Switch to F/T, success!

The Ivory my friend had is officially mine as of yesterday. His last meal was last Friday so I decided since he had a day to settle in and husbandry is better then his previous home that I would try to give him a meal. When my friend first got him he was eating frozen but he switched to live bc the ivory liked them better lol well after a few months of that he wanted to put him back on frozen and after 5 refusals he gave up and started feeding live again. I heated the rat up like I do with all and stuck the head in his hide and he took it instantly, and while in shed! My friend told me it wouldn't happen and I honestly thought it wouldn't either and that I was going to have to feed live. Big weight off my shoulders lol I've never had to feed live and I hope I never do but I'm sure as my collection grows and if I breed then I will have to eventually.

Also when I said husbandry is better I didn't mean to imply that my friend was a bad owner just that he couldn't keep the conditions stable in the large glass tank no matter how hard he tried. Always had humidity troubles even with top mostly covered, bad sheds, light dimmers for heat regulation that often changed temp 5-10 degrees during the work day and at night. He honestly did his best to keep everything in check including giving up his lunch break to drive home and adjust everything, waking up in the middle of the night to adjust and a lot of misting throughout the day. He came to me a couple weeks ago and said he can not afford to give the snake the best care it deserves and wanted me to have him, I insisted that he take some money for him though. He truly does care about this bp, enough to let it go and believe me it wasn't easy for him.

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Good job. I believe any of them can be converted if you are patient enough.

Congratulations! Hope you won't have to feed live, so good luck in the future!

Don't want to start a new topic on f/t, thought I'd jump in if you don't mind. My snakes I've had for over a year and less. From day one I've fed live. The people I got some from, fed them live. Some come from pet stores. Don't know if they fed live or f/t. As I said, I feed them live but budget is saying either get rid of a few or switch to f/t. Question is, how hard is it to switch from live to f/t?

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Originally Posted by locolobito

Don't want to start a new topic on f/t, thought I'd jump in if you don't mind. My snakes I've had for over a year and less. From day one I've fed live. The people I got some from, fed them live. Some come from pet stores. Don't know if they fed live or f/t. As I said, I feed them live but budget is saying either get rid of a few or switch to f/t. Question is, how hard is it to switch from live to f/t?

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In my opinion, it depends on the snake and how it's given f/t
I figured out the best way for mine is to thaw it out in warm water and do the hair drier trick(putting a hair drier on the head for 30-60 seconds or if you have a temp gun warm the head up til its 100 degrees, also aim it so them the smell gets into the terrarium and gets the snake into feeding mode)
Or what i've read some people to is to put the head in boiling water for about 10 seconds(?) or over hot tap water if it's hot enough.
Although, when i tried my youngest bp for f/t, all I did was thaw it out(i didn't know of the hair drier or any other trick at the time) and I fed him by hand, and he just took it. second time I fed him f/t, i did the hair drier trick and had tongs finally, he seemed interested and it wasn't til I had set it on the bottom of the terrarium that he was really interested and knew it was dead, so he didn't strike it, instead he just drug it closer to him and ate it. my oldest male wouldn't eat f/t unless it's on the ground and the head has to be hot and set on the bottom, otherwise he won't eat it.

Anyways, back to the point, it just depends on the snake, methods, etc. I think the hair drier trick is what many people use though.
Good luck!

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Originally Posted by locolobito

Don't want to start a new topic on f/t, thought I'd jump in if you don't mind. My snakes I've had for over a year and less. From day one I've fed live. The people I got some from, fed them live. Some come from pet stores. Don't know if they fed live or f/t. As I said, I feed them live but budget is saying either get rid of a few or switch to f/t. Question is, how hard is it to switch from live to f/t?

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I don't mind you jumping in at all. You may get more responses if you start a thread. I really don't know how hard it can be since this was my first I had to switch. Some can take awhile which means tough love which means you can't give in and feed live every time they refuse. Also I think a big part toy success was how I prepare my f/t rats. I take rats straight from freezer and put in a ziplock bag that doesn't leak next I go to bathtub and crank the hot water and use my temp gun and monitor the water temp until the temp does not raise anymore then I fill my shoebox tub with the water then place the bag of rats in water, I like to make sure the zip part of the bag stays out of the water just in case, I then put a full spray bottle I use for misting on top of the rodents so they don't float to the top. I check small rats every 10 minutes and anything smaller every 5 minutes and remove them once there is no cold spots left. Now what I do next is IMO one of the most important parts, I take an electric heater with built in fan (blow dryer or heat gun work as well) and turn it toward whatever snake I'm feeding and slide open the door a little then I hold rodent with tongs by the hips and heat the head of the rat while the smell blows into that cage, this usually puts the snake in feeding mode and they usually come out of hide unless in shed (mine anyways), after about a minute I check temp of head with temp gun and once I get a temp of around 105 I open door the enough to get the rodent in and start moving the rodent back and forth slowly (while holding with tongs by hips) and wait for the strike! I go around and feed one at a time but use the same method of heating head and blowing smell in cage, just make sure you use tongs! When mine are in shed if I stick the rats head in the entrance of the hide they will strike and eat, for some reason my bps do not like to come out when in shed. Also I hold mouse parallel to floor so it looks like it is walking. There is different methods to feeding f/t but this is what has been working for me. Heating the head is a very important part IMO do to the fact it gives the rodent a good heat signature and gives the bp somewhere to aim for.

