Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have 8 balls right now. currently feeding on live mice and rat pups. with all the food,substrate, and mess, is it more economical (easier) feeding frozen and how hard is it to switch from live to frozen. thanks.

I'm doing the same thing right now too. Monty took well to the f/t rats, so i'm guessing its good. I've heard that its all about presentation. I just dangle it in front of him like I did with the stunned rats and he has no problem with them.
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It can be difficult to switch certain animals to FT or even from mice to rats. Some of your balls might not put up any type of fuss about it, others might.

I've had my greatest successes when switching a ball over by doing it gradually. If you are not stunning the live prey you are offering start doing so now. After a few meals don't stun the prey, instead actually kill it. Offer the PK (Pre-killed) meals for another couple of weeks. When the snake is accepting PK meals without problems you can now attempt frozen-thawed.

I know to some this may seem like over kill. I feel that slowly adapting the animal to a new food item is less stressful and requires less patience from me (LOL).

I also think that a majority of problems people have with switching to frozen-thawed meals have to do with not heating the animal to a correct temperature. Make sure it is warm enough to actually interest the snake (don't use a microwave for this). And try to offer the rat/mouse as soon as possible after warming it up. Dead animals cool off much faster than living ones and FT don't seem to retain heat as well as a freshly killed animal.

Good luck, patience is the key.
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It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.

Hi
I have not fed a live rodent to any of my snakes for over 20 years.
I keep mainly Asian ratsnakes, Bloods, and now Balls, which are starting to become a bit of an addiction.
Defrost is so much more convienient, stick em in the freezer and take out when needed, no danger to the snake, and not quite so
stressful for the mouse.
I guess if you start everything on live, its tough to switch, but
start em on Defrost and there is no change to make.
Just my 2 cents.

Where do you guys buy frozen mice/rats? Do you buy them live and freeze them your self? At a local store? Shipped frozen from a mouse distributor?

Thanks,
Chris

How are you stunning the prey? Should I invest in a stun-gun? Or one of those that shoot out the little wired electrodes? Might be hard to hit the mouse if it's scampering around. But I'm sure with a little practice...or maybe a scope...or laser sights...Pepper spray might take him down too...

Chris =)

I breed my own rats for food, and kill off the babies when they reach the proper size for my snakes (which is somewhere between weanling and medium.) I hate to feed live, because those babies can really bite your snake. I have gotten bitten by a rat before, and it nearly required stitches.
I usually kill off a batch of babies and freeze them for a fwe weeks. This ensures that they are not going to pass any parasites to my snakes. I always have a bunch in the freezer to fall back on in case my female rats are not feeling particularly motherly for a few months.
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