Hey guys,

I was just wondering, how hard is it to get balls to eat frozen/thawed rodents? I really want to get into them, but have heard that most prefer live.

Thanks,
~Dave

Starting them as young as possible is best for getting them over to f/t. I have a batch of babies here that flipped fairly easy but all are really young.

I used to attempt to feed all of my ball pythons f/t, and gave up. I now breed my own rodents, and feed live. Most of them would take f/t, but there were also some that would not. If you want to make sure they eat f/t, then you could buy from a breeder that already has one that is eating f/t.

I have a couple that will eat F/T but most prefer live. I have a friend that will not keep a ball unless he can get it to eat F/T. He does have to find some new homes. lol

I had a few that took f/t but after a year refused and would only accept live. I finally just gave up trying and just stick to live now.

for most people that want to but don't, it's all about the effort.
but once you get 'em rockin' the f/t's they become quite accustomed to the process. nothin' sells like an f/t rat eatin' ball !
every one of my 20 plus (i ran out of fingers and toes) balls eats f/t. they don't have a choice. freedom is for a democratic republic, once you're in one of my tubs, you're treated like royalty, but you have no say in the matter ! so basically, the balls don't get a vote.
look for some cross-over-to-frozen tricks,there should be a bunch of posts on kingsnake archives, if you still can't make it happen, i'll post somethin' for you when i have more time.
try it, at least a few should go right away.
it's much easier with juvies, so if it's your plan, don't wait.
let us know how it goes,
ck

It really is all about the effort. I have had really good luck changing Live feeders over to F/T Rats from large females to babies. I have found keeping a few live mice or rats helps alot. Sometimes using live then F/T right after. Or F/t Scented with live. I have done F/T normal rats scented with ASF rats and over to just F/T. Bedding from live mice works wonders to. Some take longer then others.

About 1/3 of mine will eat them, just don't always have time to do that. I think it's personal preference if you choose to or choose not to. Whatever works best for you!

I have approx 25 Balls, and every one is on DF, some like mice, some rats and a few go crazy for the african soft furred rats.
Here in the UK frozen is the norm, and live is pretty much frowned on.
Its great for me, i can keep 2-4 months worth of chow in the freezer
I got a beautiful pair of G stripes form a us breeder, and expected them to be a pain to convert, but they both too f/t the night i got them.

I think it all comes down to time and effort. With me, I don't have the time to even attempt f/t and I honestly don't have any interest in it.

If I were working with a small number of balls, I'd be all over it, hell yea no more rodent breeding. I'd love to just place an order with rodentpro once a month. That would be killer..

I can't tell you the last time I wasted a rat, it just doesn't happen around here. Live rats don't go bad...

Thanks everyone! I am really starting to think about getting into balls, and would like them to feed on f/t rodents. If not, I have no problem feeding live, I am buying frozen now so I was hoping I could get them eating that.

I don't plan on working with more than 4-6 balls, so it wouldn't really be that much of a deal for me.

Thanks everyone!
~Dave

Thanks everyone! I am really starting to think about getting into balls, and would like them to feed on f/t rodents. If not, I have no problem feeding live, I am buying frozen now so I was hoping I could get them eating that.

I don't plan on working with more than 4-6 balls, so it wouldn't really be that much of a deal for me.

Thanks everyone!
~Dave

Dave make the leap brother 4-6 balls should be a cake walk...

:yessir:

Dave make the leap brother 4-6 balls should be a cake walk...

:yessir:

Haha, I definately will be getting a few in the nest 2 months. I am planning on getting either a pair of het. albinos, het. ghosts/hypos or a male pastel and a normal female. Not sure which to get, but they will get me started. First I have to get a new rack built for the carpets.

Afterwards I am planning on a spider, black pastel, het. genetic stripe and het. caramel albino.

~Dave

If the BP's would eat FT like the corns and kings do while I am at work off a deli cup lid then I would have them all eating them...but sadly mine don't so they get live. I should say most of that is my time management skills lack sometimes for me to play the dead rat dance with them all.

