switching from live to frozen

[kouryou]

My girlfriends friend could no longer afford food for her ball python and since I love snakes and have had snakes before I offered to take him. But she was feeding him live food and I don't feel comfortable doing that. I tried feeding him a frozen/thawed small rat but he wouldn't so I had to feed him a live rat...very carefully supervised. Now it's already passed time for him to eat again and I really don't want to feed live if I don't have to, so is there an easy way to wean them from live to frozen..preferably not involving knocking a live rat on the head to stun them.

[themichaelchoi]

You might just have to get a frozen rat and thaw it out really well with warm water. Then you could shake it above the snake making it seem like it's alive. Hopefully, this helps. :P

[Criosphynx]

To be honest many ball pythons will not make the switch...you can let him skip a meal and see if that gives him more of an edge

I find that if you can get the snake to take the food he will likely eat it...so your looking for that snappy, hungry feeding response where hes not thinking, just reacting. I have see BP however take F/T food and then refuse to eat it, but its kinda rare.

Dangle the food from tweezers, tiny, twitchy movements and cross your fingers. :)

[Nanci]

Maybe see if he will take a FK. Maybe try something smaller and tastier, like a rat fuzzy!

[gimpsnakelvr]

w/ the f/t try heating the head w/ a hair dryer it may work

[danielle]

I know a breeder friend of mine will pre kill by severing the spinal cord and throw the rat right in still twitching for the first few meals for snakes only wanting live because they are still warm and moving:)

[cornspot]

What about chain feeding...give him a small live one then just before the last chomp put a small f/t up to his lips. He will most likely just keep swallowing & may eventually learn that f/t really is food.

This worked on one of my corns...took two sessions & now he take f/t just fine.