never had such a picky eating ball python. lol

so i got this new ball python from a guy that didn't take very good are of him feeding wise. under weight, under fed, and fed mice to small for him. since I've had him all he will eat it live. trying to switch him to frozen thawed and tried everything. rubbing the thawed on a love one so it has the live sent.make the mouse dance with tongs. even tap him on the nose to irritate him. which i do not like to do. im happy he's eating very well with live but rather him eat frozen-thawed for his safety. im stunning the live mouse that im feeding him so its not to big of a deal right now but want frozen/ thawed before he hits rat size.i use to breed rats and know how much damage they can do when defensive. also he will not eat anywhere other then his cage. i tried the rubbermaid container, a box, rubbermaid and box with his hides and stuff in it. even went out and bought another set up for him just for feeding with heat, substrate, hides and all. still refuses unless he's in his rank. lol. it wouldst be a problem if i wasn't the only one sticking my hand in the take everyday for maintenance since he knows my sent but im teaching my son responsibility and want him to clean it too. supervised of course. he's such a sweetheart. never bites, s curves, hisses. he even likes his head pet like a dog but since he's fed on his cage i don't want him to mistake my sons hand for a meal. anyone got and ideas what i could do. by the way he is a great eater now with live. never turns down a meal. just want rob switch for safety reasons.and i do supervise feeding to make sure nothing happens when fed live.

I would recommend just feeding him in his cage. The whole cage aggression thing is a myth. As far as switching from live to f/t, sometimes it just takes patience. However, I do believe that live can be fed safely.

Feed in his enclosure, he's comfortable there and there's no chance of him mistaking your hand for food unless you've handled feeders with your hands which I never do. About feeding if hes feeding well on live give him live. Snakes are built for striking and killing live prey! I keep tub open tongs in hand ready to intervene until rat is for sure dead. Things do happen but closely supervised I feel feeding live to healthy good feeding snakes is ok.

thanks guys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jasonmcgilvrey83

so i got this new ball python from a guy that didn't take very good are of him feeding wise. under weight, under fed, and fed mice to small for him. since I've had him all he will eat it live. trying to switch him to frozen thawed and tried everything. rubbing the thawed on a love one so it has the live sent.make the mouse dance with tongs. even tap him on the nose to irritate him. which i do not like to do. im happy he's eating very well with live but rather him eat frozen-thawed for his safety. im stunning the live mouse that im feeding him so its not to big of a deal right now but want frozen/ thawed before he hits rat size.i use to breed rats and know how much damage they can do when defensive. also he will not eat anywhere other then his cage. i tried the rubbermaid container, a box, rubbermaid and box with his hides and stuff in it. even went out and bought another set up for him just for feeding with heat, substrate, hides and all. still refuses unless he's in his rank. lol. it wouldst be a problem if i wasn't the only one sticking my hand in the take everyday for maintenance since he knows my sent but im teaching my son responsibility and want him to clean it too. supervised of course. he's such a sweetheart. never bites, s curves, hisses. he even likes his head pet like a dog but since he's fed on his cage i don't want him to mistake my sons hand for a meal. anyone got and ideas what i could do. by the way he is a great eater now with live. never turns down a meal. just want rob switch for safety reasons.and i do supervise feeding to make sure nothing happens when fed live.

---

Some tricks when offering f/t rodents:
- Make sure the f/t mouse is completely thawed and warmed up before feeding.
- Try thawing it both wet (immerse directly in warm water) and dry (put roden in plastic bag and then in the water), and see if your snake prefers one over the other.
- Heat the head using a blow dryer so it's slightly warmer than the body.
- Brain the f/t mouse before offering it to your snake, some will go for the smell.

Kudos for teaching your son responsibility. I'm doing the same for my daughter and she helps clean the enclosures as well. Before cleaning I remove the snake and put him in a separate tub temporarily, as we don't want to risk him getting hurt if something falls or gets dropped when we're moving hides, water dishes, etc. I've also never had a BP even threaten to bite. The most they'll do is hiss if they're blue. OTOH my king snakes are very food driven, to the point I'm hook training them to break the response.

I personally don't believe live feeding is all that dangerous. Keep him on live until he is nice and plump and then you can try the tough love approach to F/T.

