How to switch from mice to rat?

[Dragonline]

I got a one year old albino Darwin python.

She is eating adult mice at the moment and she never refuse a mice before.

Tonight I used a hopper rat to feed her but she refuse it.

Any idea how to let her accept rat?

Thanks.

 

[Shotta]

try defrosting a hopper rat with a mouse,this will hopefully make your rat smell a bit more like a mouse.

 

[Sdaji]

Getting the rat to smell like mouse can work, Shotta's method is a good one. Another thing you can try is feeding your snake a mouse and when she is getting to the legs of the mouse, put a rat's head behind it and she'll continue eating it as though it was one big feed. After a few feeds like this she should start eating rats.

Generally though, I just offer them a rat and if they don't eat it they can skip the feed or get a mouse. It usually doesn't take long, and if you have a few snakes and quarantine isn't an issue this lets you convert them with almost no effort. It's a rare snake which is too difficult to convert to a new type of feed. Good luck

 

[Burgo89]

She won't refuse it forever, will eventually get hungry enough she won't be picky

 

[ronhalling]

[MENTION=6737]Dragonline[/MENTION], when our big Intergrade girl was still alive and my spotties were having difficulty changing over from mice to rats i used to wet the rat and put it in a bag with the mouse to get a good scent on the mouse then after our big girl took the rat i snipped the tail off the rat and tied Half of it to the tail of each mouse with my wifes hair (mine weren't long enough) then fed the mice to the spotties, it only took me 2 times doing this and the spotties started taking rats every feed, if you know someone who has bigger snakes already on rats they might give you some tails and let you scent some mice with their rats, you never know it might work for you as well. ....................Ron

 

[Ironmind91]

You could try 'braining' if it's even called that. Might be a bit gruesome though. I'd go with the first suggestion if it was me.

 

[Dragonline]

Shotta's method works.
Thank you.