How to change my snakes prey from small pinkies to mice and eventually rats?

Question

i own a baby colombian red tail boa its about 2' long and it eats very small frozen pinkies and i want to change that and get him to eat live pinkies or mice any suggestions on how to go about it because when hes older i want him to eat rats so i need to change his prey from dead to live prey now

Answer 1

Your way better off to keep on feeding frozen thawed i start my baby boas on rat pups from the first feeding . i have sucessfully bred boas many times and produced well over 200 babies.

Answer 2

Usually they don't have a big issue changes sizes of prey, since they smell really similar.  If you're on pinkies now, you can switch to hopper mice or just move up to regular mice.  Pinkies are way to small for him right now.  If you do the hoppers they are small, but have hair on them, so its a good transition.  If he doesn't have a problem with it, just move to mice.

Most of my snakes loved the rats, but I had one that didn't, so I just fed him 2 mice at a time instead, or fed him more often.

Good luck!

Answer 3

You are better off to keep him on frozen, because it is safer. With live mice, rats, ect., they may bite your snake and hurt it badly. It is good that he is eating frozen food with being young. Don't switch him over to live. Eventhough it might be a little funnier to watch. Haha. Hope I help.

Answer 4

You don't have to change from frozen to live!  In facts it's much better if you don't.  Live mice and rats can and will cause serious even life-threatening injury to snakes.  Live prey also carry a lot of parasites.  The size of the prey should be no bigger than 1.5 times the widest part of the snake.  Make any size changes gradually.  If the food lump in the snakes stomach is gone within 24 hours, you need to increase the size of the prey.  Don't be in a rush to do so.  I love this site, it's got great pics too:

http://www.redtailboas.com/general_care/...

also good:

http://www.kingsnake.com/boapage/careshe...

Answer 5

if ur in uk ur not allowed 2 use live prey

Answer 6

You don't have to change his prey to live mice?? You can get frozen pinkies, small mice, large mice, rats, even rabbits. You should not ever feed a snake live prey.. if a snake isnt hungry, they simply wont eat the rodent. There have been so many cases of the rodent then chewing on the reptile and the reptile doing nothing but letting them (similar to how snakes will lie on a heat rock until they are completely burnt). Also, during feeding the snake can get bitten/scratched, causing sores and scars. Stick to dead prey, its much safer. You can move up to mice now, you dont have to transition him. Petco carries sizes up to rats, and you can order rabbits online because eventually your boa will have to move up to them.