A new member question about f/t

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Originally Posted by dr del

They may not want to take the time to kill and freeze etc but they have the ability in most cases I would think.


dr del

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I would think too, but not all breeders have the time (or supplies) to make F/T. Imagine thawing 500 different size rats and mice.:O Then (if needed) do the zombie dance to 500(not to mention a FULL Deep freeze of rodents, probably more than one because 500 rodents a week takes alot of room.) snakes.:O There goes the weekends...lol. Im sure some breeders do it, and don't mind it, I hope I will be able to feed live, so I don't have to deal with the frozen rodents. Yay for food variations!

Hi,

Indeed everyone should be free to feed whichever method they choose. :gj:

I didn't mean the breeder should feed all his stock F/T just that making the odd F/T for a customer who wanted their snake switched before delivery wouldn't be all that difficult. :)

All mine are eating F/t but then again I also have some right fussy beggers and I suspect there may be a link between the two.

Or of course I could just be lucky. :(


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

Indeed everyone should be free to feed whichever method they choose. :gj:

I didn't mean the breeder should feed all his stock F/T just that making the odd F/T for a customer who wanted their snake switched before delivery wouldn't be all that difficult. :)

All mine are eating F/t but then again I also have some right fussy beggers and I suspect there may be a link between the two.

Or of course I could just be lucky. :(


dr del

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Im pretty lucky aswell. I am getting 4 balls pretty soon, and they are all feeding live, we will see how they transfer over, they better, I just killed off a whole bunch of fuzzies for them, they better eat them...LOL.

Thanks everyone for the welcome and for all of your comments and experience. :) I really appreciate it. There's only so much I can get just by reading up and this was just one of those questions that I felt needed to be answered by people who currently own them.

To those who suggested asking the breeder to switch, this is a good idea, but I know that many breeders have so many snakes, regardless of the type, that it's just not feasible to spend so much time trying to get one snake to feed f/t when it might be easier to just feed live. I understand that fact and I feel it would be too much to ask the breeder to do that for me. I have plenty of time to dedicate to my prospective ball python so I'm not worried about that if most people have successfully switched them over.

So it seems like it should be no problem to try to switch to f/t if I have the time to dedicate to it, accordin to the responses. If get one that never eats f/t, that's fine too. I mean, I'd prefer it to eat f/t, but I'm not going to give it away if it eats live either. It would be ignorant of me to think that it will never eat live food throughout it's lifetime, it would just be easier based on what is available around here and what I have already in the freezer. I am also worried about rat bites, another reason for f/t other than the f/t being more readily accessible.

I've also noticed something, the two posts that said they had all but one snake or two not feeding on f/t, that snake happened to be a female. One person said their female snake at f/t readily. Is it by any chance linked to the sex of the snake as to whether or not they will stay on or try f/t?

Thanks again everyone for responding, I appreciate it and it was all very useful. :)

I think it all depends on the animal. I have about a dozen ball pythons and out of those, only 2 insist on live food - one male and one female. My biggest female wanted live up until she was breeding. Then she happily took F/T and hasn't looked back.

I don't know about other breeders but when I got my pastel and het pied boys from Adam, he had no trouble giving them a few F/T meals instead of live. I'm sure that there are other breeders out there that would take a bit of time to offer whatever baby you wanted F/T instead of live for a couple meals.

A lot of the breeders have far more females than males, so when they say some of their girls are picky its because they have more of them. I would worry more about the males going on long fasts, but I am not an expert.

I got mine the "wrong way", on impulse at a pet shop (well I had wanted one years earlier but was too freaked out over the feeding issues). I think she is female and she wolfs down a f/t mouse regularly with no problem. I have no idea what she was fed before, she is c/h so I would guess live, but she eats like a little pig (no zombie dance needed) and I am grateful.

Ahh ok. One male one female huh? So it doesn't matter what sex it is then. Good point about the breeders having more females. I didn't even think of that. Thanks for pointing that out.
While posting here, I have been looking around at a few breeders, not just one or two, and have talked to one or two about the f/t thing. I've been sending emails out to different breeders inquiring about their animals and all that jazz. I think, for now though, I have all the info I need with regards to feeding. I'll just have to find out through my communication with the breeders about any one particular animal. The reponses here have helped me immensly though and has made this decision a little easier, so thank you to all of you again. I'll be lurking around here a bit and gaining more info from the existing posts until I actually get the ball, at which point I'm sure there will be new owner posts and pictures. Hope you all have a good week :)

I must have gotten one of those picky hatchlings! :( It's really a pain! The woman I bought my hatchling from had fed her once before I got her, of course with a live pinky (I'm sure of that now). It seems as though I've tried every tick in the book and yet I still can't get her to eat f/t. It's been 2 months of not eating, so I went out and bought two breeder rats. I'm so hoping this fixes the problem!!

Not 1 of my balls will eat a f/t, dont no why, so i just feed them live. To me its alot easier feeding live and keeps the snakes senses polished. :snake: