How often should I try F/T during transition from live

Our male BP is just over 6 months old and currently around 280 grams. He was on live when we got him and I fed live rat pups the first couple weeks until I felt he was settled in. The first time I tried a F/T pup he did not take it initially but I set it on top of his hide and about 10 minutes later he ate it. The next week I tried F/T again (from the same supply) and nothing, he showed a little interest but never struck. Tried again a week later and nothing so I went ahead and got him another small live rat. Next week I tried another F/T and again nothing. He showed interest but did not strike and I left it in all night. Nest week another live and he took it perfectly and very quickly (this was the day after X-mas). A week later I tried another F/T and nothing and the next week he started to show signs of shed so I didn't feed him. It was two weeks since last live and since he had gone 2 weeks and a fresh shed I tried another F/T. This time he seemed more interested in it and at one point he very lightly struck it but did not coil and let it go about a second later. I went ahead and got him another live today and he again grabbed it instantly. He will hit a live rat the second it hits the ground and gets within striking range but the F/T he will slowly approach them.

Just for some background I have been letting the F/T thaw in the room (the last one on top of his cage). I check them and ensure completely thawed and check the body temp with my heat gun. I hit them with the hair drier prior to trying and get the temps at the head around 95 degrees or so. I have tried different methods of movements etc. I will blast them with the hair dryer several times after they have cooled off. He doesn't seem scared of them, he will get in a striking pose and follow it as I move it and will some times get nose to nose with it. I have tried F/T from two different suppliers now and he reacted about the same to both. I have tried live from 2 different suppliers and he gets them instantly. Being fairly young I don't want him to miss too many meals but I don't want to be setting myself back by reverting back to live. Should I try F/T once a week for several weeks and see if he gets hungry enough to take one? I don't want to stress him out either way. Didn't know if I should just go live for a few weeks in a row to keep him happy or if I should try a F/T each week?

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Good luck!

I would try again in a week. If he doesn't eat try again in another week.

I'd say not more often than once a week, but going 2 weeks between offering probably won't hurt either. Just keep in mind that too often can cause them stress,
& that they're pretty good at skipping meals anyway. I hope you do get him switched ok, & sooner rather than later- it's for the best.

I agree with the others, offering once a week is plenty, a little longer is ok too.
If you want him to switch, it's better not to give him live again because they tend to want that again. Once I get them to take f/t, I don't offer live again unless months go by and weight is dropping which has rarely happened and I've converted many snakes. The good thing is he has taken f/t, so that is the hardest step. At this point, you just need to let him get hungry enough to take it again. 99% of the time they eventually get used to it and take them weekly. If you want him on f/t regularly you need to stop feeding live. I know it's hard because you want them to eat but you need to stay away from live if you want him to take f/t consistently.

Some might agree some may not , but this is how i did it. Leave your snake ALONE for 10 days and just do the needed water maintenance etc. then get a live rat in a small margarine tub with drilled holes. Cover the tub with paper towels but not too much the rat inside the tub must give off "live scent" and alive like scratching noises.

Very IMPORTANT get your thawed rat to 98 degrees then place the thawed rat at the front of the tub so your snake spots the thawed rat first and leave keep watch from a far distance to not bother the snake but too keep an eye that the live rat does not escape and harm your snake...

Might work for you might not... I have a male ball yearling at 800 grams and he only ate live rats all his life i struggled twice like you did and then tried this method, he took it with such a blast the rat inside the tub pooped its pants.

It worked like a charm and he is on one thawed small rat once a week and has not refused a meal since.

Good luck, patience is key.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2bb7f8bccb.jpg

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I'd warm the rats up more, normal rat temp is around 100F. I go a bit warmer than that and seem to have better results that way. If you can get some dirty rat bedding to scent the F/T rats with. Otherwise just give it time.

Also I might have worded my original post incorrectly. I know I should only offer once a week, I just didn't know at this age if I should be no longer offering live at all for a certain period of time or not. I know they can go decent periods of time between meals but have also been told that when they are young and growing I shouldn't let him go to long between feedings. Since he ate a small rat yesterday I am going to wait 7-10 days and offer a F/T, if he doesn't take that one I'll wait until the following week and try again. I just didn't know at this age how long I should let him go. Worst case scenario if he refused to eat F/T how long should I go before giving another live, once he starts dropping weight??

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Originally Posted by Midwest

Also I might have worded my original post incorrectly. I know I should only offer once a week, I just didn't know at this age if I should be no longer offering live at all for a certain period of time or not. I know they can go decent periods of time between meals but have also been told that when they are young and growing I shouldn't let him go to long between feedings. Since he ate a small rat yesterday I am going to wait 7-10 days and offer a F/T, if he doesn't take that one I'll wait until the following week and try again. I just didn't know at this age how long I should let him go. Worst case scenario if he refused to eat F/T how long should I go before giving another live, once he starts dropping weight??

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One question, you say a small rat thus meaning the rat weighs about 60 grams? How big is your snake? Both my males eat one small rat (55 to 65 grams) once a week and they both top the scale at almost 1000 grams, your prey might be 2 big by the sounds of it

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The rats I have been getting weigh between 35-45 grams. Might have used the wrong terminology.

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Originally Posted by rufretic

I agree with the others, offering once a week is plenty, a little longer is ok too.
If you want him to switch, it's better not to give him live again because they tend to want that again. Once I get them to take f/t, I don't offer live again unless months go by and weight is dropping which has rarely happened and I've converted many snakes. The good thing is he has taken f/t, so that is the hardest step. At this point, you just need to let him get hungry enough to take it again. 99% of the time they eventually get used to it and take them weekly. If you want him on f/t regularly you need to stop feeding live. I know it's hard because you want them to eat but you need to stay away from live if you want him to take f/t consistently.

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^^ I totally agree. Once you commit to making the switch to f/t you shouldn't offer live again. I'd try at least 3 months of f/t offerings and if it still hasn't eaten then I'd give the snake a very small live feeder and start the process over. I'd wait at least 2 weeks after a refused meal to offer food again. That being said, BPs don't necessarily have to be on rats imo since they're not very big and there's other prey items they can live on like mice and asf's.

Still haven't gotten him to take a F/T. I've tried a few different sources of F/T and a few different methods of defrosting etc. I think next week I am going to try a fresh kill just to see how he takes that. I know a month or so without food is no big deal but I have had people tell me that it is not the best situation to have an animal that is already prone to go on feeding strikes to be kept from eating.

Each time he shows some interest in the F/T and will come out of the hide to sniff around but as he gets nose to nose with it he will go back into the hide. If I put a live rat in there there is no hesitation at all. Hopefully the fresh kill try next week will get him going.

Well I tried a fresh kill tonight and got the same reaction. When I brought the rat home I had to go pick one of my kids up from practice so i put the box with the rat inside of the tank, on the opposite had that the BP was in. Only reason I did this was in-case it happened to escape the flimsy cardboard box it would be in the enclosure and not loose in the house. When I came home 10-15 minutes later the BP was curled up on top of the box with the rat snooping a round, the smell of the rat definitely had his attention. I removed the box and rat and quickly incapacitated it, snapping its neck. By the time I came back in the room the BP had gone back into its hide since I disturbed it from the top of the box. As soon as I lowered the rat in with the tongs the BP came out in a strike pose and followed every movement of the dead rat. Never did strike at it. I tried moving it slow, moving it around a little faster etc. Each time he would spend several minutes following it's every movement and then it would retreat back into the hide. As soon as I would move it near the opening of the hide he would come right back out, get nose to nose with the rat like he was wanting to strike but then would retreat back. After enough time went by with me trying this I heated it back up with my CHE. I decided to try that instead of the hair dryer in case the hair dryer was putting a foreign smell on it. Each time I would heat it up he would instantly come out of the hide stay face to face but never did strike. When I was feeding it live it would strike very quickly so I honestly expected it to go after this very fresh kill right away but no such luck.

I got up this morning and the rat which I had left on top of the cool side hide was gone so he did eat it sometime over night. That is good news, making progress. I know it is not the case for most people but since I have had him he has eaten 1 F/T and now one fresh kill and both times he ate them over night after being left on top of a hide. Each time in between the first and last time he ate I have left them on the hide overnight and he didn't touch them. He is happily sitting in the hot side digesting his meal.

Hopefully this is my last update on this topic, I'm using it more now as a record of feeding dates, I'm starting a word document from here on out. Today I tried another fresh kill, it has been 13 days since his last meal. This time after about 5 minutes of him showing interest I got the rat out and put it under the CHE since it had cooled some. About 30 seconds after I put it in he struck and coiled up around it. I slowly left the dark room to leave him alone. I checked about 20 minutes later and it was laying in the substrate right where he was coiled up with it. I left it in there to see if he would eat it. After about an hour it was still laying there. I pulled it out and was going to lay it on top of the hide since that is where he ate the last one from. I heated it up one more time and as soon as I put it by the entrance he struck, coiled, and ate it this time. My plan is to try one more fresh kill and then try some F/T......