Will live feeding switch my BP over from F/T?

Hello all!
My bp has not been taking her f/t rats so a few people suggested feeding her live to spark her feeding response. Now some people are telling me to not feed her live because it will be really difficult to get her switched back over to frozen thawed. My husbandry is up to par with lots of hiding places and the temps are 90 on hot spot, 76 on cool spot, and 78 for the ambient temp. Would you guys recommend trying to get her cool and ambient temp boosted and continue offering f/t, or boost up her temps and feed her live for her next feeding. Please, let me know!

Has she eaten for you before?

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Originally Posted by queenelvis82

Hello all!
My bp has not been taking her f/t rats so a few people suggested feeding her live to spark her feeding response. Now some people are telling me to not feed her live because it will be really difficult to get her switched back over to frozen thawed. My husbandry is up to par with lots of hiding places and the temps are 90 on hot spot, 76 on cool spot, and 78 for the ambient temp. Would you guys recommend trying to get her cool and ambient temp boosted and continue offering f/t, or boost up her temps and feed her live for her next feeding. Please, let me know!

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Need more info.. Weight, aprox age, male or female? How long have you had her? What was your feeding schedule before this and was it consistent or was the snake always picky?
Several Males over 350 grams go off feed for a couple months in the winter and it wouldn't matter what sent into the enclosure if that whats going on. Females can go off too during winter so give us some more background :)


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Also how long has the snake not been eating? My 1000 gram male does not eat in the winter time no matter what I do, no matter what I offer...and yet he always makes it through the winter just fine. Oddly enough my female pounds the rats in winter!

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Originally Posted by queenelvis82

Hello all!
My bp has not been taking her f/t rats so a few people suggested feeding her live to spark her feeding response. Now some people are telling me to not feed her live because it will be really difficult to get her switched back over to frozen thawed. My husbandry is up to par with lots of hiding places and the temps are 90 on hot spot, 76 on cool spot, and 78 for the ambient temp. Would you guys recommend trying to get her cool and ambient temp boosted and continue offering f/t, or boost up her temps and feed her live for her next feeding. Please, let me know!

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I see no problem with your temperatures based on the (albeit little) information provided. I think it is unlikely that a temperature modification of a few degrees will change her feeding response. I have had this happen when a snake will spontaneously stop taking F/T, but will then take anything offered live no problem. You can try the following:

(1) The first thing I would try and is warming F/T and placing inside her hide box. This will often times get picky snakes to take it.

(2) If this does not work, you can try "re-training" the snake. What I mean by this is offer her a live meal this week, and presumably she will take it. The next week buy another live feeder and let it sit out near the enclosure, this will sometimes get a snake "excited" about the prospect of a meal. You should then scent the F/T feeder with the live animal and see if the snake will take it. If she won't, offer the live food, then offer the scented F/T item after it.

(3) Alternatively, you can let the snake fast for a week or two and keep offering a F/T once a week on feeding day.

This is not a quip at you personally, but is there a sticky for "tricks and tips" on switching feeders? I feel like we see this question all the time and if you search the forum and YouTube, there are many videos and tips you will find there.

Sorry for the lack of info! My girl is 4 years old and weighs around 1500 grams. She took a small plus rat and a weaned rat four weeks ago. The next week, she took a weaned rat. All were f/t, but it took some coaxing for about ten minutes till she took the prey. She has always been a picky eater until August of 2016 to August of 2017. Throughout that year she was taking the f/t prey within a few seconds. Every time I de-thaw a rat, she is out and amped up. She follows it tenaciously and is in the striking position while the prey is presented to her. She just won't strike it. I have also left a f/t rat in her enclosure with her for two hours with the front of her enclosure blocked so she had complete privacy.....still a no go. I am on a facebook page and the members say that I need my husbandry spot on for her to get that feeding response again. Again, I don't think my temps are too out of whack and the humidity is always around 55%. I don't want her to get stuck on live prey, but I feel like I am in a bind now.

Also, thank you all for your help.

Some female BP will go off food as well in winter. Most don't. Usually males do it. But it does happen. How warm is the rat? I would use a hair dryer after warm water warm up. And sometimes I have to reheat because they didn't like it the first time around. That usually works for my picky ones.

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Originally Posted by queenelvis82

some people are telling me to not feed her live because it will be really difficult to get her switched back over to frozen thawed

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Preference depend on the individual snake. Some have no problems switching between f/t, prekilled, live, or even different prey types. Other snakes might get hung up on something specific once they get a taste. There's really no way to know for sure but those with super strong feeding responses tend to be the least likely to imprint.

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Originally Posted by queenelvis82

She took a small plus rat and a weaned rat four weeks ago. The next week, she took a weaned rat. All were f/t, but it took some coaxing for about ten minutes till she took the prey.

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So she hasn't eaten in only TWO weeks?

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Originally Posted by queenelvis82

Sorry for the lack of info! My girl is 4 years old and weighs around 1500 grams. She took a small plus rat and a weaned rat four weeks ago. The next week, she took a weaned rat. All were f/t, but it took some coaxing for about ten minutes till she took the prey. She has always been a picky eater until August of 2016 to August of 2017. Throughout that year she was taking the f/t prey within a few seconds. Every time I de-thaw a rat, she is out and amped up. She follows it tenaciously and is in the striking position while the prey is presented to her. She just won't strike it. I have also left a f/t rat in her enclosure with her for two hours with the front of her enclosure blocked so she had complete privacy.....still a no go. I am on a facebook page and the members say that I need my husbandry spot on for her to get that feeding response again. Again, I don't think my temps are too out of whack and the humidity is always around 55%. I don't want her to get stuck on live prey, but I feel like I am in a bind now.

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She is a adult now.. She will eat less. If I were you Id switch to every 2 weeks or even every 3 weeks otherwise she will eat consistently for a while and then go off feed for a couple months because they don't need to eat that much at that age all year. If you want her to stick to a schedule more then offer less. Also she just ate 2 weeks ago, so again that is nothing to worry about. She could eat a good size meal once a month at this point and be perfectly healthy.. Id go every 15 days to start.


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Ohh and FB groups are a joke. I wouldn't listen to how to Make Grilled Cheese from one.


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If it's only been a few weeks you have nothing to worry about.

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Originally Posted by craigafrechette

If it's only been a few weeks you have nothing to worry about.

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I agree with everything that's beens said here.

My female BP, a 5YR old Albino Spider, is about 1600G (when eating). The past three winters, she fasts like clockwork for 4-6 months. No interest. She loses about 5-7% of her body weight (down to 1480G or so) and starts eating when she wants.

I only feed F/T.

She's also very shy.

Most of the time she wants me to leave the rat after she smells it, and she will eat in the next hour on her own. She only strikes 1/15 times. If she hasn't touched in an in hour. I take out and try again another time/week.

BP's can be very shy and do not necessarily like being watched when eating. That could be part of it too. Doesn't really want food right now + shy = she won't eat.

She will probably eat when ready, especially if she has taken F/T readily before. I WOULD NOT SWITCH TO LIVE! For a variety of reasons, including, who knows if she will easily taken F/T again.

Another thing, and has been discussed here, is thawing and heating the rat.

I defrost in luke warm/room temp water for a while (couple of hours). Then I drop the rat into hot water (from tap - not boiling or close), for 30 seconds, let it get nice and warm. Quickly dry off and offer. That helps the feeding response too.

However, you do not want to cook the rat! Then they will almost definitely refuse and it's not good for an animal used to eating raw.

I've heard of people warming in hot water and this is like a Sous Vide - cooking the rat.

I also tend to leave my BP alone for the most part when she's not eating. I usually handle at least 3X a week, but go to 1X or so when she is off feed. I take her out to change water, clean urate and urine, etc.

Good luck, but don't sweat it, unless she loses a lot of weight and isn't drinking, etc.

The intermediary food offering would be pre-killed. That would only come after f/t was continually refused over a extended timeline. You have to be aware that some individual reptiles will never switch, especially from live feedings.

Ball Pythons in the wild usually only eat for a few month out of the year. Their system is perfectly set up for this kind of diet/lifestyle (forgot the scientific name for this)

During the few month when food is plentiful, they will eat whatever and whenever they can, overeat if given the chance. All in preparation for the long time (dry season) when food becomes very scarce.

Owners are always happy when their Ball Pythons will eat ravenously like clock work, every week. Even though that is actually far more food then they need, being such a sedentary species by nature. Eventually though, their body tells them to STOP. They have more then enough, its time to slow down or stop. They take breaks, just like in nature, even though food is presented. Owners freak out.

Some Ball Pythons will continue to eat well, usually it is because they aren't being over fed regularly. Or they are females who's bodies are building follicles and preparing for procreation.

All in all Ball Pythons usually need far less food then they are being offered (rapidly growing hatchlings/young snakes are different of course) and they reach a point where they start to regulate the food intake.

There seems to be some that have "turned off" their internal control, those are the ones you see that are just grossly obese, and that is just sad.

If your snake is an adult that normally eats just fine, the husbandry is SPOT ON, and there are no obvious health issues, just relax and only offer every 2 weeks or so. And if she/he takes a several month long break, that is perfectly normal. Just try every so often, make sure the snake looks good, slow down on handling, monitor weight every month or so.

My 3000 gr male took a 8 month long break last year and lost 160 gram and looked great throughout. Regained the weight loss within his first feeding.

:)