switching a watersnake from frogs to pinkies can take anywhere from 1 day to six months.

I've found that babies are easier, but can still be troublesome.

Here's what you need to do.

1 get the snake comfortable. Use a small enclosure with plenty of hides and a small, shallow water dish. You need the snake to feel safe. Do NOT handle the snake more than once a week if at all.

2 wash a FT pinkie with bar soap and rinse well. You want the food item to have no scent. Do NOT use scented soap.

3 Place the thawed pinkie in your hand with a live frog. Close your hand and gently massage the frog against the pinkie for about a minute to transfer the scent. Place the frog in a jar for later use.

4 offer the frog-scented pinkie to the snake with a pair of hemostats or forceps. Wiggle it slightly.

5 If the snake eats the pinkie, try it again until the snake has had enough food. You'll probably have to scent the pinkies for a couple of weeks before you can offer pinkies with no scent at all, and later pinkies that still have their natural scent.

6 if the snake does not eat the pinkie, place the snake in a small deli cup or a small paper bag with the pinkie. close it up and put the cup or bag inside the snakes cage and place the cage in the closet. Leave the snake in there overnight.

7 if the snake doesn't eat the pinkie, scent another pinkie the same way as you did in step 3 and put the snake, pinkie AND live frog in the deli cup inside the closet. The snake will eat the frog and then smell the frog-scented pinkie and eat it.

One of my baby watersnakes started taking pinkies right away. One took several tries before he would eat anything other than fish or frogs. Some take months. Just be patient and try again each week until something happens.

You can also 'brain' the pinkies by tabbing their heads with a knife or needle and squeezing some of the brains out.

Good luck
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