she doesnt like her 1st try at frozen

well ive had the snake for maybe 6 months now.. she was a year old when i got her and ive always fed her live smaller rats, not to small tho cause she could handle some decent sized ones.

well i finally decided to switch over so i called up the mouse factory and ordered some, they were out of weanlings so i just decided to go a little smaller just to try out frozen and got pups.

well i thawed out her 1st one, and put it in there, but she wont touch it... its been over an hour now and i really doubt she'll eat it the way she avoids it.

normally shes all over the live ones like 30 sec after i drop them in.

what can i do to make her want to start eating frozen?

im not worried about her eating live ones now since they are still small enough to not give TOO much trouble, but once she starts getting bigger and the rats start getting bigger, there might be some problem so thats why i decided to switch now to get her used to it.

help me out! thanks

Not sure if your just setting the f/t into the enclosure or not.
If so, try using some long forceps and make it do a little dance.
I usually use the forceps, grab it by the tail and "walk" it around the tank with a little wiggle now and then.

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Originally Posted by 2Devious

Not sure if your just setting the f/t into the enclosure or not.
If so, try using some long forceps and make it do a little dance.
I usually use the forceps, grab it by the tail and "walk" it around the tank with a little wiggle now and then.

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at 1st i just put it in there near her, she looked at it for a few min then just moved away.

so i tried what u said, and she would just get scared by it and go the opposite way, not even showing any intrest.

:( anything else i can do, been a few hours now and she hasnt even tried to eat it.

Waiting a few hours, rewarming the mouse, then re-dancing has worked for some stubborn ones of mine. If need be, to get it to switch over to f/t, you can wait a few days and try again. Let her build up a bit of an apatite.

I normally use a blow dryer to make them nice and warm. then use forceps from the tail and dangle it in front or them. sometimes it takes a minute or two but don't be too aggressive with dancing it around as it normally freaks them out, just a slight wiggle. Then after they have taken it, sometimes I will give the tail a few gentle tugs to make them think that they are actually killing it. They will squeeze it tighter..lol

Yeah, my Burmese eats the frozen kind now and switched over from the live. I always use some ice tongs and dangle them in front of him with a little wiggle. He smells them and a few seconds later he's all over it. Just give her some time, she'll get used to it.

well i ended up leaving the rat in the tank for a few hours while i went out, from about 9pm till 2:30am and i came home and the rat is gone.... YAY!

so i guess thats good news. i wish i would have been here tho to see her feed and how she went about it

congrats man, I have a girl who 100% refuses frozen thawed. it sucks because her 2 brothers take them as soon as they hit the floor. she just sniffs it and goes back into her hide

I wouldn't worry about not seeing her eat, now that she has, you'll have plenty of chances, but just wait, I bet you've never seen anything move so fast. Hehe

UPDATE!!

well looks like i was wrong, she DIDNT eat it... it was hidden under some of the aspen and i didnt see it so i thought she ate it.

im gonna pull it out and try another one in a few days or so and see what happens, but im pretty sure she wont eat it :(

keep positive!!! :colbert:

it will come eventually :D :rockon:

have you tried the old tricks of rubbing on
live mouse guinea pig etc or braining etc

When you try your next one. Take it out of the frezer and thaw it out on the counter and then place it in a zip lock bag and fill the sink with hot water and place the bag in there for 30 mins then pull the rat out and try to feed it off toungs. She should eat it. If the rat gets cold it most likely will not take it, so make sure its warm, leave the room and hope she eats it

Richard

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Originally Posted by stylin97

UPDATE!!

well looks like i was wrong, she DIDNT eat it... it was hidden under some of the aspen and i didnt see it so i thought she ate it.

im gonna pull it out and try another one in a few days or so and see what happens, but im pretty sure she wont eat it :(

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I'd wait a week before trying it again. The hungrier she is, the more likely she will be to take it. Good luck though, I know how frustrating it can be. I have one big female that won't eat anything but live mice. It seems like i've tried everything to get her to switch to FT. Hope it works out!

I had the same experience. Someone here told me about pre-scenting the room, and the hair dryer trick, and it worked like a charm. I just left the frozen mouse on top of the cage for a few hours to thaw, then I put it in a plastic bag and into warm water for a half hour or so. Then a quick shot with the hair dryer and poof!!!! Mouse gone.

