ball pythons

[Genetics Breeder]

How can I switch ball pythons to eating frozen rats? They were all born this year or last year, and they will only eat live mice. A few will eat small live rats. Some won't even eat live mice.

[Kinra]

To switch from live to f/t try offering pre-killed first. It's either that or wait them out. Make sure you are heating your f/t up enough. There are some that will only take live and some that will only take mice, but I find it hard to believe that your entire collection will only take live.

With switching from mice to rats, you need to do it one step at a time. So don't try to switch from live mice to f/t rats. Some thing you can try to get them to take rats is to scent the rats with mice bedding.

Edit: When you say some won't even eat live mice do you mean they aren't eating for you? If that is the case I would double check your husbandry to make sure everything is right and just keep offering food once a week. Sometimes they go on fasts and sometimes they get stressed and won't eat.

[Alexandra V]

You first have to accept that you won't be able to get them to all switch on your schedule, and that you may never be able to switch certain animals. Personally, I'd feed them whatever they will willingly eat until they get some good weight on them, and then attempt the switch.

You'll want to try pre-heating the prey with a blow dryer just over the head/face of the prey item, pre-scenting the room, holding the prey by the scruff with your tongs instead of by the tail to make it seem more natural, and try moving the prey around as if it were alive. Often times you can fool the animal into thinking the prey is alive that way. After a while they realize that they're eating dead prey, and you may not have to do the zombie dance afterwards. Simply dropping in the prey item would suffice once they get used to eating pre-killed.

As I said before, I'd prefer trying to switch them once they're at least over 150 grams, because that way you can let them go a bit hungry beforehand and increase the chances that they'll take a pre-killed rodent simply because they're hungry.

Good luck with them!

[Genetics Breeder]

I rubbed the f/t rat pinkies in dirty mouse bedding last night, and 4 snakes ate up to 3 rats each. Now I just have to get the other ones to.