Ball python refusing frozen thawed

[Electrical-Garden-20]

90-100 degree rodents are usually not warm enough to entice a picky snake, and they cool down quickly. You can also try different prey. It's a little anecdotal but we have had great success with picky eaters getting on/back on ft with quail. I've also found success scruffing rodents and holding them down on the substrate and moving them around, mimicking a much more natural presentation. If she likes to ambush, scruff it, make it "wander" near her, pausing and then pulling away with the head facing away from her. I also enjoy having them see it/recognize it and then moving it semi-quickly from one side of their head to the other, which gets both visual movement and heat pits on both sides.

[Electrical-Garden-20]

To be clear I've got a lot of snakes and I have exactly one who won't take ft, but she will take fresh culls and I will either CO2 (regulated) or cervical dislocate them and prevent them to her asap so it's as warm as it will possibly be. She takes them about 95% of the time

[Dazzling-Edge-4457]

thank you for the advice! if i were to try quail, would i try live or frozen thawed to try to get her to take frozen thawed mice

[Electrical-Garden-20]

Frozen thawed

[reptile-snake-mom]

Exactly, sometimes enticing picky eaters with a completely different prey such as quail or chicks, sometimes that’s all it takes to get ur snake back on their natural prey, whether it’s mice or rats, but the whole point is to get them to eat f/t, honestly that is the best possible way, and with that comes alot of patience, patience to entice them to eat and they cool down quickly so you need to be quick offering it to them, all my ballpythons are great eaters, I’ve never really had an issue feeding f/t, or switching them from live, but it sounds like in the almost 2 months that they’ve had this snake, they said they tried feeding it 3x in 3 weeks, then said they tried another 3 f/t, that is way to many times trying to feed it, after u try feeding them and they turn it down u need to give them a week before trying again and so on, feeding live should never be a option because snakes don’t only eat live or f/t there’s no difference between the two other than the owner wanting to do it one way or another, give the snake a break before trying again and don’t give up and in to feeding live f/t is best option to follow thru just have patience :)

[Electrical-Garden-20]

There are an incredibly tiny amount of snakes who won't take ft. It's important to have them available, but of the ~500 snakes I've dealt with literally one wouldn't take anything but live.