I feed in a separate enclosure and just this alone helps out a ton... It doesnt matter if I got frozen, live, rat, mouse, chicken, cat, hamster, guinny pig, humans (these are all just me exagerating i only feed rats) ... once my snakes get in the tub it knows its feeding time and will eat anything. If you were to put your hand in there theyd without a doubt tag you... If you really wanna make the switch I reccomend feeding live in a separate container for like 3-4 feedings... let him/her get aquianted with the routine then try frozen. 7 out of my 8 will eat anything outta the tub... my 1 picky female pastel wont eat anythig but live... so i make the trip every week to the pet store for her. Good luck

I'll have to disagree with you there, Josh. This is a snake used to eating live small rats in it's home enclosure. Not only is the poster changing feeding types from live to f/t but also sizes due to not being able to get the size he wanted. So you've got two changes, I don't think a third (moving to a feeding enclosure) will help any at this point.

To the OP, don't give up. You've had one refusal, that's nothing basically and pretty much to be expected. These snakes are creatures of habit, they don't react well or quickly to changes in what they "know". First off you must make sure you are fully defrosting and heating up this prey correctly (but not cooking it). You have to get that prey to put out a heat signature close to live or the snake isn't going to see it as prey. Pre-scenting the room works well (you can simply get some smelly used rat bedding from the pet store and place it in a corner of the snake's tub an hour before feeding). Blast the prey with a hot hair dryer immediately before offering it on hemostats or tongs, grasp the prey by the loose skin between the shoulder blades and "dance" it along in a lifelike motion. Don't shove it in the snakes face, lay down a natural scent trail like a live rat would produce. Be patient, move the f/t around and that should trigger a strike. If the snake takes awhile, quickly blast the prey again to keep it putting off that heat signature. It might take a couple of weeks and some never go over to f/t but most do eventually. Remember they aren't natural scavengers so eating "dead" prey is a learned response. Feed at night when it's most natural for a snake to be watching out for prey.

Good luck. :)

Fort Myers eh :P . Most important things about feeding f/t is; prescenting, and heating the mouse up some how. Either water and a bag or a hair dryer.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I'll have to disagree with you there, Josh. This is a snake used to eating live small rats in it's home enclosure. Not only is the poster changing feeding types from live to f/t but also sizes due to not being able to get the size he wanted. So you've got two changes, I don't think a third (moving to a feeding enclosure) will help any at this point.

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I agree that adding more changes all at once probably won't help. However, I can see how if someone wanted to make the switch to f/t (and/or size, prey type, etc.), and had time to plan it several feedings before attempting to make a change, it might be very useful if the FIRST thing done was to switch to using a feeding enclosure (or setting up any other feeding routine that lets the snake know it is time to eat). Then, once that new routine is established, make the other change(s). While it is impossible to know what really goes on in a snake's brain, it makes sense that from the snake's point of view, if it doesn't know it is time to eat, and it sees something that is not what it is used to eating, "food" might not even cross its mind. However, if it is looking around trying to find the food it knows is coming, and finds something that doesn't quite look/smell/act like food, it might be much more likely to decide to see if it tastes any good.

I would guess it is probably exactly the same reason pre-scenting works. Pre-scenting is just another possibility for "any other feeding routine that lets the snake know it is time to eat". A big advantage with pre-scenting is that as long as the scent is one the snake recognizes as food, it will work even the first time you use it, although I bet it works even better after the snake gets used to the routine. A feeding enclosure will only get that "time to eat" response after it has been used a few times. And even if the snake doesn't immediately recognize the scent as food, maybe it gives the snake a chance to realize "hey, that smells a little bit like those tasty mice, I wonder if I can eat this thing too".

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Remember they aren't natural scavengers so eating "dead" prey is a learned response. Feed at night when it's most natural for a snake to be watching out for prey.

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I thought BPs (and most other snakes) were known to do some scavenging in the wild? Sort of like a hawk prefers to catch its own meal, but that doesn't stop them from eating roadkill sometimes.

I'm not too sure why changing size would make any difference but I could be wrong... My recommendation was to use live for a couple rounds in a feeding enclosure and then switch over to FT once its got the routine down... Just something that works for me.

