Help! Switching from live to f/t

[tkdlover123]

My new ball python have only been eating live rats. However, I want her to eat frozen/thawed so I offered her a frozen rat on Sunday. Unfortunately, she started to smell the rat buy decided not to eat it. I thawed the rat for an hour in a warm water and thawed it again for 30 minutes in a hot water. Then dried the rat for another 30 minutes using my heat lamp. When I offered her the rat, I was hoping for her to eat it but she didn't.... Can someone please help me? I'm really stressing out

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[Albert Clark]

Well, don't stress, bc your bp is feeding. Give her what she wants for now. Its a process to switch them over from one prey item to another. Try thawing the rat out at room temperature then just before you offer it , warm it with a blowdryer or space heater?

[frostysBP]

Let the rat thaw out and heat the head up with a blow drier until it gets about 100 degrees

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[DVirginiana]

If you haven't already you can try the 'zombie dance' (some respond to it some don't) to make it look like it's alive. You can also try leaving the prey in with her overnight if she doesn't take it immediately.

[tkdlover123]

If I leave the rat inside her terrarium, then will her terrarium smell bad in the morning?

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[Billy29]

A rat isn't going to start smelling if you left it overnight.


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[tkdlover123]

Oh... Should I try again with frozen or should I just go feed a live one?

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[Lizardlicks]

Keep in mind your snake has been eating live her whole life, so that's what she see as food. You have to convince her the f/t is ALSO food. I feel that if you try to offer f/t then immediately follow up with live, that just reinforces them refusing the f/t. Why eat a dead thing when a live thing will be along shortly? If your snake is a good weight with a healthy body condition, you don't need to throw a live at her after she refuses f/t. Continue to offer on your regular feeding schedule. If she skips a week then she skips a week and she'll be that much hungrier and willing to eat the f/t the next time you offer.

Things to try:

• Heat your rat a little warmer than 100 f. I usually heat mine to 105-109. This gives me a little leeway in terms of time it takes to cool and gives the snake a good target to lock on to
• Scent the rat with tuna or chicken broth
• "Zombie dance"; with your tongs, jiggle the rat around a bit, move it back and forth as if it were a real rat sniffing around.
• "Brain" the rat; open the head cavity so the brain matter is exposed. It doesn't even need to be a big opening, my buddy just sticks it with a safety pin. as long as you pierce the skull cavity, it will expose the scent and entice the snake.
• Leave the rat in over night. Your snake doesn't always need to strike and coil to eat. She might just decide to nosh the squeaker when she's alone.

[tkdlover123]

Thank you so much!

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[tkdlover123]

But will the rat or the terrarium smell in the morning? I just want to get ready for it lol

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