Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just made a trade with someone for my chameleon for his brazilian rainbow and we swapped cages and all that good stuff too. The brb is 5.5 ft long and really thick, looks great. I just fed him for the first time and he took a few mice. The only thing is, is that he was feeding him live. Is there any way to switch him over to frozen? Thanks.

-Jon
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1.1 veiled chameleons
0.0.1 normal cornsnake, recently passed away
2.2 leopard geckos

www.funnymanreptiles.com

Jon,
..Welcome to the forum. BRBs are easy to switch to prekilled prey. Many of them will pick up and swallow a prekilled rodent the first time it is offered. Some of them will be reluctant and will need more effort to get them to switch. If the snake is reluctant do not try big changes. If it is eating live mice then try a fresh killed mouse rather than a frozen and thawed one. If feeding live mice let the snake kill and eat one and after it has swallowed that one shake a fresh killed one in front of it. If that does not work wait at least two weeks for the snake to get hungry and try again. They are more likely to eat at night and with as little activity going on around tham as possible.
Good luck,
Jeff

>>I just made a trade with someone for my chameleon for his brazilian rainbow and we swapped cages and all that good stuff too. The brb is 5.5 ft long and really thick, looks great. I just fed him for the first time and he took a few mice. The only thing is, is that he was feeding him live. Is there any way to switch him over to frozen? Thanks.
>>
>>-Jon
>>-----
>>1.1 veiled chameleons
>>0.0.1 normal cornsnake, recently passed away
>>2.2 leopard geckos
>>
>>www.funnymanreptiles.com
>>

What are you doing up so late??
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

>>What are you doing up so late??
>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"
>>
>>
>>0.1 Wife
>>0.2 kids
>>4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
>>1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
>>0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
>>0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
>>1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
>>0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
>>0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
>>0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
>>1.0 BCI albino het stripe
>>1.0 BCI salmon hypo
>>0.1 BCI ghost
>>
>>lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

np
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

From what I've heard it can be difficult to switch adults but here's what you could try:

First and foremost, work on getting him switched over to Fresh Killed (F/K). Even if you can't get him gto switch to F/T, F/K is better than live. All but one of my adults eats F/K, I do worry about the other girl but she refuses anything that is not alive. Can't even trick her with stunned or twitching, just whacked rats

Many methods to kill the rat (Yes I said RAT, an adult BRB should be on a diet of med to large rats. Two kill methods I prefer are:

For small/med, grasp by tail, pin neck with stiff rod (screwdriver, pen, tongs... anything will do) and I mean press the neck down fairly hard. Yank the tail up, away from head and forward over head. When done correctly, you'll hear/feel the spine give.

( I know, not exactly fun but necessary)

For larger rats (and works on small ones as well) grasp tail, let dangle with head towards you and feet away. Swing over to smack back of head on hard surface or even better neck on sharp corner. Problem with this method is too hard and they bleed gthrough the mouth/nose. Too soft and the rat is just stunned.

If/when you get the snake switched over the F/K then you can try F/T. Could even do a F/K followed by a F/T. I raise my wn feeders so have never actually done F/T but I read you need to warm it up first (place in bowl of hot water for 30 minutes?
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats