Feeding Frozen To Balls That Only Accept Live ? D:

[iCandiExotics]

Ive been trying for the past couple weeks to feed my Balls frozen thawed. They came from Markus Jayne (For anyone who does not no , big Ball breeder in Canada) who was feeding them live and my dads the guy that brings me rats home and he will not accept live rodents in the house. Im having a hard time getting them to eat. Ive tried leaving the rat in a deli cup with them for 15 hours each. Tried force feeding the male (68g) (Female is a big 700g that is to the age where you cannot force feed) and did not suceed. Is there anyway that I can get them to feed. Any tips ?

Thanks in advance,

[Evilme5229]

Make sure that the rat is warm and not cold and pretty dry. I would buy some tongs and wave the rat back and forth to envoke the stalking behavior.

As far as the live aspect. I would try and talk to you dad a little more about it. Sometimes you have to do what is needed for the snake over preference. I prefer to feed my snakes outside their enclosure so that it cuts down on the possibility of aspen being digested. However, some of my snakes refuse to eat outside their enclosure so I have to give in. I would stress to your dad that he would not have to worry about the live rat being alive for very long. Its pretty quick for the most part.

The change over from live to frozen thawed sometimes doesn't happen overnight and its something that has to be a slow change than immediate. I have no doubt adventually you might get to your desired feeding habit, but maybe not at the moment. Good luck to you. :-)

[Alexandra V]

I'd say maybe just try to get your dad to let you feed the snakes live and let them settle in a bit. You could always tell your dad that you'd go get the feeders yourself and only on feeding day, that way they aren't alive in your house for very long. To convert your snakes to f/t you might just have to keep trying every now and then, or maybe feed a smaller-than-average meal before you try the f/t and that way maybe they'll be a bit more inclined to eat it because they're a bit hungrier.

[Shadera]

First, mess with them as little as possible. The more you stress them, the less likely they will be to eat for you. Save force feeding for life and death situations.

Warm the FT prey up more. I've found that an animal that will refuse an FT rat will often snag it right up if I increase the temp of the rat some more.

[PiedPeddler]

Give them about a week to de-stress before you try again. The prey needs to be warm, dry, and moving. Once you've thawed them out and warmed them up to live-rodent temperature, run a blow dryer on the rodent's head for several seconds immediately before offering the prey on tongs. Living mammal's heads radiate more heat than the rest of their bodies and the snakes can sense this. Also maybe try thawed mice since they aren't going for thawed rats.
- Paul

[Wh00h0069]

Good luck. I actually ended up selling my balls because of this same issue. I was up to sixty at one point, and would have had a lot more if they would have ate f/t... I am now only dealing with snakes that eat f/t; such as, carpet pythons and boa constrictors.

[WingedWolfPsion]

You're pretty much going to need to convince dad to allow a live rodent in the house, at least once. Or in a cage outside, for a while. Heat up the FT rodents until they're VERY warm to the touch--warmer than your body temperature. Then dip them in rat pee. Seriously--dip the head in the pee from the live rat. Then offer them to the snake.

I've found that this works 80% or more of the time to convince a snake that has rejected FT in the past.