Need Help! Switching from live to frozen/thawed rats.

Hi everyone! :)

I need some help!

I'm adopting a 4ft male ball python on saturday who is used to eating live rats under supervision. I would like to switch him over to frozen/thawed rats and i'm unsure of how to get him through the transition. Any advice for me?

Mia

Sure! First, I'd wait a little longer than he's used to waiting between meals before trying to feed him. If he normally eats every Saturday, give it a week and a half or two weeks instead to give him time to settle in and build an appetite. Then for his first meal with you, I would try a stunned or pre-killed prey item and see how he does. If he takes that readily, then I'd do it again another couple of times, then introduce the f/t when he's used to eating already dead prey. I just switched a 4.5 year old over from live to pre-killed and am going to try feeding frozen next and see how well that goes myself. All my others readily eat f/t mice.

I agree with Marla. Feed a fresh dead rat and use some tongs to dangle the rat by the tail, snakes always respond well to movement. I have never made the switch to frozen thawed rats. The only way i would switch to frozen prey items is if the live rodents i am getting now have become unsafe somehow. I will probably get reamed by a few folks who feed exclusively F/T. But i still say that F/K is better then feeding live no matter how you look at it.

I won't ream you, Damien, but I will say that f/t don't carry parasites and don't bite anyone trying to thwack them so they're still safer than pre-killed. I believe there are enough good reasons to make it worth the switch, but pre-killed is certainly better than live (especially unsupervised) and not remotely worth reaming over. :)

Muchos gracias Marla. The place where i get my feeders from always look healthy and fat and happy. I do still think that FT is safer but i would rather get bit by a rodent then my ball python. But lots of people dont feel comfortable killing for thier snake but thats a whole other thread. I can think of one thing that makes feeding FT superior to feeding FK. You can order and store a 1 year supply of feeders if you want. try puting 52 live rats in your freezer i bet you will have a hard time keeping them in there.
I have yet to order a bulk order of feeders but someday. Oh yea the supplier that i get my feeders from also freezes his own feeders and sells them. I heard that www.rodentpro.com is one of the best places to get these bulk feeders.

Yep, RodentPro is definitely one of the leading suppliers. www.GourmetRodent.com is another. Being able to have a supply on hand is definitely more convenient than having to run to the store every week or so, much less waiting for them to have some the right size. I think I'll skip putting 52 live rats in my freezer, though. ;)

Thanks so much for the help, everyone :) I'll give it a go :)

Mia

Just to add in here I recieved my first RodentPro shipment of Weaned Rats (Icc took one last night!! :) :) it's a size up from the pups I was feeding and he took it down with no problems) I recieved my shipment a day early! and the mice were very well packed, totally frozen and came out to about .68 cents a piece for a bag of 20 - shipping was expensive though.. I think my total was like 27 bucks or so (incl. Shipping) which is pricey I know but I found a frozen feeder supplier around here so I won't have to do that again.. but if you think about it 30 (I'm rounding :) ) bucks for 20 weeks of food is a decent deal and plus I had lots of fun blowing stuff up with the dry ice :) Plus rodentpro rodents are always sized perfectly it truly is amazing when you look at the bag and all of the mice look EXACTLY the same haha.

thanks jonah! :)

It's funny--i had just finished checking out frozen rodent sites and decided that rodentpro was the best deal when i left my first post. hehe Didn't know shipping was so expensive tho, hmmm. Maybe i'll try to get him eating some from local shops around here first, THEN order some in bulk.

Thanks again,
mia