Is it one jcp that is stuck on mice or two? In the first post you say you have a pair on mice but the last post make it seem like it's just one.

Carpets are generally great eatters so switching over isn't usally a big deal. It seems like you got one of the few picky ones.

The fact that it is healthy is good. Snakes can easily go for months without eatting so as long as the snake stays healthy it could just be a waiting game on your hands. You don't really have to worry about a snake starving itself to death. It might not want to take the rat at first but it eventually will when it gets desperate enough. There is the odd time some snakes won't switch back but generally if you wait long enough they will change over.

When I have switched from mice to rats I have never really had to wait longer then a month for a snake to take the rat. When I have tried to switch from live to f/t I have waited months. I just switched 2 sand boas to f/t and it took both of them 3 months before they finally took the f/t, now they eat it everytime. In about a month more I would have given up hope but luckily the switched.

I would reccomend trying to feed it less often. RIght now you said weekly, but I would do it every second week, mabey even every third week. Sometimes starving them out longer will make them want to eat more. Also if you are handling them I would stop doing that until I got them switched. It can help sometimes. It's just less stress on them. Also if the snake doesn't want to eat, jsut trying to feed it more often can make it not want to eat more.

I would mabey try giving it a bigger rat. If it's eatting 8 mice it should be able to do a bigger rat ( but not too big) and sometimes when the prey is more developed and has more fur on it the snakes can be more interested in them. Usually giving a smaller prey can help but pups a still in the developing stages of life so something more developed might interest it more. Even jsut a small right could be big enough.

Stick with the evening feedings. He will be more awake so that can help.

One thing is now that you stopped trying mice don't give it a mouse again. If it gets another mouse the chances of swtiching it over lowers a lot. It's waiting for the food that it wants so if you give it to him now he will think that all he has to do is wait to get it so that's something he would jsut keep doing in the future. Once he realizes he has to settle for the rat he will take it.

Letting the rat run around in the mouse shavings can sometimes give it enough of a mosue smell to help.

I have never tried this but I have heard some people to wash the rat with a mild soap to get it's scent off then rubbing it with a mouse to make it smell like a mouse.

Pre-scenting the room can help too. putting a mosue in the room in the morning and leaving it there for the day then trying to feed at night.

All the prescenting stuff though I never do myself. I find just the waiting game has always worked for me but if you want to try some of them go ahead.


One time I had trouble getting a snake to switch from live to f/t so one thing I tried was holding a live mouse out side of the tank so the snake could see it through the glass then I put the f/t mouse in front of it's face and it took it. It worked when I did it but I only tried it that one time so I am not sure how affective it can really be for others.

Hopefully some of this might help. If it was my snake what I would do is jsut try feeding it the rat every two weeks until it ate it. As long as the snake stayed healthy i'd just wait it out until he takes it. Nothing fancy really but the waiting game generally works.