These are all direct quotes from various people on here, that have responded to this issue in the recent past
I have not credited anyone, so forgive me, I M just sharing a collection of Posts
I have a young Ball right now that voraciously takes frozen mice. All of the Balls I have had as rehabs took them also. I start them out on live prey, then to freshly killed prey, then to frozen. Thaw the food completely and warm it to about 104 degrees (pretty warm). I use hot tap water. If it's too warm, the snake won't take it. Dry it off. It should feel like a live one to the touch. Move the vittles through your snakes sight path (about 3 or 4" straight in front of it's nose, I hold the mice by the tail, about an inch or two above the substrate. Don't go too slow, if you do, it may not evoke a strike response. It will take some practice, but soon you will learn what is most attractive to your snake. Try not to jump and pull the food out of your snakes mouth when it strikes, it may take a while to get him to strike again. My snake eats two mice per feeding this way. As soon as she has the first one in her stomach, she is tracking me (looks like she is begging) for the next. I fed her six frozen pinkies in about ten minutes one day using this method. Some think that if you feed your snake like this that they will get aggressive and bite you accidentally. My ball has never bitten me accidentally, and has never shown any aggression with my daughter, who handles her almost daily. I have used this method with more aggressive species also. The trick is to feed them only in a "feeding box". An enclosure only used when you are feeding the snake. Take the snake out by hand, place it in the enclosure, then feed. It seems if you do this, the snake learns not to associate the opening of it's enclosure to feeding time, and the box with "time to eat".
One of the easiest ways to switch any snake to frozen is to act on its natural feeding response. It couldn’t be easier, start with a smaller prey item of its preferred presentation, aka live or fresh killed. Feed it something smaller than you usually would, so there’s enough room left in the snake (who am I kidding there’s usually room left over!) for a second item, as soon as the live animal is down, and while the animal is in super feed mode, slip in a nice warm defrosted rodent...after a few feedings many snakes easily switch to exclusively frozen diets.
Forget about hoppers, fuzzies and pinks! I know its been said hundreds of times in this forum alone, but aside from the smallest runt hatchlings baby ball pythons should be getting either small mice, yes its a size, or full adult mice and I’ve seen some runt hatchling balls that will chow on full adult mice! Having said that, forget about the hoppers or fuzzies! They shouldn’t even be a passing thought. These are not corn snake hatchlings these are pythons, most pythons don’t like small meals! So, to answer your question, offer a live hopper and follow it with a thawed hopper, once the snake is taking frozen a little more readily try a thawed mouse, adult at that. or you could give it a run with just a thawed adult mouse...maybe he’s not taking the frozen because its too small...sounds impossible doesn’t it, but honestly, having been in this hobby for a long time, and having worked with hundreds of ball pythons, a lot of snakes, not just pythons, will refuse food if it is too small, some will eat food that’s too small as long as its alive and yes, I currently keep one ball python, I keep other pythons, just much less common in some cases than a ball python, none of them have ever eaten a pinky, I think I gave my newest blood python, also a hatchling, a hopper for his first meal. A very large hopper at that...almost a small mouse. For his second feeding, a much more appropriate small mouse was on the menu. So maybe it wasn’t so much your presentation of the food, but more the size of the food. Snakes are very "smart" when it comes to the things they need to make it in their lives...and no, im not saying snakes are highly intelligent, im saying they know what they need, its the keepers that often mess up. Give that little guy (or girl) a thawed small mouse and see if that works, good luck
As far as temp goes, it should be warm, not hot to the touch. As far as pinkies go, mine will eat anything I put in front of her (she normally eats small rats). Lots of people just drop the thawed rodent in the tank and wait for the snake to eat it. Sometimes the snake will not track it right away and by the time he finds it, it has cooled too much to be attractive. The key is to excite his feeding response with a little movement. Not too close to his face or it will frighten him. Remember that Balls are nocturnal. You may have better luck feeding him late at night when he is out and about "hunting".
My ball is 1 year now and up until recently he has been a veracious eater.. He started to get picky and I had a feeling it was because he is getting smarter and realized that his prey is already dead. Today I put the defrosted mouse's head sticking out of the end of a empty toilet paper roll and moved it in and out of the end of the roll. My snake loved this, he became instantly interested and active and began to strike at the mouse. It was so cute! I guess in this instance its ok to play with your food.
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Elizabeth (ecb)
Make this world a better and more beautiful place that You have been in it
*Edward W Bok*
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