So I’ve posted before of a female thAts been off food. Turns out she only eats mouse . Tested twice. This last test I put a rat and observed . Then put a mouse at the same time with the rat and she instantly ate the mouse . So my question is. Any one has had success feeding mouse only to female breeder? How should I go about it ? Also I wanted to try rubbing a dead mouse on the rat to see if that tricks her , has anyone tried that before ?
In my experience with my male mouser, I thawed both in the same water, and rubbed the mouse on the rat. I also blow dry them (my female used to refuse wet rats, so I figured to keep doing that.)- if the mouse-scented rat doesn’t work, try feeding a mouse, and right after, try the rat. Hope that helps!
1 Like
When it comes to feeding it’s pretty much what works, gram per gram whether you feed rats or mice it’s all the same.
I have had adult females that fed on mice exclusively no matter what so the question was do I not feed them for 6 months in a hope they would switched, which would obviously slow their growth and would not be ideal or did I feed them what they wanted? I went for the latter.
An adult female will take about 4 large adult mice a week in one sitting.
You can use bedding from mice to scent rats but there are no guarantee.
When you have a stubborn female that will eat mice as an adult the best time to switch her will be after she is bred and lay eggs, at that time they will eat anything offered rats or f/t.
1 Like
I have males that stay on mice that I don’t worry about switching over. Females need more size and eat more. It would be hard to feed a female that many mice to get her up and maintain a good weight for a female. Have you tried soft furs? I’ve never had a ball python that wouldn’t eat them. They are bigger and a better food source than a mouse imo.
1 Like
Had pretty consistent results using ASF to up prey size gradually 5-10 grams at a time.
1 Like