Mice - Rats

[Venomous_RBB]

Hi Everyone,
What is the best way to get a six month old Bredli onto rats, or when should I try to get her on rats?
She is currently on fuzzy mice and is growing nicely, she should be coming up to a shed soon as she has grown heaps since she has been here.
Anyway, both of my other snakes are on rats and I heard it was more nutritious for them to be on rats?
I have tried to do 2 things:
1. I have tried to put a small pinky rat in with her fuzzy to defrost, then tried her with the pinky first, she lunged at it, then flew back into the S position, she is quite scared of the pinky rats? Anyway, she ended up eating her fuzzy that I defrosted.
2. I have tried to leave her for a few weeks so she is quite hungry and try her then, still to no avail. She still loves her fuzzy mice.
Should I wait until she gets older so she can be having fuzzy rats as I have also heard they are alot more nutritious then pinkies or velvets?
Or is there a method that I can try?
Thank you

Edit - Also there is no big rush in getting her on rats, its just her fuzzy mice are nearly finished and wasnt sure what to do next, except maybe up her feed to hoppers. If she wont eat them then mice it is, I am just interested to know what people think.

 

[Wild~Touch]

A 6 month old bredli can be fed fuzzy rats no prob. sometimes they prefer something a bit furry

Just rub a mouse all over the fuzzy rat and see what happens

Good Luck
Sandee

 

[The_Geeza]

Hi Everyone,
What is the best way to get a six month old Bredli onto rats, or when should I try to get her on rats?
She is currently on fuzzy mice and is growing nicely, she should be coming up to a shed soon as she has grown heaps since she has been here.
Anyway, both of my other snakes are on rats and I heard it was more nutritious for them to be on rats?
I have tried to do 2 things:
1. I have tried to put a small pinky rat in with her fuzzy to defrost, then tried her with the pinky first, she lunged at it, then flew back into the S position, she is quite scared of the pinky rats? Anyway, she ended up eating her fuzzy that I defrosted.
2. I have tried to leave her for a few weeks so she is quite hungry and try her then, still to no avail. She still loves her fuzzy mice.
Should I wait until she gets older so she can be having fuzzy rats as I have also heard they are alot more nutritious then pinkies or velvets?
Or is there a method that I can try?
Thank you

Edit - Also there is no big rush in getting her on rats, its just her fuzzy mice are nearly finished and wasnt sure what to do next, except maybe up her feed to hoppers. If she wont eat them then mice it is, I am just interested to know what people think.

To get my jungle and bredli hatchies on rats i just rubbed mice all over them before i offered them and it was pretty much immediate....can i just say tho that i have a Stimi that eats 2 x hopper mice every 5 days and she is only 8 months old so i think u really nead to up the feeds and size.....A simple rule after searching the net is that u can feed every 5 days as much as they can eat till they r 18 months old but after slow down on feeds after as they r prone to take fat on....Ps..... My stimi is being bumped up fast due to a lot of interest in a breeding program :lol:

 

[Venomous_RBB]

She is my first hatchie so thank you a bunch for the tip, will definitely up her feed.
I will try her with the rat again as I breed my own rats, so have a few fuzzys, just need to get the mice to feed it to her.
Thank you, will let you know how she goes.

 

[The_Geeza]

View attachment 262792View attachment 2627911.9M long @ 19 months old....was on 2 x medium rats a week or 1 large every 5 days but since 18 months old 1 x large rat every 10 /14 days...she seems fine with it also...GL Bredli r the Best...Bias sry

 

[rvcasa]

I've been looking into getting a 6 months Bredli too...

When I enquire about cage and feeding etc, breeder said to do exactly as my Woma and he was on hopper rats at 6 months! (and weeaners soon after)

As a hatchie, I was told to start on rats ASAP or you'd have to feed few mice per meal, when you can just feed one rat. (never heard about nutrition though)


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[The_Geeza]

u wana feed it 2 rats or 20+ mice a feed? :lol:

 

[Wrightpython]

The rats thing being better than mice is just crap they are both as nutritious as each other. I breed both and interchange between them on a lot of my snakes and some will get a med rat and a few mice in one feed and I throw in a quaill every now and then as well. I try and mix it up because I don't believe they should eat the same thing week in week out, it cannot be nutritionally good to have the same food all the time.

