Switching Royals to Rats

[Dendav]

Hi
My 2 Royals are 430g and 350g do you think they will be ok with 35-40g rats they are bigger than the mice they have been having but only by a little. My boy has been on rats and mice, but my girl was on mice only, has anyone else had bother geting them to accept the switch.
Any advice would be appreciated;-)

Denise

[Mike177]

how long are they and what is there girth??

[Dendav]

Mike
About 20in give or take and Id say 5-5.5in round roughly I d say;-)
They are 7mths (350g) and 10mths old (430g)
Denise

[CDN-Cresties]

Try scenting the rat with the mouse. I read that in a book of mine, hope it works!!!

[mykee]

Denise, from my personal experience, when my balls were that size, they were eating 70-80g. rats. Seems that 35-40g mice might be just a little too small a food item to be feeding them. Try a little larger.

[SnowFoxx]

Its funny, I hear all this talk about scenting rats with mice to fool the snake, and how much trouble people have making the switch from mice to rats...when I decided to switch my girls to rats, I just gave them each a rat, and they ate it. That's it. Now they eat rats every time. The same is true for the live - f/t problem. The breeder I bought my boa from fed live, but I gave the boa a dead rat for his first meal in his new home, and he ate it with no problem, and has never refused a dead meal since. I wonder if I've just been lucky, or if people tend to make this into a bigger deal than it really is?

- Victoria :w

[SD-SNAKE]

EACH SNAKE IS DIFFERENT SOME ARE MORE STUBBORN THEN OTHERS WHEN IT COMES TO CONVERTING MICE TO RATS OR LIVE TO F/T. SOME OF MY SNAKES WILL ONLY EAT LIVE AND OTHERS NO PROBLEM WITH THE PRE KILLED. ALL OF MY SNAKES EAT RATS HAVE NOT HAD TO SWITCH ANY OVER BUT IT IS A GOOD IDEA IF YOU CAN SWITCH FROM MICE TO RATS. NICK