F/t to live, help appreciated!!!

Thanks guys for all the responses. What I've gathered is that switching would not be a problem from a technical aspect. I appreciated the other things to take into account (storage, price, etc). Those are the kind of things I like to have in front of me before making any type of decision.

I'm going to bump up the size of my food while keeping it frozen for now. If I do end up making the switch, I'll be sure to post on the site and keep y'all updated!

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Originally Posted by ODoyle90

I somewhat recently got my Ball Python, Boomer. He is a true champ and is everything I could have hoped for in a pet. He is currently on a f/t regimen, and I was hoping to switch him over to live in the near future. He is a phenomenal eater. Currently, he takes 2 fuzzies every 5 days like clockwork. I tried to see if they knew his age, but judging from the amount of time they had him in stock, I place him at a little under a year. He is almost 2 feet long at this point and is very healthy.

I know that switching to live is a big choice and is pretty irreversible as far as feeding patterns. I was hoping that I might be able to make the switch as cleanly as possible, and would appreciate any input on the best way to go about it. I never make any choices about my pets without knowing exactly what I'm getting into, so I would appreciate anything that members on this sight have to offer. Thanks in advance for any responses!

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OK, I've fed live and f/t. Here are my experiences:

Anything that eats f/t will eat live with gusto. Switching is not irreversible. I've fed live to my f/t eaters at times--I used to breed my rodents and when I got sick of my house smelling like rodent pee, I gave the rats and mice and their caging to a friend. Being a good friend and remembering that I had set him up for free, whenever he had a surplus of rodents, he offered them to me and I fed them. My snakes would eat the f/t for a while, live for a few weeks, and they accepted the f/t readily when the mice and rats weren't breeding so well. No problems at all with switching back.

It's the initial switch to f/t that can be a pain. I'm going through that right now with one of my snakes. But once I've gotten a snake eating well on f/t, I've never had any difficulties switching back and forth. Maybe some people have, but I haven't.

I feed f/t because for me it's more convenient and I don't have the not-so-subtle aroma of rat pee wafting through my living quarters. I also kinda like rats and mice and I've had some snakes that fed on full retard--they never did manage to kill efficiently or quickly and I don't like even a rat or mouse to have to suffer needlessly. With the snakes I have now I feed the one who thinks that f/t is of the devil her live rats. I'm not going to starve my snake to save a rat, and I figure that I'll keep working with her 'till I can get her switched over.

As far as why anyone would feed live over f/t, if you have the space and time it can save you money. Saving some money by being your own supplier is a legitimate reason to go the live route. For some folks that makes it possible for them to afford to keep their snakes. I don't knock anyone for feeding live. It's just not what I want to do.

Sounds like every one has your questions covered. In the end I think it comes down to whats best for you. Good luck with him and post some pics when you get around to it:)

Woops, hadn't checked my own thread in a while. But ^Cendalla,^ you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I always like knowing everything about what I'm getting myself into. To be honest, I'm not too sure how to post pics on threads, but my gallery has a few solid pics of my little buddy.