Live vs frozen thawed

I know it's better to feed thawed. But when do you switch? When a rat is able to post a threat or as soon as possible. I have a couple new babies . This is why I'm asking.

The sooner, the better

My male butter pastel took his right away. Female spinner wanted nothing to do with it. Should I try everyday with her ? Twice a week ? Once a week. At what point do I feed her live or just wait her out until she eats thawed ?
Thanks

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Originally Posted by Gbryner45

My male butter pastel took his right away. Female spinner wanted nothing to do with it. Should I try everyday with her ? Twice a week ? Once a week. At what point do I feed her live or just wait her out until she eats thawed ?
Thanks

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‘Seven of my snakes came to me as live eaters only as well as failed on frozen. Some had been on live for years. I converted all of them through tough love by skipping a feeding cycle or two or three.

I'm in the UK so our rules are a little different - generally we start on F/T.

yea in the UK is it technically illegal to feed live, unless the snake is going to die if it doesnt?

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Originally Posted by sur3fir3

yea in the UK is it technically illegal to feed live, unless the snake is going to die if it doesnt?

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It's not so much that - it is illegal to film a live feeding purely for entertainment however. If it is not filmed and there is a reasonable expectation the animal will not eat anything else then you would probably be able to get any charges dropped. The main issue is it is illegal to sell unweaned animals - and since most of the thought on the legislation was focused on more traditional pets that was taken to mean six weeks. So, unless you breed your own feeders and can produce a reliable supply, you will probably have a great deal of difficulty feeding hatchlings live prey.

To be honest though you can generally get the animals eating F/T without too much of a problem.

Thawed from my experience I fed live a couple times to a picky Axanthic I got. As soon as I fed him enough to get passed his first couple weeks(About 3 feedings in) I stopped all feeding for a week or 2 used the hair dryer method and he gobbled like a turkey right before thanks giving. :P

I actually made a post about my first live feeding haha had me super paranoid about injuries.

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Originally Posted by Gbryner45

I know it's better to feed thawed. But when do you switch? When a rat is able to post a threat or as soon as possible. I have a couple new babies . This is why I'm asking.

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A couple things I've done in the past when I needed to switch snakes that initially objected to f/t-

-feed a smaller-than-meal-size live one first (the "appetizer"), then offer one f/t (not too big either, so the combined meal, if taken, isn't too large for the snake). Many
snakes are still very pumped up from the first item to take it...then the next time offer only f/t & they should do better at recognizing it as edible. No guarantee though-
some snakes -BPs especially :rolleyes: -may only accept one item per meal no matter what. Just depends on your snake's personality quirks.

-another way to transition is to offer fresh-killed (not necessarily pleasant for you, but this can also help them to accept).

-young BPs are the least finicky, so for sure, switch them to f/t early as possible. It's safer, it's healthier, & often helps snakes be better (calmer) pets, less likely to bite
out of confusion.

My banana wouldn't take thawed right away. He had only eaten live before I got him. I like to feed outside of there tanks. After feeding him 2 live hoppers in the feeding tub on the third attempt he knew it was time to eat when i put him in there. As soon as i got the thawed in front of his face he took it with extreme force!!! He ate it in less than 5 min than gave me the stink eye because he didn't get to do the work. It worked out well and he is now taking frozen/thawed with no issue now.

:gj::snake: