysm]

hey.
the second-to-last time my ball python ate was april 30th, when he ate a live mouse.
throughout all of april, i have been offering both frozen mice and frozen rats of different sizes, using different heating methods. no luck.

he was weighing around 180g and now he is at around 150g.

so today i euthanized a mouse w the dry ice method. gave it to him and he took it right away.

the problem is, the place where i buy feeders from only has very small mice, so i am trying to switch him to rats.
should i give him a live rat? prekilled rat? frozen rat? should i continue with prekilled mice, switch to frozen mice, and then to rats?
just don't know what my next step is.

thank you

[paroxysm]

any input would be appreciated

[rufretic]

I like to go straight to what I want them to eat, f/t rats, and then let them starve for a little so they get hungry enough to eat what I want and not to waste a whole lot of time messing around with switching more times than necessary. The problem with your situation is he's lost weight. You need to fatten him up with whatever he is eating now. Once he is at a healthy weight, he can afford to skip a couple meals in the switch over.

[paroxysm]

okay, so i'm going to keep feeding him prekilled mice and try rats as well until he gains his weight back for me to try f/t rats. thank you!

[rock]

Definitely get a few more meals in him before you switch anything. FWIW, my two BPs and Bredli all switched from mice to rat pups without skipping a beat. I feed live, so fresh killed may be just as easy for you to make the jump.

To me, it seems more difficult to switch from live/fresh to f/t.