Quote Originally Posted by rabernet View Post
I had a stubborn female that only took mice as well. I did two things for her. The first was advice that Kevin McCurley gave me. Take some mice bedding (just a small handful) and put it in her enclosure. Watch for her to start displaying hunting behavior - actively flicking her tongue, searching for food. Then drop in a small rat.

Worked like a charm the first time, and then she wisened up.

My most successful way to convert to rats was essentially "tough love". For the snakes that had good body weight, I simply stopped offering mice. I'd offer a rat, and if they didn't want it, the rat was removed - and no mouse was offered. The next week, rat offered, refused and removed - no mouse was offered. The longest hold out was about four weeks.

The picky female above does insist on white rats or beige hooded (guess close to white), but all the others who eventually got hungry enough to take the rat, all take rats every week now.

So, in my experience, the method that worked best was tough love.
We do the tough love method here as well. We do make sure this is a healthy snake that can do with a few missed meals if it takes awhile to switch over. I think our most stubborn mouser took 5 weeks to take her first rat. We do skip the first week though, just to give them a chance to get really primed to hunt, then week 2 starts with the rat offering. We make sure and offer nothing bigger than a good sized rat pup though. We want to watch and assess how the snake reacts to a difference in prey before we move up any further in size (this would be for a larger adult obviously).