Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After bringing my 2 month old BP home from the pet store, I tried unsuccessfully to feed F/T 3 weekends in a row. After the 3rd try I took it to the pet store where it ate a live hopper no problemo. I tried F/T again today - no luck. What should my plan be for converting to F/T?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My little guy isn't as big as its clutchmates that are still in the store. I don't know what to do.

Thank you in advance

Did it refuse to eat because it is in shed? If it has eaten frozen thawed before, it should not be a problem. I thaw my rodents in hot water and make sure they are offered warm to all my snakes so that they will take them without any complaints. So my advice to you is try F/T again for the next feeding and make sure the rodent is warm when you offer it. Ball pythons use there heat sensing pits as well as sense of smell to identify a food item. I have found with all my ball pythons that they will immediately go after a warm thawed rodent, when sometimes they will completely ignore one that is not warm. Hope this helps.

Kim

The store I got it from feed freshly killed hoppers. I tried the F/T 3 weeks in a row. It would come check it out, but more out of curiousity with no signs of planning on eating. I'm wondering if it's cooling down too much by the time I get it to the tank. I've tried thawing in warm water, blow drying and heating pads. No shedding going on. It ate immediately upon being presented the live hopper. I'm thinking it just didn't know what the strange thing was I was trying to give it!