Can't say I've ever read that BP's scavenge prey. Wouldn't make much sense for them to do so since they are ambush predators not active predators and dead stuff rarely walks by. :)

I think size does matter in this case LOL. I have a number of ball pythons that are very specific in their prey size and I've seen others mention this. This may be just some sort of abherrant behaviour but my point really was that changing anything can put these snakes off so I would think making the least amount of changes would be best. Sometimes the size change is the single thing that triggers them to eat but combining many different changes all at once may trigger a refusal.

The problem then becomes trying to sort out which change was the one that did it or was it a combination of things. For me, I prefer to keep things simple when I'm trying to get a snake to eat or determine why it started refusing.

can you guys explain pre senting?

this is my 3rd week im about to try and she still hasnt eaten a frozen one. I havent fed her a live one for a month now because i realy want to get her switched over.

i bought a live one today, im going to thaw out the frozen one then throw it in the box with the live one for a little while to get the smell of it on the frozen one and see how that works, if that doesnt work im going to try killing (i hate saying that or doing it) the live one maybe by putting it in a plastic bag and sealing it, suffocating it or something (really dont wanna hit it over the head or anything) and see if she eats that.

ill post back later tonight or tomorrow to say if she ate either one.

either way, shes not getting a live one this week. if she doesnt eat this week, ill feed her a live one next week just cause its been so long since she ate and i feel bad.

Hi,


Prescenting just means letting the smell of the mouse come to the snakes attention before you offer the food.

With F/T a good way of doing this is to actually leave it to thaw slowly in the same room as his tank.

I wouldn't put the thawed one on a tub with the live one for several reasons - the live one would probably either be freaked or try to eat it.

I would try really making the thawed one nice and hot before offering by blasting its head area with a hairdryer and doing the zombie mouse dance with it.


dr del

I've found most snakes will switch over if you take baby steps. Here's how I've done it, many times:
First, make sure the snake is eating regularly--if they will only take live, then give them live, and get them in a habit of regular feeding. It doesn't hurt to offer them f/t before you break down and give them the live prey item, they might surprise you and take it--but don't skip a feeding if they refuse. Snakes respond well to routine, and if they are used to eating in a specific setting on a specific schedule, they'll be more open to a change in what they eat.

Once they've taken at least 2 meals on a regular schedule, then offer pre-killed. It's important to offer the prey on tongs, so that the slight movement of your hand simulates a live prey item. If they refuse pre-killed, offer stunned (unconscious but living) and try pre-killed the next time. Once they've accepted pre-killed twice without refusing, try f/t. If they refuse it, try scenting it with live mouse bedding. If it's still refused, then offer pre-killed again, but the next feeding, offer pre-killed that has cooled to room temperature...then try the f/t again the feeding after that. I always offer the food on tongs, even if they would take it off the cage floor, as this stimulates the snakes to strike and constrict, giving them a bit of exercise.
While some snakes may take longer to go through each of these steps, I've yet to have this method fail. I've also never had a snake backslide--that is, once they have eaten f/t prey once, even if it was scented, they will continue to accept it.
I'm sure there are some exceptionally stubborn snakes out there that just won't cooperate with this method, but from my experiences, the vast majority will.

When I got my snake he was eating live and I tried f/t the first week and he ate it no problem. I did prescent and hit it with a hairdryer.

I like to feed live every now and then to change it up for the snake and whenever I get live mice I ask for some bedding. I keep it in the little box they give you and I use that to prescent. Soon as I open the box I see his head pop out. I come back a few minutes later and he its all the way out of his hide fully stretched to the top of the cage. This gets them excited. I usually then wait until he goes back to a hide to feed him. I remove a few pieces of furniture and he knows whats coming. He just sits and waits. One thing I found that really gets him to strike is to drag the mouse along the bottom of the cage near them. Soon as I do that he instantly takes it.

Good luck with the switch.

This was recommended to me on this forum, and I have had no problems since using this technique. I thaw the mouse right on top of the tub, just let it sit there for about 4-6 hours. Then I hit it with the blow dryer for 15 seconds a side. I remove the hides and water bowl, and put the warm mouse in there. Haven't had them refuse since doing it this way.

Some snakes will eat almost anything you offer right from the start--some are terribly stubborn. There's a wide spectrum between the two.

My roomates baby bp went to f/t after having been given 2 live, 1 stunned, and one pre-killed mouse. (plenty of refusals of f/t, and one refusal of pre-k, along the way).

After that, he took a f/t rat pup on the first introduction, and there are no more refusals. :)