A potentiel feeding problem in the future?

[ms381]

When i got my baby bp at two months old he had only been fed live, when i got him i wanted to switch him to f/t. The first few tries, he had no interest and was scared of the dead thing i was dangleling infront of him, i assumed he would eventually take it. However, this didnt happen and i went straight to live, he has an amazing feeding response and never missed a meal (some great stikes to!). No problems now, but ive upgraded to rat pups and small rats now and i am getting concerned about the risk posed by a large rodent, especially in the future.

I just tried again at a f/t mouse, no go, no interest.
Has any one any experiences of there snake switching, i would hate to have to stun a rodent and am getting concerned for the future if he doesnt take the zombie rodents Any tips on how to switch or using large live rodents safely?

I have tried the overnight trick, heating the head with a hair dryer for f/t.

Thanks
Matt

[ballpythonluvr]

Some snakes will take f/t without any issues and others not so easily. What is the current weight of your snake? Both of my snakes were on f/t and have now decided that they only want to eat live with the exception of my eight month old male who is currently fasting. Live feeding can be done safely if done responsibly. I have done live feedings without any issues or injury to my snakes. I always supervise the live feedings. I leave the snake once I see that they have a gook strike and coil on the live prey item. Depending on your snake's current body weight you may have to use tough love when it comes to feeding f/t. Somtimes the snake just has to miss a few feedings to get them to take f/t prey.

[jason79]

In you post it says your feeding live rats then trying F/T mice. Maybe try F/T rats. I feed all my bp's live with no problems just make sure you don't leave a live one in there long enough for it to get hungry that's when you have problems. If you get your rats from a pet store you might put a piece of bread or something in with it. It is possible that it has not had food or water for awhile.

[ms381]

He is 7 months old and approx 350 grams, he has still a bit of growing to do yet before he decides to go on a fast.
I tried the f/t mouse just because it was one left over from a few i bought when i tried to switch him when i first got him, but a f/t rat is definately something i will try soon.

As i said before he has no probs in eating live, i am just a bit concerned if i have to feed a live large rat in the future. I always supervised when feeding so if you think it will be ok to feed a larger rat supervised i will do that in the future.

Would be great to hear from others who have had any luck switching late on from live to f/t.

Thanks in advance

matt

[DarrinLowe]

Yeah,

When I started feeding live I bought a bag of mouse food, and I always slip some into the box on the way to my house.

You could see how he responds to dangling a live one, and after a few successful tries to that do a few p/k ones with some added wrist action. ^^

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Not sure why you are concern an male BP even as an adult does not require anything bigger than a small rat (55/75 grams) which you are already feeding anyway.

If you want to switch you need to switch to same prey type not go from live rats to frozen mice.

It's one step at the time and f your BP already take rats you might want to stick to rats to avoid credit multiple preys in the future.

Swigging can take time and tough love, be patient and if the animal refuse to eat do not offer anything else.

[RichsBallPythons]

Also when moving off live to frozen you need to move slowly.

I feed live for few 2 months to hatchlings. then i offer prekilled for 2-3 feedings and after that i offer a thawed prey item and 9 out of 10 they take it.

Ive never had one jump from live to frozen without a median