Stubborn BP that won't eat F/T.

[uhdragons]

I'm a first-time snake owner and my BP is about 8 months old. I got him 4 weeks ago and he's settled in nicely, besides the fact that he won't eat. At the petstore, he was fed live rats, but the guy who sold him to me said that it would be easy to switch him over to F/T as soon as he was settled in. So I gave him a week and a half or so to settle and then tried to feed him in a rubbermaid container. I left him in the tub for about an hour and half after thawing the rat and he didn't eat it. I tried the next week (This past sunday) but I put the rat under the heat lamp for a while to warm up after it thawed (I read that putting the rat near the tank to thaw is a good idea, so I did that as well) and he didn't seem interested in it at all once again. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to eat?

[SnowShredder]

I 99% feed frozen/thawed. It takes time and commitment to get a live eater to switch, and even then, some don't.

Firsts thing first right off the bat I notice you feed in a separate tub. Try feeding in their enclosure; you don't have to worry about them becoming "cage aggressive". I'd be more worried about moving a hungry snake or a snake in feeding mode, back and forth.

There is other info that I and many others can give, I just think that's a first step. I think it'd be good to also post a clear pic of him. And we can go from there

[albinos_rule]

Sometimes balls absolutely refuse f/t, so you may have to feed him live his whole life

[CORBIN911]

IF he doesn't strike that's fine he may be shy. Place the FT rat over warm spot turn lights off and check in the morning


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[mandalorian]

All 13 of my bpz, jcp and hoggie eat f/t. Make sure the rat is good and thawed. Use a hair dryer and get it up to body temp. The warming up process will also scent the room where your ball is. I use a temp gun and scan the rat prior to feeding. Once the rat is b/t 95-100 degrees, grasp with tongs and offer it. Usually my snakes are all ready to go since they can already sense the rat from the lovely aroma in the air. Good luck and keep us posted.

[TheLuftGator]

I would honestly feed him live for now just to get him on a schedule and slowly wean him towards pre-killed then to Frozen-Thawed. I'm going to be doing that to my Blood Python since he's refusing F/T mice but I'm giving him 2 weeks to settle at the house before I feed him.
But sometimes snakes can be weird and they may take awhile to convert over, if they want to. XD