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I have tried unsuccessfully to get my BPs on fresh killed. I gas my rats and 'dance' them in front of the snakes; I even left one in there for hours until I couldn't take the smell anymore.

I've never had a problem with live, small rats - they seem tame and I always watch until the snake eats; but the snakes seem to be getting too big (over 1000g) to eat small prey. Medium rats are more aggressive, so fresh killed seems logical.

Can they stay on live, small prey forever and still get big enough to breed? If not, how do I switch to fresh killed? Will I have more success with frozen thawed?

Help!

Thanks,
graycat
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Letting me live here:
2.1 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
? Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
1 pet mouse and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

I tried thawing under a heat lamp and while the snake showed iterest it wouldn't do the deed. I even left one in the cage overnight (7 hrs).

I thawed one in a bowl of warm water and got it up to 95 degrees. When I put it in the cage I made it dance a little and about 3 seconds after I let go of it he hit it.

This snake had always been fed live before I got it and he seems to be taking to the F/T if thawed just the way he happens to like it. I think thawing under a lamp dries it up little whereas the warm water adds a little moisture. I am verrrrrry far from an expert, I could be wrong, but this did work for me. Good luck.

Thanks! I'm going to try that too. My ball is still small but I want to get her started on F/T before she gets too big. She's been eating normal size adult mice live. I tried the F/T when I first got her but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. So since she was my first ball I didn't think about the problem with it until much later. Thanx for the tip!

I have done the same with F/T but when I have thawed it out in water I place the prey in a sandwich baggie so it doesn't get wet and soggy. I then let it warm and take it out to serve.

Just my 2 cents.

Good Luck.
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0.2 Normal Adult ball pythons
0.2 Normal Adult ball pythons (on breeding loan)
0.1 Sub-adult
1.0 Normal ball python
1.1 Bell Line Pastel Ball pythons
1.0 Adult Het Albino Ball Python
1.0 Het Pied Ball Python
1.0 Het Carmel Ball Python
1.0 66% Het pied Ball python
0.2 50% Het albino Ball Pythons

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Edited on June 28, 2004 at 15:24:02 by phwyvern.

Thanks, I'll try that. Ralph Davis gave me some advice: he said to try starting him on mice first then move on to rats.
I've been thawing them in a plastic sandwich bag dipped in hot (not boiling) water.
When you thaw them in water, do you mean in a bag or do you mean plop them in the water and put the soaking wet prey in cage? If so, I wonder if the water hightens the scent...hmmm....

Thanks!
graycat
-----
Letting me live here:
2.1 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
? Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
1 pet mouse and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

In a ziplock. Sorry I didn't specify that. I seal it about halfway and it seems to get some condensation on the inside. The smell is quite a bit stronger than thawing under a lamp (due to the moisture I guess). As long as my guy is eating I can deal with the smell once a week.