The Big Switch

[Shaun J]

OK ,tonite I'm buying Dirk a small rat or something smaller,whatever his diameter is.Any tips on switching him over?I have mice to scent the rat with,but anything else?

[Brandon.O]

Try giving it to him with no scent. It worked for me when switching both Roxy and Rebel over to rats, i didnt have to scent at all.

Other than that, i really have no "tips" for you, just go about feeding him like you always do.

[Shaun J]

i thought it was hard????......

[Brandon.O]

No, not really, i just dropped the rats in there and they took em, simple as that.

Its not difficult unless you have a very stubborn snake .

[TokenLs]

yea my switch was easy too all i did was drop the rat in and he took it no problem.

[sk8er4life]

sometimes it can be hard it just all depends on ur bp,how long is ur bp?(just wanted to compare sizes)

[Shaun J]

ok,i got a mouse instead,the rat looked waaaay bigger,so...Mod can u delete this thread

[Cody]

LOL why would this thread have to be deleted? That'd be quite a waste of posts and info.

Yeah, I switched my ball over to rats sooo easily. I sorta thought it'd be a bit difficult, so I had a mouse to scent it with too. But I never had to use anything like that. In fact, she took that weanling rat faster than she was taking the dinky mice I was feeding her previously. It was one of her strongest feeding responses in a while.
Not all ball pythons have trouble switching. Especially if it's a captive bred bp. And don't be too quick to dismiss the idea of your bp eating a rat just yet. When I got the big weaned rat from the pet shop in town, I looked at it and was sure Pelota wouldn't be able to eat that. But after I thawed it out and compared, it really wasn't any thicker than Pelota was. She took it down with ease. As long as the prey item is 1 to 1.5 times the thickness of your bp, they should manage taking it down.

[Shaun J]

im gonna freeze the mouse and thaw it again,he didnt take p/k.hes stubborn in a good way!

[Super_Smash]

well, if he's stubborn, you might have some difficulty switching. when i switched Pandora, she was such a pain in the butt. it took me about a month to get her to eat the rat.. i had to scent it using mice AND used mouse bedding. i think after leaving it in there for 2 hours and covering her tank she eventually ate it... and now she's my garbage disposal that eats everything