Right on Larry! I wasted more than a few rats when trying to feed f/t and it was a pain. I've got friends with boas that just reach in their freezer and feed each week like clockwork. They order months worth of rats to store and feed when needed. I'd love to have a mini-cooler with 3 or 4 months worth of small rats to feed from rather than driving every weekend 30 minutes each way to pick up a tub full of live rats. I already decided to breed my own and will be ordering a freedom breeder rack level to get started.

Kinda weird thing happen I got 2 regular balls that are less than a Year old and almost impossible to feed F/T too, but sometimes they will take it.
Weird thing is I also have 2 regular balls that I rescued and they are about 2-3 years old and could never get them to eat F/T until I just watched Snakebytes.tv new episode and watched chewy getting tore up...lol I noticed that he put his hands in a bucket of water that had F/T mice in it first......I always thought I should feed them dry and fluffy but it never worked so I tried the Hot water and feed them soaking wet and BANG !!!!! they each ate 2 in a row.Maybe just a coincidence?????:master:Snakebytes

Its generally not that big of a deal. I have 2 BPs and both were said to only eat live when I got them. I fed live for awhile and then nearly lost one of my BPs to it and stopped feeding live,not worth the risk. I started feeding pre-killed and they took that no probs. Most snakes that people say will only take live will take prekilled no probs. It has the same scent and warmth as live because it is basically still alive but cant harm your snake. If your snake needs movement also, you can simply dangle the rodent on tongs and that does the trick. So after feeding my BPs prekilled for awhile I tried F/T and they both took it no probs. The first few times I warmed the rat up good after unthawing it by putting in under a heat lamp for a few mins..

Kinda weird thing happen I got 2 regular balls that are less than a Year old and almost impossible to feed F/T too, but sometimes they will take it.
Weird thing is I also have 2 regular balls that I rescued and they are about 2-3 years old and could never get them to eat F/T until I just watched Snakebytes.tv new episode and watched chewy getting tore up...lol I noticed that he put his hands in a bucket of water that had F/T mice in it first......I always thought I should feed them dry and fluffy but it never worked so I tried the Hot water and feed them soaking wet and BANG !!!!! they each ate 2 in a row.Maybe just a coincidence?????:master:Snakebytes

soaking wet, hot water, that's how i do it, 20 + balls, all sizes, all on f/t.
ck

My only live feeder is a WC girl and an 08 hatchling -- both are about 50/50 with prekilled ASFs.

Adults, babies - rescues -- ones that I'm told won't ever take f/t -- they all switch.

soaking wet, hot water, that's how i do it, 20 + balls, all sizes, all on f/t.
ck


Exactly the Same here, though i have 2 that will only take F/T soft furred rats, but they are easy to get over here, and my freezers packed

None of my snakes ever see a live rodent. Almost all of my colubrids will eat f/t with the exception of a few picky corns but they usually come around pretty quickly. As for the balls, I only have a few but they all eat f/t. I one male who is 3 years old and like clockwork, he stops eating in October and starts back up in February. I just let him be. he is healthy and doesnt lose much weight so I figure he knows best.
To be honest, even when I was breeding my own rodents, my snakes never saw a live one. They were always prekilled or f/t....
Just my way of doing things and everyone has their own way!

F/t all the way for me. I only have a few animals that just refuse f/t and they are animals that I recieved as adults that had only ever been fed live.

Yeah most of mine will take either f/t or live. I've got one ball that won't even look at f/t though and one who won't take it without a whole lotta poking and prodding and doing the "zombie rat dance" for a good 20 minutes which sometimes I just don't feel like doing so I'll just throw a baby rat in there. I breed my own rats so it makes my life soooooo much easier. It's gonna get even easier too once I move and start school again cuz the first thing I'm doing is setting up a rat rack so then we might have everybody on live just for my own sanity and to get rid of some babies lol.

I don't breed rats yet, so I feed the majority of my collection FT. Only about 6 or 7 of them will not switch over, so I feed them live that I have to buy. It's a pain in my butt, but I offer them frozen every week. Very occasionally they'll take it, but they won't take it week after week. It does take a lot of prep time, and actual time to feed FT. I'll definitely be happier once I have my own live production going.

