Here’s how I would start the process. I’d go to a fish bait store and buy a bunch of live minnows (and also ask, “Hey, how about throwing those ones floating on top in for free?). I’d throw a few live minnows in the snake’s water bowl and freeze the rest. As it was catching and eating the minnows I’d throw in a thawed rodent. For the next feeding, I’d use one or two thawed minnows and more thawed rodents in the water bowl. Eventually, I’d work up to rubbing a still-frozen minnow on the rodents and offering the rodents to the snake on forceps. If they’re too excitable to take the food off of forceps, you can always just leave the food in the water bowl – with or without water.



If you observe how your snake responds to the live food, it can give you tips on how to present dead or alternative food sources. Many water snakes not only smell the food, but also seem to react strongly to movement. Some, when they catch food in the water, seem to respond to the food brushing against their body. So you might want to tap the snake on the side of its neck with whatever food item you're offering to initiate a strike.



Anyway, what I described above was for adult snakes. You’d have to modify the size of the food items for your small snake. If you can’t obtain tiny fish and tiny pinkies don’t be shy about using pieces of fish and pieces of rodent. Your animal will soon grow large enough on that diet to accept larger whole animals. Good luck.

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