It doesn't sound like your female is too fat -- you might want to try feeding her 5 or 6 mice once a week instead of every couple of days -- that will give her body some time off from digesting.

I have a tried and true method (for me) for getting balls switched from live mice to rats -- it's always worked for me but as always every snake is different and results may vary.

First you get her used to feeding on the multiple mice -- throw one in she grabs it and eats it -- throw another in she grabs it and eats it, etc. until she's feeding on 5 or 6 mice.

The next week throw in the first mouse -- grabs and eats -- throw in another mouse -- she grabs and eats -- throw in a rat pup same size and color as the mice - 9 times out of 10 she'll be in feeding mode and won't even realize it's a rat not a mouse.

Try that for a few weeks and every week replace a mouse with a rat pup until you are just throwing in one mouse and a bunch of rat pups -- eventually you can wean her off the mice entirely and start bumping up the size of the rat.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

[ Hide Replies ]

• is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 00:21:33 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - jayefbe, Tue Nov 4 00:27:23 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 00:40:56 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - exoticball, Tue Nov 4 01:07:16 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - jayefbe, Tue Nov 4 01:29:00 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 01:40:44 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 01:43:15 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - exoticball, Tue Nov 4 01:53:07 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 01:57:33 2008
• You know, just too throw this out there. - coolluigi007, Tue Nov 4 09:31:04 2008
• RE: You know, just too throw this out there. - JonathanPG, Tue Nov 4 14:04:25 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - dmasio13, Tue Nov 4 10:11:22 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - toshamc, Tue Nov 4 11:47:04 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - dmasio13, Tue Nov 4 14:53:42 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Wed Nov 5 00:51:28 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - dmasio13, Wed Nov 5 02:09:01 2008
• RE: is my female too fat? - JonathanPG, Wed Nov 5 02:23:22 2008