Feeding advice?

My question is, how many weeks should I offer a f/t rat without the snake eating it before throwing a live one back in there?

Thanks in advance

You really only have to worry when the snake starts losing weight, so I'd say just keep offering and monitoring weight until you think it's starting to become detrimental to your snake's health. Generally once they get hungry enough (and if the f/t prey is hot enough - hair dryers work wonders!) they should accept it. If you have any live rats handy, you could even try rubbing the f/t one on the live one to scent it.

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Originally Posted by PweEzy

My question is, how many weeks should I offer a f/t rat without the snake eating it before throwing a live one back in there?

Thanks in advance

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If you are trying to get him/her to breeding size I would feed weekly, every 6-7 days.

If your not trying to get him/her to breeding size, I would go every 9-10 days.

If your snake is taking F/T like a champ with no hesitation keep feeding F/T. If he/she is not go ahead and try a live. (ALWAYS MONITOR WHEN FEEDING LIVE)

Wish you the best of luck man,
-Payson!

ugh 23 views and only 2 responses. So the story is... both of my females were feeding regularly on live which was great. They then each took a week off and so I wanted to switch all my snakes to f/t. Both males now regularly take the f/t but neither of the females seem to like them. How much weight loss is considered detrimental? Each female has really only lost about 10g in the past month, which sucks.... but doesn't seem like a whole lot to me. I am willing to be patient and wait an extra year before breeding them, especially since one pairing will be het to het, so the more eggs the merrier, and getting them all to switch to f/t will save my pocket book about 600 bucks a year.

I will try a hairdryer.... but any other advice as to how long I should wait before feeding a live one again?

Weight loss of any kind can jeopardize the coming season, and no weight gain won't help either obviously.

IF I were to try switching them I'd wait till after the breeding season.
I say "if" because I only feed live but I breed and can, some can't.

More info would help.
Age and weight of females especially.

When I fed F/T to some snakes I always had a back up live rat in case the snake didn't eat the F/T.
I waited till the following day to offer the live rat then the next week I tried the same routine till the snake took F/T.

I have a female that is 1700g's and she wouldn't take F/T. After a month, I tried a live rat but she wouldn't eat. I contacted the breeder and he totally forgot to tell me that she was a mouse eater. So, I got a live mouse and still she won't eat. Its been 7 weeks now and she has lost around 60g or so. Everyone I have talked to says its nothing to worry about so I definetely wouldn't stress 10g......depending on if your BP's are babies or not. I am now going to wait 2-3 weeks before I even attempt to feed her again so hopefully she is good and hungry.