Moving from Mice to Rats

[frankykeno]

Just need some advice here folks. Our BP's are on adult mice but I'd like to move them over to rats for convenience as we will start ordering bulk frozen this fall when the Pastel from Adam arrives (it's on rats already).

Looking over various suppliers I'm thinking that the next step up from an adult mouse would be a weanling rat. They list adult mice as around 20-25 grams and weanling rats as 30-44 grams. Unfortunately I've never actually seen a weanling rat to be able to compare it's girth to an adult mouse. Are they a lot bigger around? The next size rat up from weanling is listed as "small" and are 45-84 grams.

Since our balls are taking 2 adult mice per week (or in the case of Punkin 3 per week if the mice are on the small side) I'm thinking ordering bulk frozen rats would be a bit more convenient for us. Even with 3 adult mice in her Punkin is not showing any real "lump" and continues to very actively hunt her whole tub for quite a few minutes afterwards.

Both snakes take down good sized adults with ease, especially Punkin who seems to gulp down everything we offer. I think they poor thing is trying to make up for going hungry for so long.

~~Jo~~

[tigerlily]

Jumbo adult mice and the weaned rats are pretty close in size. So depending on the size of mice you are feeding now, the weaned rats would work pretty well for you. When those get too small you can always feed two. If they're taking two adult mice easily then you should be fine with the weaned rats.

[jotay]

Just a thought from my own experience w/ my bp. Before you order a bulk of rats make sure your bp will take them.
I have a bp who will not at all eat a rat. No way, no day. Tried everything.
My Vet told me this is not uncommon.
Just food for thought.

[frankykeno]

Actually thank you for bringing that up. I should have thought to mention that before we order we are going to let both our local pet stores know in advance the size rats we need (there supplies are always iffy sizewise) so we can try out both snakes on rats.

Thanks for mentioning that tho.


~~Jo~~

[mlededee]

if they don't take the rat the first time offered there are lots of little tricks you can try to get them to switch over. some won't switch no matter what but don't give up after just one or two tries. you could always just get a smaller order of the rats to start with in hopes that they will switch. generally they will but there are always the few that just won't take one no matter what you try. it sounds like punkin is nice a ready for some rats though.

[Lobo_Reptiles]

I started my BP and BCI on small rats a couple of weeks ago. They both took them no problem and the BP is less than forgiving when it comes to feeding. I hope your efforts go well. I just got lucky for once.