? for those of you that have mouse eating BP's

[5snakes]

I bought a female pastel BP from a reputable breeder exactly two weeks ago. She is just over 900g and over 2 years old. The breeder said she was a good eater but he could not get her to eat F/T rats, just F/T mice. She ate two 25g mice for me today and I am just happy she ate after having her for a short period of time. I am going to attempt to get her to eat F/T rats and scenting them with the F/T mice. BUT, if she does not, will she still gain good weight if she continues to eat 2 F/T adult mice each week? I am trying to get her to 1500 grams so she can breed this winter. I would think the mice should get her to a healthy weight in 5+ months. Do any of you have adult BP's that only eat mice? Thanks for any information and/or advice.

My ball python ate a rat once and then regurged. he is partial to mice I believe. I have had him for a couple three years now. He was a rescue. I went and got him out of this house where they had heat rocks, and he was being burnt from them. Also, he was infested with mites. I believe he was tramatized. I just now , this past week have been giving him very small rats and he seems to be doing fine with them. he wasn`t gaining the weight I wanted him to, so I tried the rat again. no problem so far, but he is older now. I would, from my experience stick to hoppers maybe if you want to put him on rats, and then try to go up from there. I always feed live prey, so it might be different , but this is mt 2 cents anyways. Happy herping!!

[rj1204]

The breeder I got her from advised me that she has been growing and eating perfectly and her one flaw is he could not get her to take rats. She has only been with me for 2 weeks so I am going to continue to feed her mice and get better acclimated for a bit. Since all my other BP's eat F/T rats, I am going to ATTEMPT to scent the small rats with the mouse and see if she will take a rat first. If and when she doesn't, I think I will just do 2, possibly 3 adult mice. Of course, if she does not put good weight on by November, I will not breed her. However, she sits on her heat during the day and when I come into the room, she has been very active, which she did not show any sign of being like this until after she ate 4 nights ago.....so I think eating 50-75g of mice will help her put on weight.

I have a 700g male that I am probably going to put on hoppers. So hopefully I can get her to take a hopper. F/T is just easier for me since I only have 8 BP's.

[GoingPostal]

My male eats nothing but mice, I've had him 4 years and he gets 2-3 mice a week now, he's around 1800 grams and puts on weight fine. Why not let her gain weight normally, I really don't grasp all this mass feeding to get a female to breeding weight rather than letting them grow at their own pace. Fat weight isn't healthy weight, this is snake that will live 20+ years, what's the rush?

[rj1204]

I never said anything about mass feeding to get my girl to breeding weight. I just want her to eat what she should.........thus she would be at breeding weight by November. I want her to get the proper amount or weight of rodents so she is healthy. My other girls that are the same size eat 70-80 grams of rats each week compared to her eating 50 grams of mice each week. That is what the post is about. No mass feeding, no fat weight, just a good, healthy female snake at the proper breeding weight. I also stated if she wasn't at a good weight, I wouldn't breed her. My concern was if I fed her 2 mice per week, she was not getting the proper amount of food.....which has been more then answered by those with mice-eating BP's.

[5snakes]

The breeder I got her from advised me that she has been growing and eating perfectly and her one flaw is he could not get her to take rats. She has only been with me for 2 weeks so I am going to continue to feed her mice and get better acclimated for a bit. Since all my other BP's eat F/T rats, I am going to ATTEMPT to scent the small rats with the mouse and see if she will take a rat first. If and when she doesn't, I think I will just do 2, possibly 3 adult mice. Of course, if she does not put good weight on by November, I will not breed her. However, she sits on her heat during the day and when I come into the room, she has been very active, which she did not show any sign of being like this until after she ate 4 nights ago.....so I think eating 50-75g of mice will help her put on weight.

I have a 700g male that I am probably going to put on hoppers. So hopefully I can get her to take a hopper. F/T is just easier for me since I only have 8 BP's.

I think that is a good idea. Balls are sometimes finiky so if he is eating mice, then that is what you should feed him. I don`t think there is any need to rush onto rats. I have 5 constrictors. different kinds. they are in the gallery if you are interested. 3 pythons and 2 boas.

[Quiet Tempest]

I've never had any trouble getting any of my balls to take rats, but I do have an adult jungle carpet python that absolutely refuses to have anything to do with a rat. It doesn't matter if it's live, freshly killed, or thawed. He tracks it the same way he does with mice but as soon as he can smell it up close, he backs off and waits for me to get rid of it. He's the most frustrating snake we have. I bought him as a yearling and have had him for over ten years now. Feeding him half a dozen mice or so at a feeding is time consuming and so aggravating. I've tricked him to eat a weanling/small rat only twice in the years that we've had him. Thankfully, I have several breeder friends and connections with one of the vendors for local pet shops so I can get feeder mice for little to nothing but I'd much rather that this guy would eat medium/large rats like the other JCPs..

If you have an oppurtunity to transition your little ones to rats early on, by all means do so. It's been my experience that the older the snake is, the more stubborn they can be.

[5snakes]

The breeder I got her from advised me that she has been growing and eating perfectly and her one flaw is he could not get her to take rats. She has only been with me for 2 weeks so I am going to continue to feed her mice and get better acclimated for a bit. Since all my other BP's eat F/T rats, I am going to ATTEMPT to scent the small rats with the mouse and see if she will take a rat first. If and when she doesn't, I think I will just do 2, possibly 3 adult mice. Of course, if she does not put good weight on by November, I will not breed her. However, she sits on her heat during the day and when I come into the room, she has been very active, which she did not show any sign of being like this until after she ate 4 nights ago.....so I think eating 50-75g of mice will help her put on weight.

I have a 700g male that I am probably going to put on hoppers. So hopefully I can get her to take a hopper. F/T is just easier for me since I only have 8 BP's.

I always used my gut instinct. It has never failed me. I say, don`t rush her into anything. I think you have the right idea. as I said, go with your gut. You won`t be sorry.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I have one annoying mouser albino who is a finicky eater...sometimes she will take up to 3 mice in a feeding. Often, she skips a week or two, or accepts only 1 mouse. I'm trying to get her interested in ASFs. She is an '07 and is only 1100 grams. I wanted this to be her first breeding year, but I'm not at all sure she is going to make it.

I had a mouser pastel, but she suddenly started taking rats for me after she came out of her '900 gram winter fast'. That may be the best time to try to get any ball python to accept new food. Females coming back on feed after the winter season can become ravenous enough to eat almost anything.

[MarkS]

You can of course keep her on mice, but please be aware as she gets bigger, she'll eat 5 or 6 mice in a sitting, maybe more.

At 900 grams, 10% of her weight is 90 grams, so she'd need 3-4 25 gram mice just to maintain her weight.

I'm not saying it can't be done, I know people here who have mice eaters, but you better be prepared for the work it involves.

Gale

Where is this idea coming from? 10%?? I've got several females between 2000-3000 grams and they still never get anything bigger then a medium rat, and most are still on smalls. Although I'll occasionally throw them something bigger, my personal rule of thumb is to not feed anything larger then 100 grams to a ball python.

[rj1204]

Yeah, I'm not sure about the 10% rule (at least not for adults). I am considering purchasing a 3000g female and I do not see me feeding her more than one 90-100g rat every week.

As far as switching her to rats, I may just give it a try later or like WingedWolf said, maybe after the season. She would not take the mice I offered her last week so I just left two of them on the cool side of her tub. I came back 3-4 hours later around 2am and they were gone.....eaten. I may just leave a F/T weaned rat in her tub and see if she takes it next time. It seems that she is just a shy eater and likes mice for whatever reason.