Posted by:
BrandonSander
at Mon Sep 20 21:25:03 2004 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by BrandonSander ]
It can be difficult to switch certain animals to FT or even from mice to rats. Some of your balls might not put up any type of fuss about it, others might.
I've had my greatest successes when switching a ball over by doing it gradually. If you are not stunning the live prey you are offering start doing so now. After a few meals don't stun the prey, instead actually kill it. Offer the PK (Pre-killed) meals for another couple of weeks. When the snake is accepting PK meals without problems you can now attempt frozen-thawed.
I know to some this may seem like over kill. I feel that slowly adapting the animal to a new food item is less stressful and requires less patience from me (LOL).
I also think that a majority of problems people have with switching to frozen-thawed meals have to do with not heating the animal to a correct temperature. Make sure it is warm enough to actually interest the snake (don't use a microwave for this). And try to offer the rat/mouse as soon as possible after warming it up. Dead animals cool off much faster than living ones and FT don't seem to retain heat as well as a freshly killed animal.
Good luck, patience is the key.
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It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.
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RE: live vs. frozen...your thoughts - BrandonSander, Mon Sep 20 21:25:03 2004