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Going from Mice to Rats?

evilcowboy420

evilcowboy420

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I seem to be having a hard time getting my boa to switch from adult mice to rat pups. I tried using mouse scent, braining it, feeding in darkness, but nothing has worked. I was wondering if there is a way to switch her from mice to rats that may be a bit more effective. She had a great 1 piece shed last night and I thought she would be really hungry. However she is just not being that responsive. She looked as if she was going to take it but she backed off once she realized it wasn't a mouse.

Any help is very much appreciated.
 
If you are feeding live and breeding your own try using some dirty bedding from the mouses cage to scent the rat pup.

If feeding FT try feeding it a smaller mouse and then as it's about done give it the rat pup (scented at first and eventually it should take it without). When I say give it to it I mean to get the rat pup in it's mouth before the mouse's tail is gone. Try and get it at least hooked on a tooth.
 
Good advise already given (esp the dirty bedding trick), just to add... are you feeding live or PK/FT? If the later, have you already tried just leaving it in the tank overnight?

Also, make sure there is about 3-5 days in between offering different items, sometimes if too many things are offered too qucikly (as in every day or other day) it'll stress the boa. It can be done, just have patience. Sometimes you have to wait them out a few weeks before they finally give in and make the switch. Good luck!
 
What DAND says about offering the rat as she finishes a mouse works for me: my snakes are gecko eaters, and I supplement this by sticking a chicken heart under the tail of the last gecko as they eat: they just keep on motoring over once their feeding is started.
 
Ok I will try out the thing of feeding it the pup right after the mouse. Today I finally just gave in cause she hasn't eaten in 2 weeks and gave her the mouse she wanted. But I want to switch as soon as possible because of the nutritional value. Notto mention I am raising rats so thats just easier.

I am feeding P/K right now but all my snakes will take F/t as well. I just think P/K looks a little better cause its dry but I do however make sure it has stopped hopping and kicking before I put anything in with any snake. I have not tried leaving it longer than 3 hours.

I did pick up some dirty bedding today from the pet store and I have it on hand and will give leaving it in there for about an hour the next time I try.

Thanks to all who replied so far.
 
evilcowboy420 said:
Today I finally just gave in cause she hasn't eaten in 2 weeks
Click to expand...

Sometimes you have to wait them out a month or so before they will make the switch. It's a little vexing but as long as the snake is healthy and has good body tone, the extra couple weeks with no food shouldn't do any harm. (and there is usually a nice little growth spurt once switched up to rats which more than makes up for the waiting).

evilcowboy420 said:
I am feeding P/K right now but all my snakes will take F/t as well. I just think P/K looks a little better cause its dry
Click to expand...

Just wanted to add $0.02, when I thaw frozen rats, they go in zip lock bags and the bags are put in warm water, so the rats themselves are not wet (unless there's a hole in the bag of course, which is why I also double bag them).

Good luck! :)
 
oops! . . . misfired :ack2:
By your own description of events your bugging the crap outta that poor animal and causing unwarranted stress.
More simply put,your the snakes worst enemy :shootfoot

Just chill a few weeks and watch progress happen on better terms ;)

Patience is a wonderful thing,but only if applied.
 
::

Metachrosis said:
oops! . . . misfired :ack2:
By your own description of events your bugging the crap outta that poor animal and causing unwarranted stress.
More simply put,your the snakes worst enemy :shootfoot

Just chill a few weeks and watch progress happen on better terms ;)

Patience is a wonderful thing,but only if applied.
Click to expand...

Everything was done over a 2 week period. The most the snake has even been handled is 5 minutes at a time. I was just posting events up until now. The snake as with all my snakes stay in a walk in closet on a rack with no traffic aside from me once every 8 hours to check temp and humidity. I am pretty sure I am not bothering it too much.

A 2 week series of events condensed down to a single post seems like I might be bothering her. But that simply because I didn't want to write it all out for a simple question. I was assuming everyone would get that it was over time and not just one day right after the other.

thanks for the advice. I will wait her out some more and see if she takes it after 4 weeks.
 
No sweat,people think like people when it comes to their snakes.
Snakes dont know time or any short of time reference.
By design their able to go long periods without food,so from a snakes point of view feeding attempts every two weeks is like consecutive days
instead of weeks.

4 weeks is really nothing to a healthy snake,if they refuse feed they wait till next time which could be another 4 weeks.
If the keeper can wait them out all that "As seen on TV" junk people throw at them would never come into play.

People cant wait and therefore justify excessive means to get an animal to feed.:shrug01:

I cant for the life of me understand the need for weekly feedings,but people insist on such :rolleyes:

again . . . . . :shrug01:
 
:iagree:
I offer food weekly, and in the warmer months they take it (and even seem to want to feed more frequently). In winter they slow right down and may not feed for months (I am keeping native species at their natural daily temperatures so I see variation through the year).

Ideally I feed them when they start to roam their tank with that glint in their eye (but then if I'm late I sometimes lose a little finger skin lol).

This winter mine didn't feed for 2 months and still seem strong and healthy. However, I do confess that I was a bit stressed out by that time and so assist fed, ie, inserted the head of the prey animal in their mouths and then gave them the option to eat or refuse - 2 ate, 2 refused....

Now 3 months in and they are all eating voluntarily again so I probably didn't need to assist feed at all.

It's tough trying to adjust to their time scale, but I agree that a healthy hungry snake will probably adjust itself to rats in time, if YOUR stress levels can take it.....!:thumbsup:

Good luck
 
Alright I finally got the boa to eat a rat pinkie. It was unscented and by now has been about 4 or 5 weeks maybe longer. She took a few seconds to snag it too. I noticed that she will not eat if she is not in her enclosure. I think its a safety thing cause after she eats she tends to hide for about 2 days. I am going to try and work her around to eating out of the enclosure.

funny thing is even as it gets colder she is the only snake I have that was reluctant on eating. I never have a problem feeding any of my ball pythons or my milks. I found that odd cause everyone I know says boas usually eat better than balls especially during cold months. However my balls are still eating on schedule.

But I am glad I got the boa to eat. She should really start packing on pounds now. I can wait to see her grow. I hope she makes a good breeder.
 
Feeding in or out of the enclosure is personal preference. So its really up to you but if it seems to put less stress on your boa it might be better to keep feedings inside the cage. All mine get feed inside the enclosure so I dont have to handle them soon after and possibly cause a regurge. But thats just the way i do it and have never seen any signs of the rumored "cage aggression".

Glad you got your little bugger on rats! Thats when they really start to take off!

Matt
 
yeah I was able to get her to strike in the cage and then move her outside to get her use to it but I put a paper over her to make her feel more secure. She did pretty good only took and hour. the only reason I was shying away from feeding her in the cage was cause she is on aspen so I usually have to take tweezers and pull pieces of aspen out from her grip when I first did it so she didn't eat them as well.

I will probably change her to paper towels in case I end up having to keep feeding her in the enclosure.

thanks to all of you for the encouragement and advice. I can't wait to see the difference in growth cause in my area all the boas I see are usually abnormally small and I think it may be due to the people feeding them mice cause they are cheaper.

guess its good I decided to get breeder rats. I got all my snakes on rats now and they seem to take them no problem. Even the balls I have that have eaten gerbils before take them well too. Every once in awhile I like to throw em a gerbil or hamster for a little treat to them. They seem to like them lol.
 
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