Mice or rats? Help please.

[marleylife23]

I was told by a guy at the pet store that it would be ok to feed my bp rats. But at the pet store, they were feeding him live mice. Would the transition from mice to rats be too much for him? Would that make him grow faster? And would the rats have to be live as well?

[KMG]

Much of that depends on the snake. Many will switch from mice to rats and from live to frozen with little fuss. Others resist. You really won't know until you try. Rats are great for feeding especially as your snake gets larger. Rats allow for feeding one proper size rat instead of many mice to equal the same amount.

[marleylife23]

Ok great! Thank you so much for responding!

[Saber402]

Definitely move to rats! Most pet stores feed mice because mice are cheaper (they make more money selling their rats than mice), and they tend to feed small prey items less frequently to keep the snakes smaller while for sale. It's easier to sell a "cute" baby snake than a juvenile or adult.

[Velrys]

Agreed definitely rats,definitely... heh

KMG is right though some can make the change over let than smoothly. It's all about the snake knowing what food looks like. I would suggest changing one factor at a time and not until you have a.. 120 gram animal to work with.

So I think a good plan would be to get him eating live rats. Once he knows that food smells like rats and is eating them without a problem, with live I've found the switch over to be easier. Then you can make the switch to frozen. Find a system that works for heating them to just a bit over live, they wont hold heat long so you have to feed quickly after heating hence the overdoing heat just a little.

I switched over from live to frozen about a year ago, it honestly wasn't as bad as i thought it would be and I save a ton of money on food because of rodent pro. Though feeding frozen takes WAY longer than feeding live.

[marleylife23]

Thank you all for the great replies!!!

[KMG]

A technique I use is thawing and heating frozen mice with rats. This crosses the scents and I have had great success switching over to rats.

Since you're in Houston you should check out BulkMice.com since your local. They have a great quality of feeders and you save a ton picking them up vs. getting them shipped.