Well I was inspired by Big V to attempt a thread of my own. After reading the post below i thought I'd share how I switch my snakes to frozen thawed.

No matter the reason you want your snake on frozen thawed if you have time and a little atience its not too horrible of an experience.

First and foremost this is how to switch a snake that is eating regualrly. This is not a how to get a non eater to eat thread. these tricks will only work on the BPs that eat almost every feedng.



First trick is a littl bit tough for those that are all ohhh look at the cute rodent! first step I do is start them on pre killed. I take a live rodent and snap the neck. after it kicks a little I take tongs and pretend ima puppeteer and make the rodent walk around dance and then get bit :lol:

I do this for a few feeding then next step is prekill and then i just drop the rodent in to see if the snake will find and wrap on its own. after a few times they usually do.

Next step is dun dun dun frozen thawed. So we tke the mouseicle or ratscicle out of the freezer. turn on hot water and wait till its hot enough that you dont like putting your hand under it. fill up container add rodents. inside a bag or not dont matter at this point.

Once dethawed dump water add hot again and use it to heat up the rats a bit. then I take them to my bathroom and use a hair dryer to heat up the rodents yes this takes awhile but I use to use a human heat pad but forgot some pinkies once and not good not good at all cooked mouse doesnt smell good let me tell you.
Now here is where if you have a temp gun its handy. i keep the heat on them till i temp them at a nice warm temp 90 degrees or more. you can just use your hand. if it feels hotter than your hand than its a good temp.
now hold the rodent in tongs by snake to make sure he sees it and then try the drop method. usualy the snake will take it, if not back to the puppeteer thing.

now do this few feedings till you can drop and leave and the snake eats it without any effort on your part. after that you can pretty much just heat it up in the water and drop the rodent in and the snake knows its dinner time.

I have done this with all my snakes and every one of them I thaw drop and leave, they are gone by the time i go back to check on the first.

hope this helps and you can use variations of this to see what works. Sometimes you wil get a stubborn snake like my male pastel BP and it may take longer to go from once step to the other and may have to start all over when trying to switch to rats with said pain in the ass. but patience on your part will prevail trust me.

oh and last but not least if you get lazy or in a hurry during this process you go back and just drop in live for the sake of time.....well be prepared to start over from square one with some snakes.

Well I was inspired by Big V to attempt a thread of my own. .


Aww shucks. You're gonna make me blush like a schoolgirl.

Good post, E-pig. I never did the hairdryer thing. I used to just heat them up with hot water. I did the wiggle wiggle look at me Im alive thing plenty though.

Yes, cooked rodent is awful. I left a rat on a heat pad once. It popped. Nuff said. Now I use water. :)

When I had snakes the colubrids were a breeze. I just used to put thawed rodents on a paper plate and they would come over and eat. The boids were a little harder.

And yeah I know what you mean about once you got them cracked you cant go back to live! Not even once! Or its back to the drawing board.

There are ball python plans in my future so its good to know that most can be cracked over to FT.

:yessir:

E-pig you are such a big asset to this forum !
good job on your tutorial bro.
i'm sure more than one happy camper will be happy when they put that into practice.
all my guys eat f/t too, best invention ever.
ck

Good post Mike! I have one BP that would make you pull your hair out though. He is the shyest snake I have ever come across. He will not eat if he sees me period. So how on earth do you convert one like that since I can't do the puppet dance....

Good post Mike! I have one BP that would make you pull your hair out though. He is the shyest snake I have ever come across. He will not eat if he sees me period. So how on earth do you convert one like that since I can't do the puppet dance....

You can try covering the rack/cage/tub with a dark towel....

I have done that, but he runs from a f/t heated up. Only goes after live. He is an odd BP.

Ive used the bag trick before. Put snake and dead rodent in small paper bag, fold the bag a few times and leave in the cage overnight. Could do the same thing with a small, dark container.

Doesnt always work but Ive had success with it in the past. Never tried it on a BP but could give it a go.

If he's on live I would first try to crack him to fresh killed and then work on thawed.

try scenting it with something like a day old chick or some warm chicken broth, that could possibly get him to switch. ive used the chicken broth before and it worked for me but doesnt mean it would for everyone else or all types of snakes.

for the tricky one jenea just heat that rodent up good with the blow dryer and leave it at the door step leave all lights off in room and make it plenty dark. the baby BRBs are like that sometimes and wont eat unles your nt looking lol but they converted decent with just pre kill and leve at the doorstep so to speak..now my adult female will eat nything warm cold dont matter just leave in cage and ring doorbell

but for those stubborn hair pullers it takes ALOt of time go with a snapped neck pre kill and place it in the tub while its still twitching and walk away see if that helps. i had a stubborn one to but he eventually broke before I did he is lucky he is the most expensive snake I had owned at the time LOL

Aww shucks. You're gonna make me blush like a schoolgirl.

Good post, E-pig. I never did the hairdryer thing. I used to just heat them up with hot water. I did the wiggle wiggle look at me Im alive thing plenty though.

Yes, cooked rodent is awful. I left a rat on a heat pad once. It popped. Nuff said. Now I use water. :)

When I had snakes the colubrids were a breeze. I just used to put thawed rodents on a paper plate and they would come over and eat. The boids were a little harder.

And yeah I know what you mean about once you got them cracked you cant go back to live! Not even once! Or its back to the drawing board.

There are ball python plans in my future so its good to know that most can be cracked over to FT.

:yessir:
Wow direct from the postmaster himself thanks I am honored.

BPs can be stubborn at times but like I said I have a little more time on my hands with such a reltively small collection of BP


E-pig you are such a big asset to this forum !
good job on your tutorial bro.
i'm sure more than one happy camper will be happy when they put that into practice.
all my guys eat f/t too, best invention ever.
ck

Thanks CK I truly appreciate it.

yeas the drop and go frozen thaw method is a life saver for me really. Just as easy as live without the worry.

There are those that are just frustrating, a pain.... I have one that looks good enough to breed this season.... she just turned around one day and started eating good.... sometimes waiting em out works, sometimes not, but I just don't do FT, so I'm really not much help.

And good post Mike! :)

Wow direct from the postmaster himself thanks I am honored.




Oh hogwash. Im so Bush I should be trimmed and mulched yearly.

Oh hogwash. Im so Bush I should be trimmed and mulched yearly.

who's the shrub ?...
ck

I call for a video of this dance...

Great post Mike!

Very helpful post and some good tips Mike :yourock:

who's the shrub ?...
ck

Two guesses.

First one doesnt count

It's a good topic, let's not get too off topic though... :yessir:

If anyone else has their tricks - post em!

I call for a video of this dance...

Great post Mike!

thanks ill get video next feeding just for you

Very helpful post and some good tips Mike :yourock:

thanks its bush but worked for me so far

I think this thread should be made into a sticky. It would help a newbie like me to the forum from asking this question again. Which I already did...sorry.