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I'll try it. If not refreeze and try once more. Right

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Originally Posted by locolobito

I'll try it. If not refreeze and try once more. Right

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Please take note that the more you refreeze, the quicker it goes bad. Well, that's at least what i've been told.

My thought was treat it like it was a meal for me. Cook once, reheat once then toss left overs. Plus family really don't want them in the freezer.

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Originally Posted by locolobito

My thought was treat it like it was a meal for me. Cook once, reheat once then toss left overs. Plus family really don't want them in the freezer.

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Sounds like a good rule. I totally understand the family not really wanting them in the freezer.. although only my mother and I knows that I put them in the freezer lol.
Good luck!

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Originally Posted by locolobito

My thought was treat it like it was a meal for me. Cook once, reheat once then toss left overs. Plus family really don't want them in the freezer.

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As long as it's not out to long you can refreeze once. Personally I just throw them out if they refuse, I figure the rodent would be gone anyways if the snake ate it. You can also leave the rodent in there overnight bc sometimes they will eat it. Another thing to remember is to feed with all the lights off in the room.

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Going to try f/t with 3 of my breeding size bp's. If they don't eat them, not going to stress on it. Thanks for ya all's help

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I had gotten my girl from a breeder, who never fed ft, so when i got her i had to switch her.
i fed her live for her first 2 feedings and she ate well, then i offered ft she refused. I let her go a week and tried ft again. She was hungry so she ate, after that she ate ft 5 weeks in a row, then went into shed, and went on a hunger strike for 8 weeks. The past 2 weeks she ate live and next week i will start ft again. Hopefully she'll switch back to ft. If not then i guess i will have a live feeder. So the best laid plans often come with a few wrinkles.

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Originally Posted by blue roses

I had gotten my girl from a breeder, who never fed ft, so when i got her i had to switch her.
i fed her live for her first 2 feedings and she ate well, then i offered ft she refused. I let her go a week and tried ft again. She was hungry so she ate, after that she ate ft 5 weeks in a row, then went into shed, and went on a hunger strike for 8 weeks. The past 2 weeks she ate live and next week i will start ft again. Hopefully she'll switch back to ft. If not then i guess i will have a live feeder. So the best laid plans often come with a few wrinkles.

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Good luck!

One of 3 ate f\t. Next week all will try f/t.

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Originally Posted by locolobito

One of 3 ate f\t. Next week all will try f/t.

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Nice! Congrats!

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Originally Posted by locolobito

One of 3 ate f\t. Next week all will try f/t.

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Congrats!! Good job!

Maybe I'm taking this to extremes now, but are the health benefits between f/t and live? I get that f/t won't bite the snake, scratch the snake, more "humane", etc. Snake remains visually healthy. We, as humans, take vitamins n minerals to balance what our bodies don't get on a day to day basis.

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Originally Posted by locolobito

Maybe I'm taking this to extremes now, but are the health benefits between f/t and live? I get that f/t won't bite the snake, scratch the snake, more "humane", etc. Snake remains visually healthy. We, as humans, take vitamins n minerals to balance what our bodies don't get on a day to day basis.

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Nutritional benefits are pretty much the same so I have read but also freezing can kill certain parasites, bacteria, etc and if you buy frozen from a reputable company you don't need to worry as they strive for clean and healthy rodents and I'm sure tests are done to make sure they are safe to feed. All it takes is a pet store not cleaning or bringing in a live rodent from a different source to contaminate the rest of the live which they don't know about and then it gets fed to a snake. To me it just seems like less risk with frozen.

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Much appreciated. Thank you

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Originally Posted by chrid16371

Nutritional benefits are pretty much the same so I have read but also freezing can kill certain parasites, bacteria, etc and if you buy frozen from a reputable company you don't need to worry as they strive for clean and healthy rodents and I'm sure tests are done to make sure they are safe to feed. All it takes is a pet store not cleaning or bringing in a live rodent from a different source to contaminate the rest of the live which they don't know about and then it gets fed to a snake. To me it just seems like less risk with frozen.

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I thought live had more nutrients and what not?

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Originally Posted by Nitewolfie

I thought live had more nutrients and what not?

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Many people would think live would have way more, including myself at one time, but it's not enough to matter. I seen a article and a few threads on this topic, I'll have to dig them up. Some companies even have some nutritional information about there frozen rodents.

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Originally Posted by chrid16371

Many people would think live would have way more, including myself at one time, but it's not enough to matter. I seen a article and a few threads on this topic, I'll have to dig them up. Some companies even have some nutritional information about there frozen rodents.

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Ah, alright cool.
Thank you.