Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My baby "Rex" totally ignores fresh killed and f/t mice. The only thing I've been able to get him/her to eat is live mice (which s/he takes like a champ).

Today, during feeding time, I was horrified when Rex grabbed the mouse and the mouse grabbed Rex (Rex won). There's not a mark on Rex, but it scared the hell out of me. I believe in feeding f/t and my other snake eats f/t like a hog.

Can someone who has made the transition with a finicky ball tell me how you did it?

Thanks for the help.

If you are just laying the dead prey in the cage that could be the problem. I like to use hemostats to move the prey as if it were alive, this usually sparks some interest and a strike. Also make sure the prey is nice and warm, but since you feed F/T to another snake you probably already know this.
Jason
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The most informative article on this subject is on www.proexotics.com. Robyn spent much time writing up the faq section, and I must say it is an awesome set of articles. And it has its pretty funny statements. Although the funny stuff is also pretty sad.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

I made the transition with my ball which ate live for 9 years and just recently had to switch because my snake monty had gotten attacked by the rat while he was striking it. my vet told me that no matter what you can train a ball to take dead prey. so the first thing I did was go out and buy a frozen rat. now I never thought in a million years this was gonna be eays but it was my snake was used to getting fed once a week. so onbce his week was up he was searching so that night I put the frozen rat into a ziplock bag to thaw out then when morning cam I heatee the rat up hotter than the feed bin and placed the snake in there and dropped him the rat. he looked at it and whack! he grabbed and constricted.... this was a rare case I know but right now I am in the process of training my new ball to take f/t and it's gonna be hard but I will get her too I would suggest that you offer it stunned with f/k
and then after a few times switch over to just f/k then start offering f/t with f/k untill your ball takes it and in the worst case u have to feed f/k. which ain't that bad compared to the alternative.....

Thanks to all for your excellent responses. Very helpful and encouraging.