Struggling with feeding

[breadpython14]

Ok so I've had my bp for 2 weeks now and the breeder told me they were feeding live. So off the break I tried f/t but he's not taking to it. I guess my question is at what point do you give up and do live versus continously trying f/t. I tried f/t yesterday and no luck. I want to do live the next time but am I giving up too early? I know snakes can not eat for awhile and be fine but I want the guy to eat something.

[jadab123]

I switched mine over to f/t very easily. The first week I had her, I fed her a live rat since that is what she was on with the breeder. She was in a totally new environment, so I didn't want to change things up even more by changing her food. She ate that very well, so then the next week I switched to f/t. They key, I've noticed, is making sure the rat is hot enough! When I touch the rat to test the temperature, it actually feels hot to the touch (though not burning). When measured with the temp gun, it reads 95-105. Any lower than that, and my snake will not touch it, but at that temperature, she snatches the rat up within a few seconds of me dangling it in her enclosure.

Also, when you say continuously trying f/t - are you offering food to him every day or something? If they don't take the food, it is best to wait until the next planned feeding day before offering food again. That way you don't stress them out by continuously offering food they don't want to eat.

[Atrox]

From birth the breeder that I got my BP from was feeding F/T, so it was already used to it and I'm thankful for that. I think that you are being a bit of a push over, make a feeding schedule and offer it F/T on the feeding day, if your BP refuses do not let it win. It will soon learn that you're not going to cave in and it's only going to have F/T. Hopefully your python will learn and eat F/T. If he does go for too long without food, give it live.

Best of luck!

Atrox.

[SRMD]

All of above, and Id like to add maybe try putting a cocktail stick through the rats skull expose blood on his head. This is how I broke my
BPs 8-11 month fast can't remember how long exactly


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[dek593]

You`ll need to feed live prey to your new snake for awhile.
Your new snake has been feeding on live and he/she is in new environment now. Your snake will eat only when it feels safe and happy with new environment which means completely accommodate to his/her new house. f/t is not his/her food so far. Therefore, try live for now.
I don`t like to feed f/t to my snakes because, I`ll always have to throw away uneaten f/t.

[jadab123]

You`ll need to feed live prey to your new snake for awhile.
Your new snake has been feeding on live and he/she is in new environment now. Your snake will eat only when it feels safe and happy with new environment which means completely accommodate to his/her new house. f/t is not his/her food so far. Therefore, try live for now.
I don`t like to feed f/t to my snakes because, I`ll always have to throw away uneaten f/t.

The problem I see with feeding live in this case, though, is if you have a young snake feeding on rat fuzzies or pups, the rat will likely die before the next feeding day unless you breed the rats yourself or you have another snake that will eat the rat. It's hard enough for me to watch a snake kill a rat, but watching a rat die of starvation would be terrible, and I don't think I could bring myself to kill it. Frozen rats are so cheap that I don't have too much of an issue throwing one out every now and then (I've only ever had to throw one out...I'm fortunate that my bp is a great eater). Sucks that the rat died for essentially nothing if it just gets thrown out though. It's a crappy dilemma .

I do agree with you, though, that the o/p should feed live for the first meal or two that the snake has in his new home. Moving is stressful enough WITHOUT changing up his food

[Jwkempo]

Here's how I transition mine from live to f/t. Offer live first, when food item is consumed, offer a f/t while the feeding response is still active. Make sure the f/t is thawed and warm. Good luck