Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Second week in a row she has eaten both a f/t mouse and a small rat.

One of the reasons I'm interested in this is the fact that in the wild, a snake doesn't typically have the luxury of accepting only one specific type of prey. So, why is it conventional keeping says that one must choose between mice and rats?

I am wondering what others experiences are in switching between different prey, particularly for balls because they are "notoriously picky" as it is.

Simply because some balls can very easely be hooked on one type of prey item and should one of these be hooked on mice, this would be problematic once your ball reaches adulthood and only dines on mice. No 2,500 gr female ball will eat 12 mice at a time as opposed to eating one 300 gr rat.

I see great looking animals in the classifieds that are mouse eaters and in my opinion, stay away from mousers.

There is absolutely no reason to start hatchlings on mice when they can take a 4-5 day old rat pup as a first meal and be hooked on rats. I'm sure I will get a lot of heat for saying this BUT mice should not be fed to ball pythons, rat eaters are that much easier to work with

>No 2,500 gr female ball will eat 12 mice at a time as opposed to eating one 300 gr rat.

That's precisely why I started offering rats. Honestly I thought it would take a lot more effort to get her to switch, so now I have both rats and mice on hand. I guess I won't bother with mice once they are gone.

I've been switching mine between rats, mice, and ASFs with no problems. I have noticed they do prefer a certain "behavior" from their prey, though. I have to either shake the f/t just right, or prod a reluctant mouse into walking around, or pin an over-excited rat down. Either way, they will take whatever is the right size if they are hungry.
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1.1 ball pythons
1.1 kingsnakes
0.1 crazy cat
?.? ASFs
1.0 husband