wow!

[m1k3_88]

Had to feed my bp last night, and the store was out of mice, so i got a rat instead. Came home, defrosted it and he took the rat within 2seconds of me lowering it into the rubbermaid:eek: i was amazed. Thought i would have trouble switching him over, but i guess i'm one of the lucky ones

[sapphire_moon]

You are a lucky one. lol. My male took rats no problem. I'm going to try live rat babies (not sure of what the smaller ones are called that are about the size of mouse fuzzies) to try to get her onto rats........:rolleyes: she is a pain..............
lucky, lucky you. lol

[BoidKeeper]

Use this as an opertuanty to make the switch. Pythons eat rats anyway not mice.
Good luck with him,
Trevor

[scalawag]

I'm jealous, I have a 3 yr old male and I've tried every method I've read about to get him on rats and He just looks at it. About 6 months ago I tried a Gerbil and BAMM!!!, he gobbled it up. It's better than 4-5 mice at a time. He's been off-feed as usual for about a month now, I may try scenting a F/T rat with a gerbil???
Congrats though on your easy switch!

[Auskan]

Wow, I had no idea it was supposed to be hard to make the switch. I offered mine a rat the day I adopted a mama rat & her 4 pups & she jumped on it like she'd been waiting her whole life for this!

[mykee]

Scalawag, you may have painted yourself into a corner by offering your ball gerbils. Balls have been known to eat nothing BUT gerbils once they get a taste for them. Good luck...

[Vengeance]

Why do people even bother starting their balls on mice?

[m1k3_88]

Why do people even bother starting their balls on mice?
dont know, but when i got him back in august, thats what he was eating, so i kept with it.

[dave68]

my male ball stops eating anything every winter and every spring he will only start again when i give him a gerbil. after that though he eats every week anything i offer some balls are just more finicky than others

[Corey Woods]

Most ball python hatchlings need the movement of live hopper mice to initiate a feeding response. As they start to grow and mature their inner instincts will kick and tell them to feed even if the prey isn't moving. Most CB Balls switch over to rats after a couple meals on mice.

Corey

[Vengeance]

If you need the movment why not pinkie rats?

[m1k3_88]

I think because rat pups are more developed the rat pinks, and pups are about the same size as an adult mouse.

[Jeff_Favelle]

If you need the movment why not pinkie rats?

Pinky rats don't really move all that much. Hopper mice RUN and jump. I've yet to see a pinky rat do more than sit and squirm. And sometimes that's not enough to entice a brand new CBB Ball to strike and eat.

[jfmoore]

Thanks, Cory. Right up there with the "Mice are garbage" line is the "All ball pythons eat adult mice right out of the egg" fallacy. Of course, it's simply a lack of experience on the part of those who express these views. And considering how many people now have the luxury of beginning with well-started hatchlings from breeders who've done the initial work, it's no wonder they think these things.

For every clutch I have where all the neonates grab a first meal of adult f/t mice off of forceps, I also have the ones who require hoppers or even fuzzies to get them going. It's all part of the fun.

[scalawag]

Originally posted by mykee
Scalawag, you may have painted yourself into a corner by offering your ball gerbils. Balls have been known to eat nothing BUT gerbils once they get a taste for them. Good luck...

Yeah, I know. I wasn't aware of this forum 3 yrs ago when I got him(about 1 month old) from a pet store..AHH Another pet store where I was getting my feeders advised me against moving to rats because "mice are better for their digestion". I guess they make more on mice than rats. When he was about a year I started to switch to rats, pups, fuzzies, scented with mice. dipped in chicken broth, every method I've ever read.
He was eating 4-5 mice every 2 weeks so last summer I moved him to gerbils and He loves them. They are very readily available. I'm gonna try rats again when he goes on-feed, hopefully this week. Will let you know.

[mykee]

My feelings are that mice eaters SUCK. I have two balls that for the four months that I'd owned them, hadn't eaten. I figured after each of them having lost approx. 15-20% of their weight, I'd give in and try a mouse. Bam. Bam and one more......Bam. They each took three on their initial feeding. Now, three weeks later, they eat two mice every second day. I'm just gonna starve them for a few weeks now, now that they expect food and try a rat, who knows....

[lilyskip]

Why do people even bother starting their balls on mice?
For me, it was an issue of availability--I couldn't get appropriately sized rat pups in the store, and ordering them online was a financial and logistical impossibility (I didn't want to pay a lot of $$ for rats that I didn't even know if my snake would eat).

Mykee--Good luck with the balls...I had a somewhat similar issue with Huxley, who I'm trying to get to stay on rats. He took one rat, but then refused all the others offered to him for three or four weeks. Eventually, I gave in and fed him a mouse a week and a half ago, and last night, he was totally into the rat I offered him, and took it after a minute or so. Maybe they just need to be reminded of their love for food once in a while with the occaisional mouse.

[mykee]

Mollie, I'm not all that worried, I'd like for these two to become rat eaters, but if they eat mice forever I'm ok with that. As long as they eat. A slow-grower is better than a no-grower.