Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a problem that is getting worse and worse every time I feed my 3 year old carpet python. She will eat up to 20 mice, but won't touch one rat. I have tried EVERYTHING to get her to eat rats... but she's so fussy! On a few occasions she has constricted the rat, but then refused to eat it. I've tried smearing mouse "guts" over rats, leaving a smaller rat in a shoebox with several mice before feeding (each of the mice ended up without necks, the rat got hungry), I've even tried starving her for 6 months before trying to feed her. Nothing works. She's a perfectly healthy snake, however it would be much easier to feed her a few rats as opposed to 20 mice!

One rat even survived in the enclosure with my carpet sleeping curled up around the poor thing... my mother has since adopted this rat and named it "survivor".

Any help would be much appreciated...

First thing... I know that the "thrill of the kill" is really cool, but you are very lucky that the rat your snake decided not to eat didn't start chewing on your JCP. If you continue to try and feed your JCP live rats remove them from the enclosure.

You may also experiment, try and get your rat to accept prekilled mice with... lets say "chicken broth" on them. Then after she's eaten a few of those, next feeding time take a prekilled rat and dip it in chicken broth.

Also, what size mice are you trying to feed your snake?
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Currently have:
0.1 Antherystic Elaphe guttata
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi
1.0 Morelia Spilota Cheyni
0.1 Leucistic Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri

Saving for:
Agkistrodon Contortix mokasen
Morelia Spilota Cheyni

Yeah, I was told to be careful with rats when I mentioned this to my local breeder. Thanks though.

I can't say I've ever heard the term chicken broth? And the size of the mice are full grown. She rarely strikes at the mice anymore, simply swallows them. I can leave 20 of them in a bowl and she eats them like a dog... is this okay???

Well... if all she accepts are mice, try and calculate the weight of all the mice into 2 or so rats weights.

I don't believe that JCP's really need to eat 20 mice... I agree with hefte that you should try chicks. Dave and Tracey Barker put their mice into chicken broth before they feed their pythons, so I thought that it may be worth a try. Rats are the best way, but if you can find them you could try rabbits also.

Rule is that the bigger the food, the less they have to take down. Two rats cost about $2.75, while 10 mice can cost well over $6. Much cheaper...
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Currently have:
0.1 Antherystic Elaphe guttata
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi
1.0 Morelia Spilota Cheyni
0.1 Leucistic Elaphe obsoleta linheimeri

Saving for:
Agkistrodon Contortix mokasen
Morelia Spilota Cheyni

Okay,

But you still didn't explain what chicken broth is? I honestly have no idea! But it seems that most of you have had success with chicks, so I'll give that a go this week. Thanks for all your help...

Adam.

Chicken broth is the juices you get off a chicken when you cook it.

Another idea for you is to soak a rat in hot water with a couple of mice for 10min or so. Kinda the same thing as using chicken broth but instead of scenting the rat with chicken you scenting it with mouse...anyways Best of luck. Its going to be a up-hill battle if she's still this picky at 3yrs. Don't get discouraged.

Darci
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Takes all kinds to make a World...

I have the same problem. Last night I fed my two year old JCP, pictured a few threads down, ten mice. My problem is I don't know how many to feed her, she never seems satisfied. I have tried everything. One thing you might try is feeding it chicks. I have fed mine chicks and she eats them very well. The only problem is that she will usually only eat one and is hungry again in a couple days. Eric-

HAMSTERS!!! that was the thing that I found out my adult female JCP couldn't turn down...she will even eat them frozen/thawed. I had the same problem, to the point I was raising my own mice to cut costs. you can buy frozen hamsters but they may be hard to find. I bought mine from New England Reptile distributors real cheap.You may want to contact them at www.newenglandreptile.com and see if you can purchase some. The hamsters need to be the regulars not the teddy bears(they are to furry).hope this helps

Chris

p.s. the picture attached is my wife with our hamster fed, male JCP and look how nicely he filled out on this diet

The only way you would want to feed your 3yr old carpet 20 mice is if they are pinky mice, even that would be kind of dumb. I've fed my carpets 2 adult mice a week before, but 20,lol that is rediculous. Maybe I read your message wrong, but if your feeding your snake 20 mice at one time that is not good. How big is your snake?

Well the 20 mice only occurred when I didn't feed her for 6 months and tried her on rats every week using various methods. She's not a JCP, rather a Coastal Carpet...

Depending on the size of the snake, 20 mice may not be too much. In Austrailia it is not uncommon for Carpet Pythons to break into chicken coups and eat a dozen or more chicks. Feeding an adult JCP two mice a week is just not enough. I know breeders that frequently feed there picky JCP's 20 mice a feeding because they won't eat anything else. The mice you buy in a pet shop are really teenagers, they're not the size of the breeders you buy frozen. A medium sized rat would weigh about the same as five or six of the pet shop size mice, so keep that in mind.

I must have lucked ou then, the second i thought my yearling JCP could take a pinky rat i tryed it. The snake wasent sure of it at first but eventually stucked and killed it. The interesting thing was after the rat was dead and the snake started to eat it it seemed that once the rat got far enough in for him to taste the rat the snake stopped eating for a second and pulled back and looked at the food for a few min, I could just imagine the snake thinking "waiiit a miniute this doesent tast right at all.... hmmm should i eat it or not..... oh well" then he gobled it up and now strikes at rats just as fast as it used to strike at mice.
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1.1.0 Amazon tree boa
1.0.0 Jungle carpet python
0.1.0 Argentene boa
1.1.0 Florida king
1.1.3 Leopard Gecko
2.1.0 Tokay Gecko
0.1.0 Spotted Gecko
African flower mantis
Pink toe tarantula

seriously ...
how much mice / rats do you feed yours ???
considering size and metabolism of my msv i was thinking about 3 maybe four mouse (or equ. in rats ...)a week for a grown up ...
but twenty ...???

I definately need to switch my coastal over while she's young.

20 mice... damn!
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hAuNtEr oF fOrUmS

0.0.1 Morelia spilota mcdowelli

"I am not Charlie Brown on acid."-Bart Simpson
"I am not high."-Me

I don't think feeding a coastal carpet 20 mice is a problem, other than from a financial point of view. As discussed above, in the wild a python will eat an entire nest of prey if it happens upon it. Also, in the wild a python will swallow as much as it can before quitting, sometimes resulting in quite a large bulge in the midsection. I have seen obese pythons and I think this results from feeding too frequently. I let my pythons (JCP and Diamond/JCP cross) show some activity before feeding again. As long as you are waiting a decent amount of time between feedings I believe your snake will be healthy. BTW, I have a fussy JCP who accepts nothing but mice (and I have tried all the scenting/switching methods above) so I just place about 10 medium mice in a bowl and she eats them one by one, no problems.