Reptile & Amphibian Forums

after predictably refusing to eat frozen my baby dumerils are eating voraciously on live mice which i'm pleased about. I dont want to have to feed live for much longer and wanted to see what methods/techniques can be used to wean them onto frozen. Would rubbing a frozen in dirty mouse bedding work?
PBM, Matt or Jason in particular any suggestions?

Well, I wish I could offer you some concrete advice, but I personally don't have a "proven" method. With all my babies, I start with live mice and also try rat pinks. If they take rat pinks, they stay on them, but some won't take them and mice are fine with me so long as they're feeding on something. After they are feeding consistently, I will start thumping the prey(which is generally mice) and feeding fresh killed....still warm, sometimes twitching, and they all seem to do fine at that point. After I can feed them fresh killed(F/K)for a few feedings, I will offer F/T. Some automatically go for it, and others seem to hold out for some time before accepting F/T. I've never pushed the issue so long as they take fresh killed(then I don't worry about bites, and can move along feeding) so I really can't give you anything more to go on. I did feel I should atleast reply though since you addressed a few of us by name. They can definitely be stubborn little snakes can't they!!! Best of luck, take care!

Paul Mitzelfelt

I only feed FT if I must and rely on PK for the most part. If they won't feed on FT readily, I guess I would try it from a tong or by twirling the feeder by the tail.
Good Luck-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula