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Switching Jungle Carpets from Mice to Rat

R

rollincoal420

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Whats everyones tricks for switching a Jungle Carpet over from mice to rats?

My female takes rat pups on occasion but wont fully make the switch. When she does take them, I dont sent them or anything. Senting doesnt seem to make a difference. I've waited up to 3 weeks also to make sure she is good and hungry, and I've tried right after she has eaten a mouse. The first time she ate a rat, it was right after an adult mouse. That was the only time that seemed to work.

I'm looking for other ideas that anyone might has. I really want to nip this in the butt before it becomes a problem when she is much bigger.
 
Make sure she is ready for that size. I don't think it shouldn't matter if it's a rat or a mouse.
Rodents are rodents and all they need is to smell the pee before they go for the kill. If she's eating retired breeder jumbo mice she should have no problem taking a just weaned rat.
 
She has taken rat pups before. 2 or 3 times I think. The mice she eats arnt jumbo retired breeders, just normal adult feeder mice you would find at the pet store. People always have had trouble switching Jungles over to rats. The local breeder and friend that I got my Jungles from, has one adult male, sire of mine that wont take rats. She has to feed multiple adult mice each feeding. Its my understanding that even though they are both rodents, they have different scents.:shrug01:

The breeder I get my rats from, his weaned rats, last time I got them from him, wr way too big for where my Jungle is right now.
 
I have the same issue with one of mu jungles.He is around 4 ft now and it is a pain feeding him 4 - 6 mice at a time. Some of the tricks I was given when I asked this question in the past. Rinse the rat off and then rub on a mouse , feed it a mouse then drop a rat next to it, kill a mouse and rub the rat in the urine of the mouse, have the small rat or pup live with mice for a few days then feed it, or lastly let the rat sit in beddding that mice have been in for a few days. The only two that worked for me was letting a small rat live with mice for a few days and the bedding trick worked as well. Problem was that after a few times they no longer worked. He will contrict but as soon as he tastes the rat spits it up and leaves it alone. Best of luck getting yours to maake the switch as it is a nightmare.
 
Thanks. I've tryed the bedding and kinda of, the urine once. The bedding wasnt for a few days, and the urine wasnt my doing, more so the mouses doing. I hope to get this fixed soon, as this girl has a brother here that I had a problem getting him to eat. He's eating now and once he starts growing, I gotta go through this all over again with him.:crap:
 
I dont know if your feeding live, p/k, or f/t but if your NOT feeding live, take a ziplock bag and put BOTH the rat pup and adult mouse in the same bag with HOT water. Zip the bag up and leave it there for awhile and make sure both feeders get VERY HOT. Even after you take them out run hot water on both of them. Rub the mouse on the rat for a good 15 seconds everywhere. You want mainly the butt of the mouse to be rubbed all over the rat (sorry for ugly details lol), and then quickly feed your Carpet with the rat still warm/hot. That should work for you. After doing this for a few feedings your Carpet should switch. I will say this though, some Carpets dont end up switching and just become 'mousers' and you'll pretty much be stuck feeding them 5-10 adult mice back to back forever. :ack2: I dont have any mousers thank God.

Be patient and it will switch over. You are working with a young animal so you have a very good chance to still be successful. Once they are adult mousers then your basically stuck and dont have much hope (sorry to say). You have the upper hand, be patient and it will happen. :thumbsup:
 
Well she is the only one I got that wont take frozen. But she is showing signs that she just might make the switch, just not steady. I will try your idea with the little one that will only take frozen and see if it works for him. If anyone has more ideas for live feeders, I'm open. This weekend will be her next feeding so it will be my next opportunity to try again
 
Well heres the deal. I used your suggestions and it worked this weekend. BOTH Jungles ate rats the other day. The little one ate 2 frozen rat pinks. I thawed them in the same bag as an adult mouse. The first one was in there the majority of the day, the second was in with the mouse just long enough for it to thaw, about 30-45 min and it worked like a champ.

The female, who only eats live right now, I went to the local store and got 1 adult mouse and 2 rat pups. Well I asked for pups, they wr more fuzzies. And Barely fuzzies. I put them in the same box as the mouse for about 6hrs. She ate both with out hesitation.

Thanks everyone for your input. Hope it keeps up:yesnod:
 
No problem! I told you it would work :thumbsup: I know the secrets James, let me know if you need anything else. I'll help you out bud, glad I helped. :)
 
Well... It sorta worked. It worked on Little Dude, the one that eats frozen. but this week Sweet P, the larger of the 2 and the one that only will eat live, she wanted nothing to do with the rat. I put the box with the mouse in there after a few hours of the rat being in there to try and get the sent of the mouse in the air and she squeezed in the little breather holes in the box and started to eat the mouse within 3 min. She only stopped when she couldnt get the mouse out the hole.

I opened the box she she could finish with hopes that after having the taste of mouse on her tongue she would just go for the next rodent that came by. 2 days later and nothing. Even when the rat stood on her all she would do is hiss. No defensive strike or nothing.

So that rat went to our new boa
 
None of my snakes eat live so I dont know how to deal with that issue. As for the frozen, that is my trick to deal with Carpets that eat only frozen feeders, I'm glad it worked for you.

Your Carpet that only seems to eat live, I dont really know what to tell you. I dont buy snakes that eat live its too much of a pain all around. I will have to ask though, I dont really understand how your feeding your Carpet the live feeder. You put the closed box with the mouse inside the actual cage and want the snake to crawl inside the box and eat the mouse/rat? If so, thats not what you should be doing...

Considering the Carpet that is picky with eating live (and you got it to actually eat a rat the prior feeding) I would recommend you switching your Carpet (that eats only live) to frozen BEFORE trying to get it to switch to rats instead of mice. Get it to eat frozen mice first and then make the switch to frozen rats. You arent going to convert a Carpet the eats only live mice to eat live rats. It wont work like that. Convert to frozen then make the switch to rats. Working with frozen is a lot easier so you can 'scent' the mice with the rat smell and put them in the same 'hot water bag' and make the switch.
 
The thing with the box was actually a one time thing. I've never done that before, I just had a thought that if I could get the smell of a mouse in the air, maybe she would get excite and go for the first thing that moves. It was just kinda a desperate attempt after 2 days. I'll switch her over to frozen first. I was hoping to get her on rats before she got too old, then make the switch to frozen,but I get what you are saying and your advice worked great with the other one. I'll keep you posted on how things go in the near future. Thanks
 
Got ya, no problem man. Glad my advice worked for the first one :D Keep me posted on the other one as well. Good luck!
 
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