Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Its funny, I have always heard a rumor that pits are hard to switch off mice. Maybe mine are one of the few exceptions.

Both my Great Basin and Sonoran gopher were fed live small mice once a month by their previous owner, who did this for 6 years. They are very tiny for their age, and I thought it was going to be difficult to switch them to f/t rats.

I offered each f/t mice, with no results. Neither wanted the f/t mice. Thought oh hell, I'm going to have to get live, aren't I. (Live is hard to come by without driving 60 miles here)

So on a whim, I offered each f/t rat pups. Bam, instant response! Both ate their f/t rat pup with gusto.

I have to say, its nice not having to do the "I'm alive" dance for a change. Pits seem much easier to feed than my boas or pythons. Or am I getting ahead of myself?

-cat
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My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

Nope.......you are not ahead of yourself. Pits for me have been the best feeding snakes I have ever owned.

For me..it has been the opposite. I switched my smaller pits over to mice, and they have been eating them with more gusto than they did with rats, I kid you not.

For those gophers, they may have only associated the smell of mice with " live " mice, thus not showing any interest in dead. I have a grayband that for the most part, only likes to eat pinkies if they are wiggled in front of him.

Take care!

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

>>For those gophers, they may have only associated the smell of mice with " live " mice, thus not showing any interest in dead. I have a grayband that for the most part, only likes to eat pinkies if they are wiggled in front of him.
>>
>>Take care!
>>
>>Billy

That's a very interesting theory about the gophers, never thought about that! Makes me want to do some tests, but all mine are on rats now, so I don't want to change their meals again.

-cat
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My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

Yeah......I hear you!!!! I understand not wanting to switch away from rats.

I have fed rat pinks for the last few years to my newborn, yearling and two year old pits and while I of course saw growth, it was nowhere like what some others have had. Don't know why. I also noticed that the rat pinks were too small, and the next size up rats were too big, so big hopper and small adult mice are the perfect size for these certain pits of mine that needed that certain size food item. Otherwise, it would not have been enough or perhaps being too big would have cause them to puke. Now, these certain pits are shooting up in growth. So..when they get bigger, perhaps small adult and on up, I will get them back to rats. I will be screwed though if I don't! LOL!

LATER!!!!!!
Billy
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Genesis 1:1

I have two pines....A southern and a Leucistic that was sold to me as a southern but isn't.

Both were on mice when I got them At 2' both switched over (first try) to rat pinks.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Do you have any idea what kind of pine that leucistic is? Can you post a pic? Sounds very interesting!

Yeah.....when my young pits get a lot larger, more than likely it will be rats. I do keep my adult gophers though on mice.

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

IF you really want to see a feeding response out of gopher try a hamster

have moved back and forth depending on the size of rat or mouse they could care less.