Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to convert my adult ball from live rats to frozen.
I got 2 large frozen rats and fully defrosted them. I then heated one up with my hair dryer and shook it in front of her with tongs. After looking at it strangley for a second she grabbed and it took her about an hour to eat it! I just did the same with the second one and she does not seem interested in it. She might be full but it has been about a month since she has eaten. I normally feed her every 2 weeks but the only place that sells rats around here was out everytime I went in to get some!
If she doesn't eat the second rat is it OK to refreeze it???

How hard is it to convert an adult snake to f/t when it has eaten live all of it's life and seemed to really enjoy the kill???

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You,
Jennifer

It's great she took the first one. I've read accounts that range from re-freezing is an absolute NEVER to "one of my snakes seems to prefer twice-frozen rats". If you only have one snake to feed, and with BP's being unpredictable in their feeding habits, I would say you're going to have to try it and see how it works out for you and your individual snake. Just use common sense and try to minimize the time the rat is warm before you re-freeze it to reduce spoilage. I would say if the snake refuses it the second time, throw it out and start again with a fresh F/T rat. If she's eaten one, try to stick to it and don't go back to live rats if possible. FYI, my method for thawing/warming is to put the rat(s) in a large plastic food storage bag in the bathroom sink. Fill the sink with hot water, and weight the rat(s) down with a rock, keep the bag opening above the water (many zip-locks will leak). I leave the hot water running with the slightest possible trickle of flow (assuming the sink has overflow hole). In a half hour, the rat should be at about 100deg F. For me, there seems to be an equilibrium established between heat loss through the sink and air to the heat added by the VERY SLOW trickle of hot water, such that the rats don't get too hot even if left for up to an hour. Best of luck. Oh yeah, if rat intestines spill out while your snake is eating it...you got the rat too hot!
Paul

If the night-time temps have dropped in your house and her cage, she might not decide to start feeding again until April or even June. Don't worry, as long as she's not loosing much weight, she'll be fine. She'll start eating again when she's ready.
Paul