You can feed him in his home enclosure. It is actually safer for you in terms of potential bites. Why would you want to mess with a hungry snake on feeding day? its like asking for a bite. Most bites are feeding related, it is very rare for them to just bite you out of no where. It happens sometimes, but it isn't a big deal. Bites from ball pythons have been compared to "angry velcro". Yeah that doesn't sound very scary!

im trying to plump him up now. ill post some pixs when i figure it out. lol.

i got my python 3 weeks ago and he eats live food but during his shed he lost a scale on his nose. will this affect hes ability to eat ?:snake::snake::snake::rolleyes:

I'd advise against thawing the mouse out in water,I been told by quiet a few friends that depletes the nutrients..so what I do is,thaw it out at room temperature and then place the heat lamp over it for 5-10 mins tell it's fully thAwed and warm,I then open the package/ziplock bag it's in and place it on top the screen so Kocur can smell it,once he smells it,tongue is going and he is out and ready to feed..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bcr229

Some tricks when offering f/t rodents:
- Make sure the f/t mouse is completely thawed and warmed up before feeding.
- Try thawing it both wet (immerse directly in warm water) and dry (put roden in plastic bag and then in the water), and see if your snake prefers one over the other.
- Heat the head using a blow dryer so it's slightly warmer than the body.
- Brain the f/t mouse before offering it to your snake, some will go for the smell.

Kudos for teaching your son responsibility. I'm doing the same for my daughter and she helps clean the enclosures as well. Before cleaning I remove the snake and put him in a separate tub temporarily, as we don't want to risk him getting hurt if something falls or gets dropped when we're moving hides, water dishes, etc. I've also never had a BP even threaten to bite. The most they'll do is hiss if they're blue. OTOH my king snakes are very food driven, to the point I'm hook training them to break the response.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kaorte

I personally don't believe live feeding is all that dangerous. Keep him on live until he is nice and plump and then you can try the tough love approach to F/T.

You can feed him in his home enclosure. It is actually safer for you in terms of potential bites. Why would you want to mess with a hungry snake on feeding day? its like asking for a bite. Most bites are feeding related, it is very rare for them to just bite you out of no where. It happens sometimes, but it isn't a big deal. Bites from ball pythons have been compared to "angry velcro". Yeah that doesn't sound very scary!

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jasonmcgilvrey83

im trying to plump him up now. ill post some pixs when i figure it out. lol.

---

Imgur is great for uploading pics and its free and very easy to use

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NYHC4LIFE8899

I'd advise against thawing the mouse out in water,I been told by quiet a few friends that depletes the nutrients..so what I do is,thaw it out at room temperature and then place the heat lamp over it for 5-10 mins tell it's fully thAwed and warm,I then open the package/ziplock bag it's in and place it on top the screen so Kocur can smell it,once he smells it,tongue is going and he is out and ready to feed..

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NYHC4LIFE8899

Imgur is great for uploading pics and its free and very easy to use

---

You do realize this thread is months old? lol

Definitely keep him on live until he has a healthy body condition again. If he's eating live, that's better than nothing and it sounds like he really needs to eat.

Just keep offering in his enclosure. I've had hundreds of in enclosure live feedings and never had an issue. Just have to be aware, responsible, and vigilant.

You can also try to offer a live feeder along with frozen at the same time. That way he can smell the live mouse. If he takes the live first, wait with the frozen. He might take it too since he's still in feeding mode. I usually concert mousers to ratters this way, but have heard of people doing it with live to f/t too.

EDIT:darn! Didn't see that this was old!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

When you say BRAIN the FT,so you mean to smash its head or puncture it's head to make it bleed or something along those lines.?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NYHC4LIFE8899

When you say BRAIN the FT,so you mean to smash its head or puncture it's head to make it bleed or something along those lines.?

---

Smash the head to expose the brains and yum stuff. Something about it makes some snakes go crazy for it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by satomi325

Definitely keep him on live until he has a healthy body condition again. If he's eating live, that's better than nothing and it sounds like he really needs to eat.

Just keep offering in his enclosure. I've had hundreds of in enclosure live feedings and never had an issue. Just have to be aware, responsible, and vigilant.

You can also try to offer a live feeder along with frozen at the same time. That way he can smell the live mouse. If he takes the live first, wait with the frozen. He might take it too since he's still in feeding mode. I usually concert mousers to ratters this way, but have heard of people doing it with live to f/t too.

EDIT:darn! Didn't see that this was old!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by satomi325

Smash the head to expose the brains and yum stuff. Something about it makes some snakes go crazy for it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

---

Yup,that's what I figured...good to know...thnx

I didn't realize it Was old either. Don't even know how I came across it...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Luciferskeeper

Feed in his enclosure, he's comfortable there and there's no chance of him mistaking your hand for food unless you've handled feeders with your hands which I never do. About feeding if hes feeding well on live give him live. Snakes are built for striking and killing live prey! I keep tub open tongs in hand ready to intervene until rat is for sure dead. Things do happen but closely supervised I feel feeding live to healthy good feeding snakes is ok.

---

Ditto

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NYHC4LIFE8899

Yup,that's what I figured...good to know...thnx

I didn't realize it Was old either. Don't even know how I came across it...

---

There is nothing wrong with "necro-posting". Better than spamming the same subject in multiple threads as far as im concerned...