Switching them from Live to Frozen!

Ok, So i'm looking to switch my ball pythons over from live rats to frozen rats, as i'd rather feed frozen then live! As i'm scared the rat will bite my ball python and kill it... my friend just had this happen!!!

I'm always there watching while they feed, but snapping the rats necks is just , not what i like doing!

So can anyone let me know some tips to switch them from live to Frozen/Thawed ? I tryed feeding them today frozen, but all turned their heads away from it and curled into balls!

Or any good tips on feeding live ? Fresh Killed? anything to get them to eat....

So Any tips would be wonderful!

Thanks

First things first.

Try offering a P/K or a F/T rat. Just try it, if your snake is happy and not stressed and already eating well, chances are it will not give you any troubles taking P/K or F/T

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mainbutter

First things first.

Try offering a P/K or a F/T rat. Just try it, if your snake is happy and not stressed and already eating well, chances are it will not give you any troubles taking P/K or F/T

---

I've already tried F/T ... That didn't work and the rats were dry and warm.. all just turned their heads!

I started Aldous on F/T but soon I found that the Pet Store in town was horrible with shipments and they didn't have any in stock, after a few days I got worried and decided I had to feed him something so I started feeding him pre-killed and he will never go back. I tried offering him a F/T one again once the store got some back in and he just turned his head. So, it may be difficult to get your snake to eat frozen/thawed... but they may still eat pre-killed. If safety is your concern that should do the trick.

I, at first, felt bad about snapping the mice's necks but that quickly faded whenever I stepped back and just thought of it as feeding.

We just switched 6 of our BP's over to f/t and 4 of them took it fine, however 2 of them denied it at first so we warmed the rat up with a blow-dryer and they took the prey. since then we never had a problem. Feeding f/t is also a lot more time consuming so be prepared to spend at least 5-10 min with each snake you are feeding. good luck

so far i've been really lucky, my norm started on f/t
my pinstripe took f/t first try lol
my sisters albino was on live b4 i got him, but took f/t after first offering =]
my spider is only eating live, but hes still young so im not gonna try to experiment ;p. gonna give him some size.

if urs has some girth on him/her, try tough love, just offer if they say no, wait a week and offer again.

I'm working on switching all of my snakes too. My two adult red tails were easy - but they also came to me pretty underfed and hungry. I haven't tried yet for my two young Nic boas - they'll get their first try this Wednesday.

For my two sub-adult ball pythons, I fasted them for a couple weeks. Then I scented the room with my pet rat, and I also had a Kritter Keeper that had housed a live feeder for about a week. I thawed the mice out thoroughly and made sure they were nice and warm, especially around the head and chest. I put the snake in the Kritter Keeper, and then put the mouse in too. Instead of dangling them by the tail, I used the tongs on the scruff of the mouse's neck and made them "walk" around the container, occasionally towards the snake, occasionally away from the snake. Eventually they got really interested, tongue-flicked like crazy, and bam! That was that. :) It was actually easier than I thought it'd be.

The tough one to switch will be my adult ball python. He's a picky eater anyway. I'd tried him on F/T before and he refused, although it might have been that I didn't get the rat warm enough or other errors on my part. I plan on trying again soon though.

See i've tried everything that you guys are suggesting! With no luck... the ball pythons just whip their heads in and hide...

I've done the "walk" with the dead rats.. scented, made sure their head/chest was warm, ect ect ... everyone just turned their noses!

my male bee is 1800 grams
female is 2200 grams
mojo is 800 grams

I'm going to do live to eat them eating, then switch it over again, well atleast try too

I just got my male BP to take a frozen thawed small rat for the first time. I waited until he was good and hungry to do this. I waited nine days from the last feeding and he took it very well. I also made sure the rat was warm enough to entice him into eating it. What I had to do was just lay the rat in his enclosure because he got very scared when I did the dead rat dance. I hope you are able to get your snake onto f/t. Good Luck and don't give up!

BurmGirl, are you trying to feed them in their enclosures or in a separate container? If you're trying to feed in a separate container, try putting a hide in there with them. My little baby prefers to strike the f/t fuzzy when it's "walking" past the door to his hide. I also found that my picky eater doesn't get so scared of the live rats if he gets to strike at them from the door of his hide as well. Feeding in a separate container just stresses some snakes though, so that could be part of the problem. (Just to note, I currently feed outside of the enclosure just because I've got mine on Eco Earth. I plan on taking it all out and putting them on paper towel or newspaper and then they'll be able to eat in their tanks.)

Feed them PK first. If they refuse PK, make them take the live rat with you standing right there watching with tongs in their bin. Once they're used to that, try the PK again. You may not like it, but if you want 'em to switch, you have to make sure they're ok with taking dead food off the tongs.

Once they've had a couple of PK meals, take an FT rat, and thoroughly roll it in rat urine. Rats usually pee in one corner of their cage, so just rub that sucker into it good. Make sure it's good and warm, then offer it just like you did the PK. The snake will probably be so overpowered by the scent that it won't even notice the underlying difference.

Once you do this a couple of times, reduce the amount of scenting--just give it less of a dip in the rat potty. Reduce over the course of a couple of feedings, then offer unscented FT. The snake will have become used to that underlying FT odor, and it will be ok with the absence of the strong rat urine smell, and you should have no problem.

The above isn't going to work every single time, but it's one of the best tactics.

I have converted all of mine to F/T. My one spider was really tough to do. Sounds like you have done a lot of reading up on this already. So I will not repeat everything, but the huge key I have found with all of mine is the heat.

I buy my F/T in bulk, and seperate them into sandwich baggies for my feedings. So I have one Zip Lock bag for each feeding basically. I leave the bag out to thaw, and once thawed I then fill my sink with extremely hot tap water (not boiled water just from the tap). Then I put the Zip Lock in the water. The Zip Lock keeps them dry. While feeding I keep this water very hot. When I present the F/T it is extremely warm temperature wise, and the feeding response is incredible. I hope this helps the temperature was the key for my picky eaters especially the spider who was only eating live.

All but one I feed in a seperate container, and I actually have two tubs going to speed up the process. I clean the tubs every so often, but they seem to keep the rodent scent anyway (my wife hates the smell). Now when we put them in the tub they get super aggressive lol. They know it's dinner time.

Hope this helps.

i think you should feed it what it likes...if it like live then live it is...