Will some snakes just not eat frozen mice ever?

[Melissa88]

I can not find any one that breeds mice around my area that have hoppers right now and my snake will not eat frozen. Will he eat them sooner or later if he get hungrey enough? I have some mice that are prego right now but he has not ate in 3 weeks, and he is skinny as it is.

[snakesRkewl]

Post a craigslist ad asking for RATs
Or mice if you must

[redstormlax12]

BP's can be really picky. Some will never change over to F/T, some need alot of work before they accept F/T, and some will take it no problem. Id say work with him to try take F/T, but there is no guarantee he will switch.

[Melissa88]

They will send them alive?

[snakesRkewl]

No shipping, just find someone in your area breeding mice/rats, I have a list I keep of locals and if I run out I make calls...

[Zack]

My ball python is so picky. I gave him a frozen thawed and he didn't eat. And ever time I fed him I gave him frozen thawed and he still did not eat! So I gave up and he only eats live.

[WingedWolfPsion]

The most important thing is that your snake eat SOMETHING. If it's refusing FT, don't let it starve to death--give it live.
Once it's had a few meals, work with it--offer it food and leave the cage open while it strikes its prey. Then offer it pre-killed prey on tongs. Then frozen/thawed prey that has been rubbed into fresh mouse pee (this works like a charm for me). It usually only takes 1 or 2 feedings like the last one for the snake to accept frozen-thawed mice that aren't scented.
Once it's eating FT, you shouldn't ever have to go back.

Not all snakes will convert to FT. I have some that are too shy to eat with the cage/bin open. I have some that will take pre-killed off of tongs, but come up all excited, take a few 'sniff's, and then give me the DIRTIEST look when I offer them scented FT, and turn around and move to the back of the bin. <lol>

[AkHerps]

If it's refusing FT, don't let it starve to death--give it live.

I agree with this. If I would have kept at trying to feed frozen thaw to my baby ball, he probably would have starved to death, but once I found live small enough, he grabbed it right up, and has now finally had 4 good feedings. I still try f/t, and he still refuses it.

You can feed really young hatchling snakes small adult mice. A lot of breeders start their fresh out of the egg babies on small adult mice and skip right over fuzzies/hoppers. That was what I had to do and it has worked out well. Just go to whatever store sells mice and ask for their smallest female(tend to me smaller than males).

[Aleria]

Truthfully, if the snake is healthy to begin with going a few weeks or even a few months without food is not going to kill it. I have not had a single one yet that wouldn't switch over to f/t between my boas or bp.
It's the giving in after a few weeks or a month or two and giving them live that makes them stubborn and less likely to switch. And I learned that first hand. After repeatedly giving in and giving one of my problem feeders live after refusing f/t for a couple months because I was so afraid he would starve himself to death it ended up taking me nearly a year to get him eating regularly once he did finally start on f/t. If I would have just held my ground a little bit longer in the first place then I would have had him switched a whole lot sooner.


I don't think I've heard of any snakes starving themselves to death if they are completely healthy, if they are continued to be offered f/t. If they are already sick and refusing, then yes they might. But in my experience they will eventually give in and take it, you just have to be more stubborn than they are.

And to note, I finally got my problem feeder eating and on f/t by soaking his rats directly in hot water. Apparently when they are wet they have an even stronger smell, so he'd snatch them up real quick when I did it that way, dry he just ignored them.

It might just be me, but it seems like a lot more bp owners tend to give in and go live compared to the way they do with boas and most of these types of posts end up getting tons of responses saying to go live instead of sticking it out for any length of time.

[AkHerps]

Yes, adult snakes you can make them go a little hungry to switch over to f/t. With babies or hatchlings, it's not good for them to go without food for long periods of time.