Is your BP a mouser?

[keebs]

Hey all!

Quick question - how many of you feed mice to your BPs, and as adult snakes, about how many do they get and how frequently?

I have a baby girl right now who I am just beginning to transition to f/t (second snake I've done this with) and she's absolutely refused every rat I've offered her whether p/k or f/t but tonight, after a good long while of refusing, she finally struck and ate a mouse pinky. DEFINITELY too small of a meal for her, but it's a start, and I plan to offer her another in a day or so if she'll have it.

The primary reason I'm making this thread is because I know there's been some heated debate out there in regards to whether rats are more nutritious than mice and I think the conclusion that I've seen is that rats are the better choice - but if you've never managed to switch a BP over to rats, is your snake still doing relatively well on mice? How many do they eat?

I am obviously going to continue to try to switch her to rats as best I can, but you can never be too prepared for other eventualities, right?

Thanks in advance!

[redshepherd]

I don't have mousers anymore, but my first BP was difficult to get on both f/t or rats. Not sure how you're planning on doing it, but I found that it was easier getting him from live mice to f/t mice first. And once he's more consistently taking icky thawed mice, replace them with a thickly mouse-scented similar sized rat, so usually small weaned. Just an off tip!

About the mouse vs. rat thing, the biggest difference is really just feeding one filling meal is much easier and cheaper on you, than multiple mice. The nutritional difference between, say an adult mouse vs. similar sized weaned rat, is so minimal that imo it's a non-issue and the discussion has been really overblown.

[PythonBabes]

Karma had been eating f/t rats for 7 months with me and then all of a sudden started refusing and this went on for a month. I have her on live mice now, haven't had a refusal. This doesn't hurt me in terms of how much the food costs because my local pet store sells live and f/t mice and rats, and live and f/t are the same prices. Now, both of my snakes are on live mice.

If you have no problem feeding her mice, I would keep her on them. I've heard that neither is more nutritious than the other.

[Ogre]

The only time I try a mouse anymore is when my guy refuses after about a month with no weight loss. He generally does this in the winter, I'm pretty sure he thinks he's about to be bred. But I continue to give him the option every week until he eats, although now that I think on it he hasn't refused this year yet.

[Ratikal]

I don't always have rats available and my collection is too small to start my own feed colony. Mice are more readily available. However, I am currently searching for quality frozen feed. I don't forsee a problem switching my bp because he's become quite the lil garbage truck and seems to eat anything. He has the funniest feeding response. Been trying to get a video but its a bit hard to hold camera and tongs....lol

[piedlover79]

My male (despite my best efforts and continued efforts) has been a mouser since I got him two years ago. It's more expensive since he eats five mice at a time but he's proven to me that he'd rather starve than eat a rat of any size. Sigh.

[Sonny1318]

I have four boys 2 to 3 years in age roughly, weighing from around 1150 grams to 1400 grams. Taking about 4 to 6 jumbo mice a piece per month (and still putting on weight). if your want I can post exact ages and weights. I feel they're doing fine. I had a few boas in the past, that I switched no problems. But cost wise through any of the big rodent places I'd only be saving a couple bucks a month switching. Even though I'm not really against eventually switching, I've even been considering it. But so far, it's working out great for my situation.

[paulh]

I've had ball pythons that took both mice and rats, a few that refused mice and a few that refused rats. As far as I could tell, all three groups did equally well. All of them took gerbils, though.

As for the mouse vs. rat nutrition thing, I'm with redsheperd.

[Reinz]

When I bought 2 Adult Coastals and a Juvie Jungle Carpet I was told that they were mousers. I switched them to rats immediately. Mainly for cost reasons. Now it would be like trying to feed a NFL Linebacker a meal with only Totino's Pizza Rolls!


Lizzy, Coastal Carpet

[Calider]

Mine is big enough to handle a small rat, but she doesn't want it... Fortunately not unreasonable to give her a large mouse... Yet...