Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so i've had my ball for about a year now. when i first got him, i fed him live mice. i then continued to try and start feeding him frozen. i have tried and tried and tried, but he still wont take them. he took two in the whole time that i've had him, and that is when i used the "let them get so hungry that they wont care if its frozen or not" tactic. i even had my friend over who is very addept with reptiles, and we couldnt get him to eat.

i tried said tactic
i've tried dangling/dancing the mouse in the cage
i'v tried leaving the mouse in the cage overnight
i've tried leaving the mouse and the snake in a small container overnight
the mice are always warm when i offer them to him.

is there ANYTHING else i can do to get him to eat frozen? my boa constrictor has NO PROBLEM taking frozen! im starting to think that i'll have to start raising rats...

Have you tried feeding live during this time....if not I would give that a whirl.
-----
Nick

yes, i feed it live when it just refuses to take the frozen food. its funny, because i can try for a whole day for it to eat a frozen mouse and it still wont, but the second i drop a live mouse in it takes it

Try putting the snake in a paper bag with a prekilled or thawed mouse and stapling the top close.Leave them overnight and check in the morning.This might be kinda weird but it worked for me.

as i already said, i've tried this to no effect.

Trust me, there are so many different tricks to get snakes to eat if they are being fussy... you can't actually run out of ideas. I've been keeping snakes for many years, and I know that even I haven't heard them all. There are also many that I won't quote to you because I find a lot of the tricks out there to be pretty disturbing.

I tend to stop short of too much trickery however, and try to get a good feel for the snake's situation:

If the snake's cage is in a high-traffic area (i.e. center of the living room) that could also make him not want to eat. He'll feel most secure if he is kept reasonably warm and dark and still. When he feels secure, he'll also be more likely to eat.

I like feeding snakes in enclosures other than what they live in - for my smaller BPs I use a tall 19qt rubbermaid container with a locking lid. For the shy ones, I cover it with a blanket and leave them completely alone for 20-40 minutes. The paper bag thing that someone else suggested would be similar, and somewhat cheaper - just watch your aim with the stapler!!! Of the hundreds of snakes that I have kept (no joke - I had a large collection at one time that I had to sell off), I have only had ONE snake refuse to eat in a separate container, and it's my youngest female BP that I have right now (grr).

Some snakes, especially BPs, just get hooked on mice, so it won't matter what you do with a f/t rat, it just won't be appealing. If you are trying to switch not only from live to f/t but ALSO from mice to rats, you can't really be sure which difference is causing your troubles. You could have a determined mouser.

A lot of people are convinced that mice are inferior food. Since I personally hate mice (I used to breed mice and rats for several years), I would tell you in jest that mice are inferior... but they are perfectly good snake food. The only problem with BPs that are addicted to mice is that they end up needing more prey animals in a feeding to equate the meal we think they should get in a rat. It can get expensive if you are buying them from someone else, but hey, if your snake will still eat live mice, the most important thing to do is feed it what it will eat. So what if live mice are a pain in the rear? You want your snake to eat, right?? I'm pretty aggravated because my largest female is mouse-addicted, but I'll feed her the mice. I like it a lot better that she eats, and worry a lot less about WHAT she eats, so long as she DOES eat. Remember the priorities here: keep your snake happy and healthy and all will be well.

The flip side of all of this of course is that if this has been such an ongoing problem, and if I have misunderstood, and live mice are not still appealing to your snake, a visit to the vet may be in order... just to ensure that there are no internal parasites, unseen injuries, diseases, or otherwise unknown maladies which are putting your snake off his feed.

Don't give up.
~Rebecca

-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

cat it seems that your point was kinda missed here, it is not that your ball is not eating it is that you are trying to switch to f/t

That can be a little tougher, I would first try to stun the mouse so it is alive still but can not harm the snake, they do not stay stunned for long in some cases, most are not right afterwards. Then I would try to switch to prekilled, then try a frozen thawed. It may take a little time but I got two of mine to switch doing this and now will take f/t no problem, they were strickly live eaters.Best of luck.
-----
1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1.0 Sulcata tort
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

ok, this actually sounds like a really good idea. i'll try this today. thanks a lot!

thanks for all the info.

yea, when it just refuses to eat the frozen mice, it readily accepts live mice. no, i dont just let it go without eating, and it loves to eat - when it's prey is alive.

i dunno about the mice only thing, because it did take a live small rat.

either way, even though i do feed it in a seperate container, and the cage its in is spaciaous with plenty of hiding spaces, is in a low-traffic area, and is at the right temp, i'll try all the tricks again.

buying live mice is a hastle because i live a long ways from any pet store, but my agg. teacher is going to let me breed rodents in the agg. department, so i think i'll take advantage of the facilities and do such a thing.

It's MUCH cheaper to breed your own prey animals. If you're comfortable with the facilities that are being offered to you, do it!!

Something you should know about breeding mice - they are not exactly moral or ethical creatures by our standards The best time for females to become pregnant is right after they've given birth. No joke. Other than that, their estrous cycles are (off the top of my head) somewhere around 4 or 5 days long, so leave a male and female together for a full week, and they should be golden.

Also, mice are not monogamous, BUT among those who study animal behavior and pheromone effects there is something that is referred to as the "Bruce effect." This describes a scenario where a female that is impregnated by male A will of course be fine if male A is taken away, but will spontaneously abort the litter if a new male B is introduced to her cage (in the absence of male A) while she is pregnant. That all happens because of pheromone interaction. Also, after a litter is born, the male that is in the cage with the female had better be the one that sired the litter, or the mother will probably eat the litter - another little something that is triggered by pheromone interaction.

You can successfully leave a male and female together full-time, if the cage is large enough that when the litter is born, the female doesn't feel threatened by the male's presence. Several years ago, when I was breeding my own rats & mice, we would keep 2 or even 3 female mice in a cage with one male full time. For my set up, 3 females per male actually lead to drastic over-production, and the colony had to be cut back. How many animals you can safely house together really depends on the size of your cage.

Also, melindas' suggestion of stunning the mouse is a great tactic for switching live-only feeders to pre-killed prey, and then eventually to f/t. I'm glad to hear you've been feeding your snake and are just aggravated that it hasn't touched f/t.

Good luck!
~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)