Trying f/t on ALL the snakes tonight

I'm done with live feeding. F/t is not only safer for my babies, but its easier since I have a huge freezer. I could just produce/buy in bulk and freeze! Some of these snakes have never had f/t before so tonight is going to be interesting seeing who is going to take it and who won't. Zim, my snow corn will take f/t no problem. She was on f/t for a long time. Sram, my hypo corn is a maybe, and Shane, my normal female ball python has taken pre-killed before. But my other ball pythons and my boa are mysteries. They've never touched f/t before. Cross your fingers!

One thing you can do to help them, is to scent the room, let them thaw out in the room with your snakes, it should help their appetite.

They share a room with the rodents so I've never really bothered with pre-scenting. And I lied, not ALL the snakes are getting f/t tonight. The new hatchling is getting live. I'm pre-scenting for her. I'm going to put the mouse in a small box, poke a few holes in the box and put it in Rubii's tub. How long should I pre-scent before attempting to feed Rubii?

I've heard about 30 mins is good.

Well, I tried out f/t on all the snakes. Akina and Shane, two of my normal females refused but Akina is in deep shed so I'm not surprised. All of the other snakes struck and constricted. Now just got to see if they will eat them. I am very happy with this! Now I don't have to worry about feeding live. :) Now I just have 2 to convert to f/t. (not including the hatchling)

You might want to try leaving the f/t'd rats on the cage floor of the two snakes that didn't take them by striking. I have three bp's that will take rats off of the floor with no problem at all. One will take the rat quickly, the others wait for hours before they eat the rats.

Normally for those that eat the rats off of the floor, I will just leave the rat in there overnight.

Just something that works for me, you might want to give it a shot.

John

i tried f/t and my ball wasnt havin it.
hes already 4yrs old and has been fed live all his life
i pre-scented and let it lay in the tank for a while but then i freaked out when i saw blood coming out of one of the other f/t mice i was thawing for after my snake ate the first. haha maybe im too girly but rat blood is pretty disgusting when you see it coming out of the poor little guys mouth!! should i try again and leave one in overnight?
oh yeah and should i put the mouse on top of a paper towel so my snake isnt eating stuck on substrate or can he handle that himself?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eclipsesmommy

i tried f/t and my ball wasnt havin it.
hes already 4yrs old and has been fed live all his life
i pre-scented and let it lay in the tank for a while but then i freaked out when i saw blood coming out of one of the other f/t mice i was thawing for after my snake ate the first. haha maybe im too girly but rat blood is pretty disgusting when you see it coming out of the poor little guys mouth!! should i try again and leave one in overnight?
oh yeah and should i put the mouse on top of a paper towel so my snake isnt eating stuck on substrate or can he handle that himself?

---

If I were you, and you wanted to switch him over to f/t, then I would try it again. I don't worry about the blood, my snakes don't either. :) In your case I would put the rat on something, either a paper towel or a plastic container lid, just something to keep it off of the substrate. I use newspaper, so that isn't an issue for me.

Neither of you specified if you were warming the rats at all or just thawing. If you didn't warm the rats, you may want to try warming them in hot water. I soak my feeders in pure hot water from the tap to warm them up. One of my snakes will not take f/t if they are not warmed sufficiently.

I have converted all but one of my snakes to eat f/t; all were being fed live prior to me purchasing them. Some took longer to convince or discover what method works for them, than others. I still have one that will not take a f/t as well, doesn't matter how I present it. My best feeder normally doesn't eat for at least four hours after I put the rat in her tub, but she always eats.

Hope this helps.

John

Tonight I Started frozen 2 out of my 3 adults took no problem... my third one eats but never the same time as the others for some reason with senting and all but ill try the floor thing next time...

Great post!!!

I didn't warm them at all. I just thawed them and did the zombie mouse dance for them. Haha. So next week everyone is going to get f/t again with the exception of the hatchling. :)