Live to f/t - any advice?

[mattchibi]

Hey guys

Getting a new lesser girl in a week. She will be my first hatchling ever, my current normal girl I got when she was 3 years old and she was already on f/t rats.

The new girl I am getting is eating live rats atm, according to the breeder. I am assuming fuzzies or small rat pups. Either way, apparently she's been feeding just fine; however, I plan on getting all my hatchling onto f/t if possible. (I fully understand the pro's and con's of live vs. f/t, but in terms of convenience for me, I want to go for f/t even tho theres a lower feeding response)

I am wondering on what process to go about switching her over. Should I feed her one live rat for her first feeding so that she feels secure in her new home (and then try f/t for the next few feedings)? Or will that just make her more used to eating live?

Or if she looks in good shape (im going to ask the breeder to feed her a few days before I pick her up), should I only offer f/t until she takes it? How many refusals before it gets unhealthy? I am picking up a digital scale to track the food item size as well as her weight. I am hoping for a smooth transition, just wanted to see what you guys have done, and what has worked for you in the past!

Thanks guys

[mpkeelee]

After u let her settle in feed her what she was already eating. After about 4 consecutive meals offer f/t. She may not take it so if she doesn't just leave it near her hide overnight. Check back in the morning. Try this for about 4 feedings. If she doesn't eat u may have to go back to live or try other methods such as pre-spending, braining etc. Make sure the f/t is plenty hot and monitor her weight. If she's losing a good amount of weight, abort mission and get the weight back on

[mr.spooky]

" (I fully understand the pro's and con's of live vs. f/t, but in terms of convenience for me, I want to go for f/t even tho theres a lower feeding response)"
just my opinion,, but i dont think that there is any cons to feeding F/T.
unless your breeding your own feeders, theres a trip to the pet shop every week,, with F/T you you can keep 6 months or more on stock.
with live, you have to supervise feedings,,, with F/T's, you can leave it in over night, no worries.
with live, youll run the risk of geting a injured snake,,, a pre killed rat aint biting nothing.
and last, if your snake dont eat, you aint gotta keep a rat alive until next time.

as far as feeding responce, i have snakes that will knock the hell outta a F/T, and some that just takes it (still agressive strike).. one of my bloods dont even strike,, just flop the rat in there, and he'll ease up to it and slowley open his mouth and start eating.
i reicentaly got 2 adult BP's (from diferent sources) that were on live only,,, after a week of seteling in,, i offered FT, one ate it , the other dident. next week, the same thing,,, next week, the other got hungry and ate and now pounds F/T's...
id say offer them (F/T's) right off, if they dont eat, try again next week..
just my 2...
spooky

[RestlessRobie]

I offered F/T first feeding schedule after I received my first hatchling who was eating live. And well she took it without a problem and has been a garbage disposal ever since so I wish you the best of luck some snakes switch easily and well some take a little patience.

[rexrem]

The good thing with healthy hatchlings is that they will have a good feeding response. Let her settle in for a week and feed f/t rat right away. I always do that to all my newly acquired hatchlings. Just heat the rat properly.

[Spyderco1116]

" (I fully understand the pro's and con's of live vs. f/t, but in terms of convenience for me, I want to go for f/t even tho theres a lower feeding response)"
just my opinion,, but i dont think that there is any cons to feeding F/T.
unless your breeding your own feeders, theres a trip to the pet shop every week,, with F/T you you can keep 6 months or more on stock.
with live, you have to supervise feedings,,, with F/T's, you can leave it in over night, no worries.
with live, youll run the risk of geting a injured snake,,, a pre killed rat aint biting nothing.
and last, if your snake dont eat, you aint gotta keep a rat alive until next time.

as far as feeding responce, i have snakes that will knock the hell outta a F/T, and some that just takes it (still agressive strike).. one of my bloods dont even strike,, just flop the rat in there, and he'll ease up to it and slowley open his mouth and start eating.
i reicentaly got 2 adult BP's (from diferent sources) that were on live only,,, after a week of seteling in,, i offered FT, one ate it , the other dident. next week, the same thing,,, next week, the other got hungry and ate and now pounds F/T's...
id say offer them (F/T's) right off, if they dont eat, try again next week..
just my 2...
spooky

I totally agree with you, however, some may argue that live has a much higher nutritional value than f/t because it is fresh. It's like buying frozen veggies over fresh veggies for ourselves... The fresh have much more nutrients.

[mpkeelee]

I totally agree with you, however, some may argue that live has a much higher nutritional value than f/t because it is fresh. It's like buying frozen veggies over fresh veggies for ourselves... The fresh have much more nutrients.

Their has not been any proof to this. Yes vegetables can lose nutrients but nothing has been said about frozen feeders. And if u look at the growth of live eaters vs frozen eaters u won't see a difference

[Spyderco1116]

Their has not been any proof to this. Yes vegetables can lose nutrients but nothing has been said about frozen feeders. And if u look at the growth of live eaters vs frozen eaters u won't see a difference

We will just have to agree to disagree... Where is the exact proof that a ball will grow from point A to point B in the same amount of time when one is fed f/t and the other live? BTW, not trying to argue here so keep that in mind. It's fun to debate sometimes!!

[purplemuffin]

Maybe eventually studies should be done on this. There are enough people here and on websites like iherp who track feeding who feed both f/t and live, you'd think if we put all that information together we'd be able to really see how growth is affected.


The biggest issue we had was just making sure the rodent was hot enough. We always overestimated how warm we got it, and it wasn't until we got a temp gun that we realized it just wasn't a good rodent temperature!

Also, it helped to feed a size smaller than usual

[mr.spooky]

there would be too many variables in the F/T vs live (as far as nutrients) . if you was to do a true study, there would need to be atleast 8 groups (each of posibally 10) broken into fours ie.. 3 "LIVE" groups (with one being a control) and 3 "F/T" groups (with one group being a control)... shew i think i got that right..... any way,, thats alot of snakes. maby theres some studieds that have been done on humans that might reflect the differences,,,, but i persionally doubt that any of this matters. one might compair a F/T fed snake beside a LIVE fed snake and could never tell the difference,,,,,, and as far as i know, what prey the animal has been fed has no reflection on the value of the animal,,,, so once again,, i persionally doubt that any of this matters.
spooky