Switching from mice to rats; live to f/t

[east_stingray]

My baby was raised on hopper mice. Needless to say, a redtail is gonna get mighty expensive to feed when it's 7 feet long if it will only eat mice. The other thing is that it likes them prekilled. I would like to make both switches... to rats and to f/t. I have tried both with no success. She went for 3 weeks without eating when I last tried rats. I tried live and f/t pinkie rats. She was in a delicup with them overnight a couple of different times. I also tried braining. That didn't work either. She's about 17 inches long, and is feeding fine on mice. Temps and humidity are fine. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

-East
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[Squirgle]

I could be totally wrong on this but I was told to wait until your critters can take full Adult mice before trying to switch to pinkie rats...but like I said, I could be wrong [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Squirgle
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[Shadrach]

Try rubbing a mouse all over the rat to sent it like the mouse.
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[east_stingray]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Hehe... (I was a poet and didn't even know it).
Just brining this back to the top for more opinions!

-East
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[captainmorgan]

you can leave the f/t rat in there overnight and see if she takes it. Or put the two of them in a old pillow case overnight and put them in the tank. Seal the pillowcase though. The scent might drive the snake to eat if it's stuck with it overnight. Don't let it starve if it won't eat. I mean if you have to give it a mouse, give it a mouse until it will take a rat. Mine was a pain to switch too. I had to feed a small live rat the first time I fed mine a rat. After that I could feed dead. Maybe it just had to kill it to recognize it as food. But I watched the whole thing to make sure the rat didn't bite my snake. Now all my snakes eat f/t or p/k mice and rats.
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[Karen]

When I made the switch (both ways) I had a couple problem feeders. This is just what worked for me though... I realized that if the rat was really,really warm(not burning) that my problem feeders were more apt to take it. That didnt solve it for all of them though hahaha Others probably wont approve of this but I would make them mad enough to where they would strike at the food I had held in tongs. No it didnt change the way they reacted towards me on non feeding days. After a couple months of doing that all mine have been switched over to rats except for my baby hognose. Even my young snakes are eating rat pinkies. You'll probably eventually get them to take it, it'll just take some time. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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[JuliusSqueezer]

The biggest problem is that rats grow so fast. Make sure you are getting day old rat pinks. week or two old rat pinks could be as big as grown mouse and still be pink. baby boas can take day old pink rats from the first meal. When changing food on a snake....it sometimes requires experimenting with presentation...try everything...but don't forget to keep trying what so far hasn't worked because what didn't work last week will often work this week.
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