"This past feeding on frozen thawed was another no go, even when it was cleaned with the soap, dried off & heated up."

Did you cuss me after going through all that for nothing? ("Dang, stupid, hillbilly!" Ha! Ha!

From your last message I now see that you've pretty much run the gamut, tryin' just about everything in the book, and then some. I really admire your efforts, perserverance and determination. If more keepers would be as diligent to seek, explore, this hobby would be in a better position. And so would our captives. I tip my hat to you! Laura, who posted further down in this thread has shown the same tenacity with the burm she mentioned.

If were you, as long as getting fresh-killed rats isn't too much a problem, I'd just continue trying to gradually win him over to F/T. It may take several months or longer, but it could also happen soon.

I'd prime him with a small F/K and have a nicely warmed F/T ready to put in his mouth, right against the first rat's butt, as he's swallowing. If you miss the chance to get the F/T rat in his mouth while he's still swallowing wait 1 - 2 minutes for him to get get the first rat further down and since it was a small meal hopefully "feeding mode" will kick in & he'll take the F/T without thinking.

I wouldn't thaw out more than 1 or 2 rats per feeding in case he refuses them and you have to toss 'em out. In this case it's nice to have another snake that eats the same size prey so you can feed them instead of wasting the rat(s).

This time next year he'll most likely have matured and might go off feed for breeding season. Then you can play the game of "chicken" (who gives in first) and offer nothing but F/T, like I mentioned in my first post.

I don't know if the high temp you mentioned was a typo or not but I'd keep the hot end at 92°. I have increased overall cage temps with snakes that were having feeding issues in order to increase their metabolism, which may well be what you're doing. I suggest not going beyond the ranges of 84° (cool end) - 93°/94° (hot end) and I suggest no less than 65% humidity with those temps. Actually, I've not seen any of my snakes kept under those conditions use the basking spot, basking in 93/94° temps, but I offer it to them just in case they want it. In my big cages there's enough room for them to escape that heat. Plenty of fresh water & humidity is vital.

Please keep us posted this. In your trial & efforts you may even come up with an unheard of way to get him switched over & give us all something else to put in our bag of tricks.

Hang in there!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American


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