Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of JungleXDiamond pythons. They are both pushing 6 feet but seem to only want to eat mice. I can't get them to eat a small or medium rat, but they have no problem downing 4-5 mice at a time.

Does anyone else's Morelia prefer smaller prey than what they can easily take?

...You should have switched them over to rats much earlier. There are people here with adult snakes like you that have to feed 20 mice at a time! On that note, yours must be chomping down loads of mice!

There are a number of ways to get them to eat rats.

Most will switch over if you just scent the rat with a mouse (start with a 150g rat and rub a defrosted pink mouse all over).
Sometimes it helps if you actually squish up the pink mouse and rub it in guts 'n' all. Yea... kinda messy.

Otherwise, feed a mouse, and, at the last minute, poke the head of a rat in it's mouth using long tweezers (you know... that last gulp when they straighten out their necks... tail still hanging out). Then, they will just keep on swallowing.

Alternatively, i've heard of people sewing a rat to a mouse using cotton (easily digestible). To do this, use two relatively smaller items to get started (60g or so).

Australian Pythons can quite easily swallow something twice (or even more) the diameter of the largest part of their bodies. I doubt any would fear a prey item just because it's big! Some will have eyes bigger than their belly... and will begin to swallow, get it halfway down, and decide it can't handle it. This isn't a big deal ... just don't let it happen too often (if it happens, feed smaller - no damage done). But most can tell what they can handle (a common sign of this is where the snake has no problem continually striking, and sometimes constricting, but not even attempting to swallow).

Good luck... hope this works.
Aaron.
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Happy Herping

It probably has nothing to do with the size of the prey item, but is more likely a reflection of their preference to the scent of the mice of which they have become accostomed to. If it difficult to switch some JCP's to rats once they have been regularly feed mice for a long period of time. It may just take patience, and time, to switch them to rats. My advice would be to just stop feeding the mice and keep trying with the rats. If they get hungry enough, most snakes will eventually take the rat. A few missed feedings while the snake gets used to the transition is not going to hurt the snake.

I had a similiar problem w/a female IJ carpet. Would eat live mice all day, but hit a small rat and release within a second. Had some small rabbits and tossed one in the cage and she nailed it. Now that's all she eats is thawed bunnies, which has seen a big jump in her growth.