• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

f/t -- WIN!

Vicic17

Vicic17

New member
Hey guys, as some of you may know, all of my corn snakes are eating f/t and never had any problems with that. However, I picked up a beautiful spider ball python, who refused f/t for weeks, and i had to resort to live feedings IN her tank.. Trying not to stress my little girl out, I only offered F/T once in a while, but never showed interest. So after a couple weeks of live feedings, and worry about her being bit, and the upsetting sight of seeing a helpless rat pup strangled and devoured, i decided i must get her on f/t asap.

if any of you have a snake that will ONLY eat live and you want to switch to F/T, give this a try! worked like a charm for me!

I feed every 7 days, on tuesdays to be exact. and this time i had an idea, i bought a live adult mouse, made sure my ball python was out on her vine, and let the mouse run around on the TOP of the cage, (separated by the screen) my little spider picked up the scent and started THROWING herself at the mouse. i quickly took the mouse off the top, opened the cage and held up a F/T rat pup and she grabbed it through the opening and down into her cage and ate it without a problem! Hopefully she will now realize, F/T is just as good!

next challenge is to get her to feed in a separate container, to avoid the risk of her thinking hand = noms, and accidental substrate consumption.

thanks for reading just thought i'd share what worked for me :)

Nick.
 
Nanci said:
Cool idea!!
Click to expand...

Thanks! And it worked like a charm! First shot only took a minute! any ideas on tricks to start feeding out of her cage? when i get her into a separate container, she seems more interested in trying to escape than she does in her meal! :S
 
You may have already tried this, but I switched my ball over by placing his feeding container in a dark room with a towel over it and came back a couple hours later and the food was gone.
 
As far as feeding in a separate container, my Baird's ratsnake was also more interested in escaping than eating when I put her in a separate tank, so I put her in the deli cup I originally got her in and put that in a dark room for a while and she finally ate (this is after trying for three weeks with f/t in the separate tank and eventually resorting to live just so she wouldn't starve). I would try putting your snake in a very small container, like one that is just big enough for your snake and the mouse you want to feed.
 
I put my BPs on paper substrate, much nicer since they don't burrow and are 1000gram beasts. :laugh: I also just dump them out of their hides and shove a rat in their face.
Here's what I do to get them to eat f/t with no problems (except the occasional p/k or nearly dead item).

1. Thaw prey. Don't worry about how long you forget about it if it's not longer than 3 hours.
2. Get a cookie sheet you don't care much about, put foil on it.
3. Preheat a toaster oven (or put a normal oven on 'Warm') to about 135F. Use a thermometer with a probe to check the temp. I suction cup mine to the door of the oven and bend the wire so the probe is in the air kinda in the middle of the oven.
4. Place prey on cookie sheet and into toaster oven.
5. Check every 5-15 minutes to see when the prey is HOT. I mean HOT, too. Not SCALDING hot, but definitely hotter than a live item (ask a pet store to see a calm rat or mouse to get an idea of this). Takes 30-60 minutes for me, but my toaster oven bounces around from 140F to 90F. This is why I say keep an eye on it.
6. Take the cookie sheet with the prey (use oven mitts please!) to the area you feed at.
7. Get your BP ready to be offered prey.
8. Get a secure hold on the prey by the back legs with some long tongs (can find in reptile area of pet stores).
9. Hold the prey close enough for the BP to see but not far enough that if he strikes he'll go flying.
10. As he shows interest in this hot item, wiggle it well. You'll be able to figure out if you just need a little movement or if you need to really try doing the zombie dance.
11. As he closes in, get ready to let go, but keep a good hold on the prey still! I've both had my BP coil around the tongs and miss the item because I either didn't let go or did too early. ...Actually, all three my colubrids have tried strangling the tongs, too...
12. Either reap the rewards of your work or find someone else to nom the prey if you fail. Don't be afraid to try again if he coils and lets go. Also, don't be afraid to leave it in the cage overnight.
 
thanks, everyone :) I was kinda proud, hah! lets hope she sticks to f/t! I got some ideas for feeding in separate container, i wont share until something works ;) :)
 
*Update*

So 2 weeks ago, I used my live switcheroo trick, I was concerned that my girl wouldn't realize the difference between the live and the frozen, i thought maybe next feeding she'd still refuse f/t. Anyways, last week she was shedding, now she has her beautiful new skin, presented her a f.t...... BAM grabbed it like she'd never seen a live mouse in her life!! I successfully have her on F/T :D yay no more feeling bad for poor baby rat pups!
 
I'm planning on trying the switcheroo trick on my boa next monday :) I'm glad it worked for you and if it works for me, i will be giving you a big thanks :)
 
Oh will do, should be Monday when i have an update :) I'll just put it in this thread so i know you see it :)

It'll be the Switcheroo thread, helping snakes one trick at a time ;)
 
One thing ill suggest Haarstad, if u have a tank u can keep the mouse in after that way u dont have to kill it, and if ur boa refuses again next week u can just do the same trick! and in a way its like it's on f/t, just get some mouse food, lol. But hopefully it will work like mine, she snatched the f/t rat pup out of my tongs before i could /facepalm!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top