How often should I try F/T during transition from live

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Originally Posted by rufretic

I agree with the others, offering once a week is plenty, a little longer is ok too.
If you want him to switch, it's better not to give him live again because they tend to want that again. Once I get them to take f/t, I don't offer live again unless months go by and weight is dropping which has rarely happened and I've converted many snakes. The good thing is he has taken f/t, so that is the hardest step. At this point, you just need to let him get hungry enough to take it again. 99% of the time they eventually get used to it and take them weekly. If you want him on f/t regularly you need to stop feeding live. I know it's hard because you want them to eat but you need to stay away from live if you want him to take f/t consistently.

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^^ I totally agree. Once you commit to making the switch to f/t you shouldn't offer live again. I'd try at least 3 months of f/t offerings and if it still hasn't eaten then I'd give the snake a very small live feeder and start the process over. I'd wait at least 2 weeks after a refused meal to offer food again. That being said, BPs don't necessarily have to be on rats imo since they're not very big and there's other prey items they can live on like mice and asf's.

Still haven't gotten him to take a F/T. I've tried a few different sources of F/T and a few different methods of defrosting etc. I think next week I am going to try a fresh kill just to see how he takes that. I know a month or so without food is no big deal but I have had people tell me that it is not the best situation to have an animal that is already prone to go on feeding strikes to be kept from eating.

Each time he shows some interest in the F/T and will come out of the hide to sniff around but as he gets nose to nose with it he will go back into the hide. If I put a live rat in there there is no hesitation at all. Hopefully the fresh kill try next week will get him going.

Well I tried a fresh kill tonight and got the same reaction. When I brought the rat home I had to go pick one of my kids up from practice so i put the box with the rat inside of the tank, on the opposite had that the BP was in. Only reason I did this was in-case it happened to escape the flimsy cardboard box it would be in the enclosure and not loose in the house. When I came home 10-15 minutes later the BP was curled up on top of the box with the rat snooping a round, the smell of the rat definitely had his attention. I removed the box and rat and quickly incapacitated it, snapping its neck. By the time I came back in the room the BP had gone back into its hide since I disturbed it from the top of the box. As soon as I lowered the rat in with the tongs the BP came out in a strike pose and followed every movement of the dead rat. Never did strike at it. I tried moving it slow, moving it around a little faster etc. Each time he would spend several minutes following it's every movement and then it would retreat back into the hide. As soon as I would move it near the opening of the hide he would come right back out, get nose to nose with the rat like he was wanting to strike but then would retreat back. After enough time went by with me trying this I heated it back up with my CHE. I decided to try that instead of the hair dryer in case the hair dryer was putting a foreign smell on it. Each time I would heat it up he would instantly come out of the hide stay face to face but never did strike. When I was feeding it live it would strike very quickly so I honestly expected it to go after this very fresh kill right away but no such luck.

I got up this morning and the rat which I had left on top of the cool side hide was gone so he did eat it sometime over night. That is good news, making progress. I know it is not the case for most people but since I have had him he has eaten 1 F/T and now one fresh kill and both times he ate them over night after being left on top of a hide. Each time in between the first and last time he ate I have left them on the hide overnight and he didn't touch them. He is happily sitting in the hot side digesting his meal.

Hopefully this is my last update on this topic, I'm using it more now as a record of feeding dates, I'm starting a word document from here on out. Today I tried another fresh kill, it has been 13 days since his last meal. This time after about 5 minutes of him showing interest I got the rat out and put it under the CHE since it had cooled some. About 30 seconds after I put it in he struck and coiled up around it. I slowly left the dark room to leave him alone. I checked about 20 minutes later and it was laying in the substrate right where he was coiled up with it. I left it in there to see if he would eat it. After about an hour it was still laying there. I pulled it out and was going to lay it on top of the hide since that is where he ate the last one from. I heated it up one more time and as soon as I put it by the entrance he struck, coiled, and ate it this time. My plan is to try one more fresh kill and then try some F/T......