Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, it's me again...
I'm currently feeding my snake fuzzies, and he ate one Saturday. Last night I ordered a bag of frozen fuzzies from rodentpro.com. They will be here next thursday(saving a ton compared to buying them at the pet store). THe snake is young, maybe 3 months old at best...is it too early to try and switch it to frozen mice? Should I feed it live mice a few more times?

try to switch as soon as possible. The sooner you can condition it to take F/T the better and it will make it easier to switch a young one then an older one. Todd

it might take work but you should be able to do it...do you have a temp gun?? I find them great for situations like that. This way instead of guessing if it's hot enough you can just hit the button & get an accurate reading....if it's hot enough & you wiggle it right you should have success in making the switch. some of mine now dont require the wiggle anymore....I just toss in a nice hot rat & they come up & dont even constrict or stike they just start eating it.. hell I have a boa that doesn't care & will eat a rat that's only like 80 to 85 degrees (a total eating machine) ..& I have others that still need me to run this thing around their cage until they feel I've made it look real enough....lol & ofcourse there's one that just wants live but I'm hoping to get him soon....if you need any other help feel free to email me or post here.
i would say for the initial try it is best to make sure the meal is hot enough & try your best to make it move as close to realistic as possible. after awhile you can see the snake get excited & see what triggers the feeding & what turns it away.
good luck

Thanks for the replies.
I don't have temp gun as of yet, but I was looking at one online this morning. I think it was from proexotics.com? Where did you get yours?
My next question was going to be how to heat up the mice. I thought about the microwave, but I was under the impression that the mouse may explode. What is the best method, and what is the typical desired temp?

no microwave!!!!!!!! think about what happens to that hotdog that gets nuked for too long.. I wouldnt wanna clean all those mouse guts etc.

proexotics temp gun should be good....i live in westchester so every couple months there the ny reptile expo...i cop supplies & pets there now if pro has the temps guns for like 25 dollars you cant go wrong..but if you have to get it shipped buy 2..i bought one for 40 & ofcourse i manage to have it fly out of my hand & miraculously land in a cup of water like four feet away..lol so when I go to the one in july i'm gonna buy 2 or 3 just for back up....so for the past month or so I have been just feeling it out...k now as far as defrosting I have had aggravating experiences & have finally got what's best for me....now I know alot of people say dont use real hot water & it'll only take an hour but so far I have not found this true for me anyway. not if you're defrosting rat pups or something small like that for a single animal I would say run the sink water till it's hot to the point where you can't hold your hand under it & put the rat pup in a sandwich or glad loc baggie & give it 15 minutes or so....take the rat pup ouy & feel the stomach area & make sure it's full defrosted after awhile you'll figure it out...as far as best temp I would say it needs to be a good amount warmer than you enclosure..if the snakes cage is 85 try to get the rat's temp up to 90 ot 100...now as far as defrostin anything from small rat to bigger ....I have a walk-in closet converted to a herp room..so my rooom is between 80 to 90 depending on season, time of day, etc. so what I do is I line a rubbermaid container with newspaper & place however many rats I need out on the newspaper & close the lid.. 8 to 10 hours later when I get home from work they are all fully defrosted & dry..I then one by one put them in a baggie & use that hotwater (too hot for hand) & keep them in it for like 20 minutes...that usually is enough to get my snakes chowing down...if you do this after they thawed throw out of the newspaper & give the container a quick clean..so far it has worked great & the rubbermaid newspaper thing has kept the smell down to minimum discomfort

The following opinion is not meant to be offensive :

I may be wrong in my assumption, but are you feeding fuzzy mice????

That’s tiny.

My 33 day old babies are taking big fuzzy rats, and one stubborn guy is taking almost adult mice. All items about 25 grams (what is a fuzzy mouse about 5 grams = snack).

A three month old should not be eating fuzzy mice Just my opinion

TomChambers

Well, the 2 mos. is just an estimated age. He's only about 12 or 13 inches long, and only about as wide as my thumb. THe Fuzzy he ate Saturday didn't stretch him out, but looked about right. My plan was to feed him every 4 days until he was eating two fuzzies.
Doing it wrong?

I won't say wrong if he’s healthy, but in my opinion, its not enough food.

I fed my hatchlings big fuzzy mice 10 days out of their eggs.

I feed every five days, so the next meal was hopper mice(now 15 days old).

The third meal was a rat fuzzy(bigger than hopper mice)

and so on....

These snakes are all about 12-15 inches long now(never measured them).

The food items leave a slight lump in the snake’s stomach for about a day. It's in my opinion the appropriate size, equal or slightly bigger than the snakes largest girth.

This snake ate a 27 gram fuzzy rat yesterday afternoon(she is 33 days old today)

she is starting her shed cycle, but today there is no bulge in her stomach. if she wasn't going to shed, in 5 days I would feed her about the same size food item.

Young snakes grow fast and as such I feed more frequently

TomChambers