F/T Hamsters for picky eaters

[Sonya610]

Just spoke with someone that took in several BP rescues over the years and dealt with many that would not eat. Mentioned the fact I am stressed because mine went off of F/T and demands live.

He suggested buying frozen hamsters. He says he bought some ages ago because they were on sale and some of his snakes would eat anything, and he discovered they would get even finicky BP's that had been off food for ages interested and scarfing.

Anyone else heard this? I have already tossed about 20 F/T rats before we went to live and hate to buy a bunch of frozen hamsters only to have them wasted too.

[youbeyouibei]

I've not heard of f/t hamsters but have heard of using soiled hamster or gerbil bedding to "scent" a rat or mouse for a finicky eater. I know Rodent Pro sells guinea pigs frozen but I don't know of anywhere that sells frozen hamsters. Worth a shot I guess, if you could find someone with one or two that you could try before you invested in a bunch of them, maybe.

Good luck!

[Sonya610]

I've not heard of f/t hamsters but have heard of using soiled hamster or gerbil bedding to "scent" a rat or mouse for a finicky eater. I know Rodent Pro sells guinea pigs frozen but I don't know of anywhere that sells frozen hamsters. Worth a shot I guess, if you could find someone with one or two that you could try before you invested in a bunch of them, maybe.

Good luck!

Yeah the only sellers (according to the almighty Google) are in the UK. Some US online stores claim they carry them but then don't actually list them.

[snakesRkewl]

I wouldn't think the type of prey item would be as significant when feeding F/T as it is when feeding live, but I may be wrong
The most important part is getting the f/t warm enough to attract the snake to strike it.
In my experience picky eaters don't care for rodents dangling in front of their faces and are much more likely to eat live.

[Sonya610]

I wouldn't think the type of prey item would be as significant when feeding F/T as it is when feeding live, but I may be wrong
The most important part is getting the f/t warm enough to attract the snake to strike it.
In my experience picky eaters don't care for rodents dangling in front of their faces and are much more likely to eat live.

Perhaps I will buy a heat gun and try again with the frozen prey.

What is the optimum temp when offering f/t to picky eaters? I never measured the temp when offering them (though she seemed utterly repulsed by f/t after she went on her hunger strike, after eating them faithfully for the first two years of her life).

[Adam Chandler]

Perhaps I will buy a heat gun and try again with the frozen prey.

What is the optimum temp when offering f/t to picky eaters? I never measured the temp when offering them (though she seemed utterly repulsed by f/t after she went on her hunger strike, after eating them faithfully for the first two years of her life).

You might not even need to get a heat gun, if you have a blow dryer that is what I use after thawing to warm them up a bit.

You don't want to heat it up unnaturally hot or it can deter your BP from striking. I try to get the head of the mouse just up to about 85-90 degrees.
In order to take the surface temp of the mouse I would recommend a IR thermometer such as:www.tempgun.com/

[TheWinWizard]

I heard 102F is a good temp for them.