Why do people feed their balls...

[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.