It doesn't work with every water snake. I let them eat fish for a while until they are not afraid to eat with me nearby. I feed them defrosted fish off forceps, which takes a while but eventually hunger wins out over caution and they accept defrosted fish. If your snake does not change over to rodents you might have an easier time using defrosted fish than live fish.

Eventually I try small pink mice rubbed with fish odor. I find that water snakes don't like the hard skulls of mice so I crush the skull of a defrosted mouse, rub the head of the mouse well with fish and try that. Water snakes forage by striking at the touch of a fish against their bodies, so try gently striking the snake's body with the mouse held in forceps. If the snake will take the mouse into its mouth, it may swallow it. Your snake may be more likely to swallow a mouse if the mouse is wet. Try dunking the mouse in water to wet the fur, rub it well with fish and see if you can get the snake to strike it.

Northerns are eager eaters and seem more ready to eat mice than some other species. I have some red-phase Mangrove water snakes that don't eat mice despite years of trying. The Mangroves eat defrosted fish.

My northerns got so interested in eating they eventually stopped insisting on scented mice and just started eating what ever came into the cage. That's handy for feeding but not so good for cleaning, as they are perfectly happy to eat my fingers.

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