I'm late to the party (as usual! LOL)

I've always fed live, never fed pre-killed or f/t. I calculated one time that I've fed well over 4000 live prey items off to my collection in the time that I've been keeping ball pythons. I've never had any issues with feeding live, my snakes are all blemish free, none have any injuries or scarring from their prey items. I do feed smaller prey to my adults (large smalls, or small mediums). Females building up to breeding season are offered two each feeding. I offer what I know that they can quickly dispatch without too much of a struggle.

From my PERSONAL experience, feeding live has been low risk for me. I know my animals, I raise my own rats and ASF's, so they aren't stressed out to begin with and my snakes are always ready to eat on feeding day, so there's not much time from the rodent hitting the floor to constriction. I calculated that the risk of even one significant injury from feeding live after 4000uneventful live prey feedings is .00025% chance of happening. So the risk is pretty darn low. Again - this is MY experience.

I always advocate for each individual keeper to feed what works best for them. For me, it's live. Now, the kingsnake does get f/t - because I don't have any desire to breed mice, and I can get a 100 count bag of fuzzy mice and have him fed for awhile!

F/t all the way for me. I only have a few animals that just refuse f/t and they are animals that I recieved as adults that had only ever been fed live.

I may have to hit you up on some advice to switch the hoggies over to F/T. So far , they pay more attention to me than the feeder so I use live.

Kinda weird thing happen I got 2 regular balls that are less than a Year old and almost impossible to feed F/T too, but sometimes they will take it.
Weird thing is I also have 2 regular balls that I rescued and they are about 2-3 years old and could never get them to eat F/T until I just watched Snakebytes.tv new episode and watched chewy getting tore up...lol I noticed that he put his hands in a bucket of water that had F/T mice in it first......I always thought I should feed them dry and fluffy but it never worked so I tried the Hot water and feed them soaking wet and BANG !!!!! they each ate 2 in a row.Maybe just a coincidence?????:master:SnakebytesBeen doing that for years. I've finally graduated to having to use a 5 gal bucket. Before I haul it to the snake house I refill it with scalding hot water from the tap. When I pull a feeder I tap it on the side to knock a little excess water off and offer it up. Rare thing for one to not eat.

I agree with most that it's really a matter of how much effort you are willing to put into it. All of my adult snakes eat F/T. They have no choice, and all take it just like they would a live. The baby balls I have now, some take F/T, some don't. I haven't decided to put in the effort to get them to eat it yet. The ones that do take F/T, took it the first time, no issues. The first couple times I try a baby on F/T I will wiggle it on the tongs to try to entice them, but if they don't take it in the first 5 minutes or so, they get a live rat crawler, and on to the next. Now I don't bother with trying to get them eating F/T. I know which ones will take it and which ones won't, so the ones that won't get a rat dropped in their tubs, the others get F/T. Sometimes if I have extra F/T sitting around after feeding, a couple of the baby balls that have already eaten live will take an F/T, generally my spiders and bino.. They're little piglets, anyways.

Once they need to start eating prey that could injure them, they won't have a choice anymore, though. I've seen too many snakes that have been killed by rats, and I won't risk it with my babies. I haven't taken the effort already because it already takes me 3 to 4 hours to feed everyone, so while I can get away with just dropping something in a tub, I'll do it. When it comes time for them to start eating rats that can attack them, they can forget about it, though.

Anyways.. my point was, I've never seen a ball that wouldn't eventually take F/T if you put in the time and effort. It may take 15 minutes or so of "bouncing" a rat around on tongs like it's crawling around, it may take a couple of attempts, but in my experience with the ones I have converted, they will eventually take it.

i think its a tos and what some prefer to feed. i believe any of them would convert to f/t but as alot of others have stated some may take time and some may jump right on it, so i guess it would just come down to if you really wanted them to convert over you will have to take the time and try it. i have no ball pythons so i cant say all of them would definately convert to them but with carpet pythons they take to them very easy. all my carpets are on frozen and never miss a meal but then again i think they would eat anything i offered them lol

Just like Ck said its about time and effort. i dont keep 100's of balls so its easier for me. I switch every animal I have to frozen thawed. for my own reasons.

Had a few that were live eaters and took a bit but switched them. I even switched a buddies 6 year old BP who only ate live mice for him to F/T rats but once again I have a smaller collection so more time to spend on it.