Why do people feed their balls...

[BoidKeeper]

...mice? My take on feeding snakes is any snake that when it's full grown can eat a rat is born large enough to eat a pinky rat. So why then do people feed their balls mice after they've been established?
Does anyone know of one "big" successful ball breeder that feeds there balls mice because they chose to? If not then why do people do it?
Cheers,
Trevor

[CamHanna]

I started feeding mice because I had lots of mice and not enough rats. In hindsight I should have just gone to the petstore and bought rats. It's a real kick in the knickers when your snakes stop growing at 400 grams.

[brutus]

2 reasons I can think of.

Lack of knowledge.

lack reliable rat resources, and price of rats

[BoidKeeper]

That or take twice as long to reach full size.
Cheers,
Trevor

[mykee]

I was in talks a while ago with a mid-large size breeder in the States regarding a trade, and he continues to ellude the question, "Do your snakes eat mice or rats". In my mind, that'll make or break the deal.

[BoidKeeper]

Just the fact that he's not coming straight out with it would be enough to make me back away. It's one thing to start them on mice but another to keep them on mice.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Bartman]

I asked the same thing Trevor, or similar. I was asking why people didnt just start bp's on rats since everyone always says they can eat rat pinks out of the egg.

Just gives a hassle for the owner to switch! Like MEEE

[mykee]

Trevor, thing is I could understand one snake not eating rats, but 6-8 mo. old balls that are all mouse eaters? Feeeshy! Reputable guy with the best of recommendations too.

[Scales Zoo]

Live mouse eaters are preferred in Alberta over live rat eaters.

Ryan

[morph]

Mouse eaters aren't a problem I got more eggs out of mouse eaters than rat eaters last season. Don't get me wrong I prefer rat eaters but mice eaters aren't bad, Hell a ball that eats consistently is great in my mind:D

Not a stab Trevor but how many balls have you started and they all take rats right away? Or did you establish on mice and switch cause I'll tell you right now I had quite a few picky one's this season just would not switch for me.

Scott

[BoidKeeper]

Didn't take it that way at all Scott. Last year I got 3 out of 4 off mice and on to rats in the first 10 meals or so. Not one would take a rat in any form. The mouse eater would only take F/T too that was the weird thing.
Cheers,
Trevor

[mykee]

In my experiences, it takes a mouse-eating ball at least twice as long to get to breeding size than a rat-eating ball. I recently purged my entire collection of mouse eaters and am that much happier because of it.

[Spirit]

I chose to feed rats because my understanding is that rats are just plain healthier for balls, AND in the long run, cheaper to feed.

But out of curiosity, if it HAS to be done, how hard is it going from rats to (or back to) mice?

[Stockwell]

When I was breeding Regius I used lots of mice, because I was both buying live mice and breeding my own. I also always fed live. I think feed used is mostly the result of availability, plus neonates will take a medium mouse running, quicker than a fuzzy rat just laying there.

[Ron]

Trev,

Sometimes they just don't want to eat rats. I have a female which I tried to switch but she just wouldn't eat consistently, maybe a rat every 5 - 6 weeks. So I gave up and feed her mice, 3 jumbos (40 gram) mice every 5 - 7 days. She is one of most consistent feeders and if it takes mice to keep her eating, I am happy to oblige. Last year she produced 6 fertile eggs which yeilded 1.1 Pastels and 1.3 normals so she more than paid for all the mice she has eaten.

I thought you were trying to switch your BP's to bunnies? I think bunnies would be great but I am a little worried after hearing a story from a fellow herper. He tried to feed a bunny to a BP who would eat both mice and rats and was always hungry; she took the rabbit immediately but spit the bunny right out of the cage as soon as she realized it was not a rat or a mouse. She then went into a huger strike. Any experiences like that when you tried a bunny?

I think people should feed their BP's which ever (rats or mice) they will eat more consistently.

BTW my female "mouse eater" was ~1850 grams before she laid here clutch in May of '04 which dropped her to ~1200 grams. She is now just over 2600 grams, so she had no problem regaining her weight and putting on some extra pounds.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Originally posted by Scales Zoo
Live mouse eaters are preferred in Alberta over live rat eaters.

Ryan

Indeed they are. I would love to start balls off on live pinkie/fuzzy rats but we cant have live rats here.

Obviously I would rather feed rats to my snakes but our female het albino only takes live gerbils. She refused to eat for a couple months but started eating again just a few days ago. We tried rats, but didnt try mice. She wouldn take, so we dont mind getting the live gerbils as they are pretty easy for us to get and we dont have problems feeding them(other than the gerbils being a pain in the butt and biting you sometimes). Everything else takes rats.

C.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I probably hatched at least 100 Ball eggs with mouse eaters before I got access to any rats (in the late 90's).

