Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last week, I picked up a 7 month old grey-banded kingsnake. I was told that the snake has only fed on live pinky mice. I only feed my snakes F/T and was hoping y'all could provide me with some tips on getting the snake to switch from live to F/T. I have offered 2 pinkies since I got her with no luck so far...

Thanks,

Eric

There is a few things you can try to help switch to thawed..

First, try washing a thawed pink with ivory soap & rinsing it off with warm water.. I really don't know why this works but i have had success with alterna as well as ball pythons.. i guess it removes the thawed/dead scent.

Next try scenting your thawed pink with a live pink.. If this does not work then wash the thawed pink with ivory soap then scent with the live pink.. The good news here is if your snake refuses the thawed you already have the live one on hand to feed out.

Lastly, you can try scenting a thawed pink with a house gecko or fence lizard..

~ Mike Russo

I would just try giving them a plain F/T first. Maybe wiggle it a little with tongs. I switched both my grayband and my thayeri over to f/t from live and both took f/t without any hesitation. They don't even require wiggling or anything, they will just eat it right away.