 

[The_Geeza]

The rats thing being better than mice is just crap they are both as nutritious as each other. I breed both and interchange between them on a lot of my snakes and some will get a med rat and a few mice in one feed and I throw in a quaill every now and then as well. I try and mix it up because I don't believe they should eat the same thing week in week out, it cannot be nutritionally good to have the same food all the time.

+1 i vary with chicks etc...covers all the boundries

 

[Tobe404]

One of my MDs is on Weaner Mice and she's about 7 months old. Fed every 6 days. Going to up her to Adult Mice once she's shed again.

My Jungle (which I'm pretty sure is a girl but unconfirmed) is also on Weaner Mice and it's about 6.5 months old.

I don't see the point of switching over from Mice to Rats until you absolutely have to. For example, once you've gone through all the Mouse sizes and they need something bigger. Also because of the reason below.

The other MD was on Fuzzy Mice but I chucked a Pinky Rat in one day and he took it no probs. Now he wont touch Mice anymore. He's a bit fussy feeding still though, even on Rats (could be because of what season it is also) and is a fair bit smaller than his sister. I've tried him on Fuzzy Rats but he doesn't seem interested (using the exact same method I did as when he took pinkys). So I just have to stick to pinkys (which he sometimes still doesn't take) until he gets big enough to take a Fuzzy Rat I guess.

I used to breed Quails and Finches. Probably should start that up again, to mix things up a bit.

 

[rvcasa]

...I don't see the point of switching over from Mice to Rats...

I was told some fussy snakes won't take them by the time you run out of mice sizes... so the sooner the better as you will eventually need to switch


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[Venomous_RBB]

@ rvcasa - I will definitely be upping her food, I tried her rats when she first came to us - 4 months and she didnt want a bar of it, she was petrified of it. Never seen a snake scared of their food.
@ Wrightpython - I wasn't sure if it was crap or not, I am still very new to the industry and I was unsure whether or not this is true.
Also another thing I have been told is BHP's and their Liver? That they can get liver failure or something if they eat too much rats and dont get a chicken neck every now and then? Is this true or another "tale"?
@ Tobe404 - This is what I was told, to keep her on mice until I have basically run out of sizes, she is scared but fussy of the rat as well.
@ rvcasa - Thanks, I will try the mice/rat thing tomorrow night with her, she is certainly gobbling down her mice.

 

[Icarus]

View attachment 262792View attachment 262791

is she doing a poo or is that a stick underneath her?? lol

 

[Wrightpython]

Blackheaded, it is true blackheads can get fatty liver disease but it's not caused by feeding normal rats only excessively large rats. All of my womas (which are blackheads in disquise) only get fed small to med rats. A med rat is a rat up to 45 days old. This way there food source is lean much like there wild food that has very little fat. Don't feed chook necks it's only meat and bone no roughage like hair and grain that you get with rats. Instead of chook necks try 2 week old quaill lots better for them if the quaill has a full gullet the only problem is the snakes feaces smell a bit more. Cheers James

 

[rvcasa]

...Never seen a snake scared of their food...

Ah ah you should have seen my Woma hiding its head under sand (like in cartoons), w/ body completely exposed, when I brought a quail chick first couple of times...

It's a hatchie/juvenile thing, don't worry.
Now he really goes for the kill!

Good luck.


P.S. briefly, the Fat Liver Disease, may occur in Womas & BHP fed on 200+gr rats. At that time replace with lean meats (ie quail)

You may like to read some of these:
http://sxr.com.au/RA ARTICLE PAGE.htm

http://www.southernxreptiles.com/Article PDFs/Bredli.pdf


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[Venomous_RBB]

Thank you both so much ^^

Thats what I thought about the chicken necks, most of it is bone :/

ha ha, would of love to seen your woma, that would of been a classic.

I am defrosting a rat and a mouse for my Bredli at the moment, so fingers crossed