I get my "for sale" stuff on to rats, but I don't care what the adults eat. I ain't in any rush. If I had 2 pairs of snakes and everything was riding on those 2 pairs, then maybe I would stress. But if something doesn't go, it'll go next year. I had no problems switching all the adults when I got access to lots of rats in 2001. It was a cinch.

I don't really see a problem with it. They aren't big eaters anyways. They are VERY conservative in their energies, so even a mouse eater gets up to size quickly. I don't sweat it. But I don't begrudge anyone who does. To each their own.

[BoidKeeper]

Ron,

I have two or three that I feed rabbits to when I have them. My rabbit production is pretty low and what's on ice is for the boas. The balls I have fed rabbits to have had no problems.
Cheers,
Trevor

[nita]

I have a couple males that will eat anything and I keep them on rats, anything that will take a rat is given nothing else usually. I have one female that will eat rats or mice. 6 females that only eat mice, if I manage to get them to go for a rat they drop it and give me a WTF look. I am still working on switching to rats with them but if they will eat mice regularily or starve 3 months or more just to get them to eat a rat I will give them mice. When purchasing though I prefer to buy a rat eater and will pay the extra for it, especially a female. Male mouse eaters are not so bad as I'm not worried about the weight loss when they breed and all and since they can breed at a lower weight than a female.

[justinO]

I HATE mice, every time I've tried to breed them I fail badly!

So, everything has been switched onto rats, usually all by themselves..... I guess I'm lucky in that respect. I had one that only ate live Gerbils which I'm more than happy to give her since they are very easy to breed and I have a good supply!

I breed rats so I plan to start all my hatchlings on them, but any of them that won't take rats, I'll try mice. Not looking forward to that :(

Stupid smelly mice!!!


Jessy

[kaa]

i would feed my ball rats but he won't touch a rat does anybody know how to get him to eat a rat

[nita]

I have tried all sorts of tricks to get my mouse eaters to switch to no avail. I usually try a rat first though and then a mouse if they absolutely refuse the rat. On wednesday 2 more of my mouse eaters made the switch, once they take a rat there is no going back!

[BoidKeeper]

What I've found is there is not one trick that works on all balls. The trick that works on one ball may not work on the next. One ball may go from F/T mice to live rats and then get converted to F/T rats but it may not work on the next ball you try it on. One ball may switch by piggy backing a rat in behind a mouse and then take a rat first on the next feeding and some may never switch that way. The trick that has worked best for me has been leaving the ball over night inside a dark rubbermaid container over night with a f/t rat.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Wizwise2000]

I was lucky, three of my females started on rats. Recently I've thought about switching them to gerbils, my wife thought gerbils were cute and wanted a few babies, so now we have a rack full of them. So, I've thought about feeding gerbils since I have quite a bit of them.

As for mice and rats, I prefer to feed rats over mice. But, what I like most of all, is a ball that eats. Mice or rats, so long as it's eating I'm happy:)

Shane.

[pablo111]

Originally posted by Scales Zoo
Live mouse eaters are preferred in Alberta over live rat eaters.

Ryan

You said it yourself.

In Alberta... The province with two trees. The province that prides itself on being "Rat Free"



"Alberta. Its flat, eh?"

[malaysianbloods]

I personally have seen a rat in Alberta and I don't see how they can say Alberta is rat free because we have rats in both provinces beside us and it's not like they can put up signs that say "no rats are alouded to pass" LOL and it will stop rats from crossing the boarder.

[HetForHuman]

Originally posted by pablo111


In Alberta... The province with two trees. The province that prides itself on being "Rat Free"



"Alberta. Its flat, eh?"

AHAHAHH you must never have been here then huh??

[nita]

Originally posted by pablo111
In Alberta... The province with two trees. The province that prides itself on being "Rat Free"
"Alberta. Its flat, eh?"

I think you have us confused with Saskatchewan!! LOL, except for the rat free thing!

[zero&stich]

i would feed my ball rats but he won't touch a rat does anybody know how to get him to eat a rat
Kaa-
I have tried two methods to make the switch. With my female, I waved a P/K mouse over her face then waved a P/K rat after she finished the mouse.
My male, well what worked for her, didn't work for him. I had to scent his rat. I also P/K a mouse, offered it to him, after he finished it, I then proceeded to thaw out a rat in hot water in a containor. When the rat thawed, I used the mouse's urine to scent the rat. I actually rubbed the tip of the rat's nose in mouse pee. Gross, but it worked. He slammed the rat without hesitation. :) What I found out is patience is the key.

[D J N]

I know in my area until like 2 months ago it was near impossible to gets frozen rats on a regular basis but mice you can gets them at every pewts store.