Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This past weekend I bought a bunch of frozen mice and rats for my BP's, But their not into them at all. I have 12 balls that have all had great feeding responses in the past, even to fresh killed but they have zero interest in these.

Are there any tricks to get them to start feeding on them, any help would be great.

I use a hair dryer to warm up some of my frozen food items after they have thawed out, and immediatly try to feed after that. Usually this works for me. Good luck

They're not recognizing it as food. It's not enough to thaw them (but make sure they are completely thawed), but they need to be warm. Remember, they have heat pits. I've heard it suggested to warm with a hair dryer or sit on a heating pad. That didn't work for me as through trial and error I discovered my little guy needed it hot - 108 degrees to be exact. He would only take if they prey was 108 degrees, but I had to make it dance on the tongs and then let it drop to the ground. When it hit the ground he struck. Then I learned he would take it straight from the tongs if it was 114 . Picky fella! I warmed his up by sitting on top of his light for a bit and measured with my temp gun. After awhile, he no longer cares that it's that hot. I still warm it up on the light, but now he recognizes it as food.
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I have a hard time with this too, I used my temp gun and measured some live rats and thought that was the right temp around 90 according to my gun. When I thawed some to that temp most of them wanted nothing to do with the rat. I am still working on getting it all figured out. Maybe everyone can list the temps they feed at.

I belive I read somewhere that the normal body temperature of a mouse is about the same as ours (98.6), so I'd at least try to get it to that. Because it's F/T, extra heat might illicit a stronger response - that's why I think my guy needed 108 in the beginning. It was amazing to see how much more interested he was in the prey at those high temps.
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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa
"Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa
"Arwen"
0.1 California Kingsnake
"Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
"Indigo"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

For my picky eaters, the food has to be at least 100 degrees or more. But I have one that will eat it room temp, wet or dry lol. Wish they were all like that. Good luck.

he he. Ya I have one like that which is what resulted to his name being changed from Marilyn to Garbage Gut. He will eat it wet and on the cold side, and he has super snake powers cause he can tell when a rat is in the house even if it isn't in the same room as he is.
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Misty Sprouse Ball Pythons