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m1n054

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Turns out my ball python that I bought under the description of: "It's on F/T rats..." now changed to: "All he ever took from me was live". Haven't got any luck yet with any seller... the corn I bought from the pet store had mites and the breeder of my ball python basically lied to me after tying to feed him frozen/thawed for 3 weeks. I do know that not all people are like that so no worries on that. I just wish that I had a little bit more of luck with my sellers.

He could have spared me the 25$ I spent on frozen rats the moment I sent him an email about him not eating frozen/thawed mice by telling me he doesn't take frozen at all. Instead we went comparing our setups and obviously I tried to acclimate the ball python to his older setup but that didn't work either (here's me worried sick that I did something wrong with him or the setup).

Well I guess I should be thankful that he at least eats something... it's a pain in the butt to get the live mice since I'm living in the countryside and every week is driving to the local pet store to pick one out and then drive back. I built a mice rack though it's kind of small. I do intend to try and change him into F/T but in the mean time I'm just gonna start breeding mice...

I've tried thawing them outside for a couple of hours, then heating them up with a hair dryer and finally rubbing him with the mouse bedding and nothing. I guess next step would be pre-kill. Any advice that you can share with me with this subject?
 
That sucks. Try using hides he can just squeeze into, it goes a long way in making them feel secure. Was he on live rats or mice? If it's mice maybe he doesn't associate the smell with prey. I'd give him the tight hides (even better are ones with the opening on top, like a clay flowerpot), let him settle in with them for a few days and try a really warm thawed rat/mouse right outside whatever hide he favors, right at lights out.
 
chris68 said:
That sucks. Try using hides he can just squeeze into, it goes a long way in making them feel secure. Was he on live rats or mice? If it's mice maybe he doesn't associate the smell with prey. I'd give him the tight hides (even better are ones with the opening on top, like a clay flowerpot), let him settle in with them for a few days and try a really warm thawed rat/mouse right outside whatever hide he favors, right at lights out.
Click to expand...

He can eat live mice, I've already feed him twice that. I'm not sure if he ate live rats before, at this point anything that the breeder tells me I can't take it to be true, but I have a feeling that he used to be on live mice. I bought him another hide a couple of weeks ago, because I thought he wasn't feeling secure but that didn't help him with the F/T.

He's a good live hunter though, both times he went for the mouse head about 10 seconds since I introduce the mouse in the cage but I do try to keep the feet away from the snake body while he constrict them as I'm afraid they'll injure him.
 
I've heard people have had good success by feeding a smaller than normal live mouse, and then immediately after the snake has swallowed it and is still in hunting mode, offer it a super hot F/T. Might have to repeat the process several times but I've heard that has about an 90% success rate with those that have tried it in getting live only eaters to switch.

I've got a rescue BP right now that I've been feeding live because the person I got him from told us that he was always a good eater on live but only ate F/T every now and then. I'll be trying that trick first myself once he's had a few meals, because he is very small and skinny for his age. I'm guessing that because there wasn't a pet store in the town and the closest one was kind of far away from where the previous owner lived and he didn't breed his own mice, when he didn't eat his offered F/T, he maybe didn't get to eat that month.

Good luck with yours! I hope you can get him eating F/T!
 
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There's also a trick for FT, where you stick the head in boiling water right before feeding. A hairdryer can warm up FT to VERY hot, too.
 
Yeah, pythons are a lot more heat motivated than most colubrids! I actually bought a hair dryer just to heat up mice for my GTP, they have to be very hot and the adult BRB's like theirs fairly hot too, so usually heat up theirs a bit as well.

The BP I had for awhile years ago also needed his F/T very hot. The hair dryer is the easiest method I've found so far to get them the right temp.
 
I was reading the guide on Nanci SnickerSnakes forum on ball pythons by BloodyBaroness(sp?) and I overlooked the "get the food real hot". I used the blow dryer to get him to room temp but not hot hot, so instead of using a hair dryer, I used small heater on a bathroom that was putting up real hot air and I warmed up the food a lot. Sadly, he didn't take it either. It was the same mouse I attempt to feed an hour before and left it there to see if he would take it but he didn't so I thought I might try heating it up and nothing. Had to throw another one into the garbage...
 
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