F/t question...

[dsmalex97]

Hey I was wondering if anyone had issues keeping their animals on f/t. My snakes are very weird and don't seem to consistantly be taking f/t. And all my snakes are different. 3 of them don't like them wet, 1 of them does, and theres a lot of other stupid little things I have to do to get them to eat the f/t. Has anyone had issues with this? They seem like they want to eat, but when I offer the f/t they don't ALWAYS want it. BUT!!! I guarentee if it was live they would take it. I'm wondering if I should feed them a live just to trick them, so the next time they will think its a live right off the bat. I don't know what to do, and I don't want to start ordering mass quanaties of f/t's if there not going to take them.

[unrezt]

Hey I was wondering if anyone had issues keeping their animals on f/t. My snakes are very weird and don't seem to consistantly be taking f/t. And all my snakes are different. 3 of them don't like them wet, 1 of them does, and theres a lot of other stupid little things I have to do to get them to eat the f/t. Has anyone had issues with this? They seem like they want to eat, but when I offer the f/t they don't ALWAYS want it. BUT!!! I guarentee if it was live they would take it. I'm wondering if I should feed them a live just to trick them, so the next time they will think its a live right off the bat. I don't know what to do, and I don't want to start ordering mass quanaties of f/t's if there not going to take them.

Picky picky picky... I tried to feed frozen for the first time today and he struck once and missed (it wasn't even moving lol!), but his eyes are clouded up from shed. He then lost interest.

My mother got one of her snakes to eat frozen eventually, but her newest one won't touch them.

I guess my point is a snake wants what a snake wants

[kc261]

If you want to keep them on f/t, I would NOT offer a live. Most likely, the only thing that will accomplish is to encourage them to hold out for the good stuff.

Some snakes are finicky eaters. It is possible you would not be having any more success on live.

The first thing I would do is double check all of your husbandry. If everything checks out, then I recommend putting some serious thought into whether you want to keep your snakes on f/t, or make a permanent switch to live. If you want to stick with f/t and are consistent about it, I bet they will gradually come around to eating more consistently.

[dsmalex97]

hmmm...I'm pretty sure my husbandry is on point. I mean some nights it drops to 70 degrees in my room, but they are never in these temps for long periods of time. Its just soo weird because sometimes they will hit it so fast, and so hard that it seems like they don't care. And then I'll go to feed them a week later and they'll approach it, and then get turned off by it. I am really considering breeding my own but I don't really get how its possible to have the appropriate size prey all the time. I plan on increasing my snake collection to 50+ snakes within the year. Right now I only have 5 snakes, and I'm getting sick and tierd of paying 5 dollars per rat...Anyone know what size rat colony I would need to support a snake collection of this size? And just how to always have the right size prey? Just seems kind of hard to raise your own food, but cost effective, I just need a plan....

[BullsBPs]

Hey I was wondering if anyone had issues keeping their animals on f/t. My snakes are very weird and don't seem to consistantly be taking f/t. And all my snakes are different. 3 of them don't like them wet, 1 of them does, and theres a lot of other stupid little things I have to do to get them to eat the f/t. Has anyone had issues with this? They seem like they want to eat, but when I offer the f/t they don't ALWAYS want it. BUT!!! I guarentee if it was live they would take it. I'm wondering if I should feed them a live just to trick them, so the next time they will think its a live right off the bat. I don't know what to do, and I don't want to start ordering mass quanaties of f/t's if there not going to take them.

I have a couple that get a little picky. What solved everything for me was temperature. I got this from another thread. Make sure they are really warm when you feed. I would have 4-5 in a cup that thawed, and it would seem when I was getting to the 4 or 5th it would be refused (usually the same snake because I feed in a certain order). Now before I present the F/T I have an extremely hot cup of water from the faucet that I put the mouse in for a couple seconds and present it. Usually it gets taken right away, if it doesn't I heat it up again.

Since using this method I have not had any refused. Hope it helps!

[kc261]

What solved everything for me was temperature. I got this from another thread. Make sure they are really warm when you feed.

Yep! I have better luck with getting the snakes to accept the f/t if I heat it to somewhat above the normal body temperature of a mouse/rat.

[k2l3d4]

My boyfriend has a picky three year old BP that will only hit live.... so he lets her hit the live mouse adn then will follow it with a F/T rat... he just lets tthe F/T rat follow teh mouses tail and the swallowing thing takes over.. She gets to hit live adn he is pleased that she is eating enough

[BAD Morphs]

Yep! I have better luck with getting the snakes to accept the f/t if I heat it to somewhat above the normal body temperature of a mouse/rat.

Yeah I had luck with that just a few hrs ago! My female albino was so interested but wouldn't strike so I figured it was cause she couldn't tell where it was she could only smell/taste it in the air. So I reheated some water threw the rat in for a min or two and BAM! She grubbed it! Now her brother on the other hand will eat f/t mice but not rats?? He is picky I guess he just don't like the rats but that is ok cause I have a few others that eat f/t mice too so I can give him what he wants for now untill the others get onto rats then he is gonna have to change his ways! LOL But It just seems that some of mine strike them f/t live, whatever no problem and others I have to mess with for a bit and some strike hard and so fast and others slow as turtles. That is one of the purks of BP's they have their own personalities and no two are exactly alike! Just my opinion anyways!