Lost The Taste For Rats?

[Cissin]

First off Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you had a great holiday. I wish the weather was warmer and maybe I could of got some snakes for Christmas.

Okay to the issue...

I bought a Firefly a little over 2 months ago and the breeder was feeding him live Mice. Well once I got him all situated I started to feed him F/T Rat Fuzzies. He ate them without issue and the switch from live to F/T was effortless. About 3 weeks ago he refused his meal. He struck at it a few times but wouldn't take it. I even left it inside his tub for a few hours to see if that would do the trick. So a few days after that I tried again and he still wouldn't take it.

After the third time of him refusing I went out and bought a F/T Adult Mouse and he took it within seconds of me dangling it in front of his hide. Just today I tried a Rat Fuzzie again and he wouldn't take it. So after giving that Fuzzie to another snake I went down and thawed out another Mouse. He took it from me again without hesitation.

So yeah... I'm not really sure what I'm getting at here but has anyone else ever had this issue? Do you have any advice on getting him back onto Rats. All my BP's eat F/T Rats and I would really like to get him back onto Rats ASAP if it's possible. Next week I'm going to try thawing a Mouse and a Rat out in the same cup and see if he will take the Rat if it's scented with a Mouse. Besides that does anyone have any tips on getting him back onto Rats?

[PitOnTheProwl]

To get him back on to rats your will has to be stronger than his.
Keep track of his weight, he will not starve himself to death.

[Skep]

Yeah, definitely try thawing the mouse and rat out in the same cup, maybe rub the mouse on the rat a little bit to definitely get the scent on there. I heard someone say that they fed their ball python a small mouse, and then immediately after the BP swallowed the mouse, they offered the regular sized rat, and he/she took it without hesitation. This way the BP was still in "hunting mode." You could also offer him his rat, but if he doesn't take it, don't feed him anything. Even if it takes a couple weeks, he might get hungry enough that he'll take it. Good luck!

[jasonmcgilvrey83]

U can also go to a pet store and asked for some of the used mouse bedding that u can roll the rat in before u feed it to him. Worked for me during the switch for a friend's albino.

[Andys-Python]

yep - scenting the rat with mouse or mouse bedding works every time for me. I raise my own rodents so I put the feeder rats with the feeder mice and pick out what I want/need to feed at the time.

I'm not crazy about switching from mice to rats until the snake can eat a rat with plenty of fur. Rat pinkies usually give my snakes runny poo.