Transitioning to frozen thawed diet

I just got a young BP (hatched in Sept) and am trying to feed prekilled prey. Any tricks to get him to eat frozen thawed. Last fed a rat fuzzy on 10/24. Thanks for any suggestions.

Young bps are usually pretty easy to switch over to f/t. I have most of my collection to the point where I don't even need to heat the f/t feeder up at all. Room temp and they are good to go.

If you already have the snake eating pre-killed then try a f/t but heat it up a bit. For my hatchlings right now, I'm heating their f/t up under a heat lamp. Get it slightly warm to the touch. Try getting the head and chest area the warmest (but not hot) as this would be the areas naturally warmer in a live rodent. This, coupled with some movement (zombie rat dance) should intice the snake to eat.

Jesse has some great tips and just to add, one thing I have learned is to not disturb them before you attempt the above. Before, I was taking their hide out and they would get startled before I tried to feed them. This kicks them out of instinctual mode and into a "what the hecks going on" mode and they can be to startled to eat, especially when trying something new. I would be very quiet, around night time, and slowing open their enclosure with the prepared rat/mouse and dangle it in front of their hide. Basically, you don't want them to notice you first, you want them to notice the food. Eventually, you should just be able to lay it in there and they will find it.

We only have a few that eat f/t, the rest are on live... we find that it is more convenient when they eat live, especially when you have more than a few... but the ones that are on f/t, we keep on f/t which I think is only 2 of 17

See I find f/t more convenient because I can buy f/t in bulk for cheaper than buying live at the store. I feed 13 adult ball pythons - all but 2-3 are eating f/t (I say 2-3 because a female that originally would only take live took a f/t the other day) Of my hatchlings, the ones that are eating eat live, except I have gotten one to take f/t. I spend roughly $15-20 a week on live food. That only feeds a few hatchlings and 2 adult snakes. For f/t I spend roughly $12-14 feeding the rest of my collection per week.

I know the live is way more expensive but having to heat them up is the time consuming part. We tried to do just the room temp thing & it didnt work, and to do that for 17.... *sigh* I am afraid it would take a while. So my bee and the albino female we got in tinley are on f/t. the rest eat live.

I feed my babies a mix of live and F/T. Feeding F/T is a little more time consuming, but not that much. Check out this video if you think F/T is a lot more work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7OuTWUBwZs&feature=related

Nice video Don - thanks for that. I will have to show that when I get home. It is almost feeding day at our house so maybe we will give it a try?

Thanks for all the replies. I may be startling the little guy by lifting up his hide when feeding. I'll try the stealth approach. I didn't know how long I should go before offering live food. It's been about 10 days since he last ate. Seems to be in good condition in terms of weight and activity.

I would track its weight. You can get a cheap scale from Walmart or online that reads grams, if you don't have one. I track when they go number one and two and how much weight in food goes in. If he's not losing weight (less than 10% maybe), I would hold out another week or so and try the frozen/thawed a few more times before giving in. Sometimes it's a battle of wits but this is a great time of year to try. All my snakes are eating ravenously

Ours too Nick! I swear they would keep eating if we let them and didn't cut them off.

smb2585 wrote:

Ours too Nick! I swear they would keep eating if we let them and didn't cut them off.

they're pigs LOL

We use this scale for our bearded dragons. It should include free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Digital-Kitchen-Silver/dp/B001N07KUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320369233&sr=8-1

Yes they are... we fed them today, opened tubs a few minutes ago and they are all ready to eat again

my female pastel is a pig!!! i got her from zues, and thats all she wants to do is eat. i bet if i just kept feeding her all day long she would take every rat, little porker my oldest normal female is a pretty big pig too. i love her, she is my scapegoat..... if i buy to many rats, or thaw out too many frozen mice she will clean up after me no matter the size, how cold or warm it is, how much she has already eaten, she will take it..... shes my baby.