Do you have any advice for teaching a ball python to accept frozen after having been fed ONLY live for 8 years before I got her? I've tried everything Google and I can think of and we're on month four of trying to wait her out and she's still refusing frozen. I'm getting close to giving in because I'm worried.
Whoof, this is a rough one and four months is way too long to go without eating. Poor snakey-o.I’m assuming you’ve already tried scenting with fresh mouse (not rat!) litter, boiling, braining, zombie food dance, and brown-bagging or dark-tub feeding. If you haven’t tried all of these, that’s a good place to start.You can also try frozen/thaw African Soft Fur rats (which are spendy but they might make the transition easier. Reptilinks offers them currently), fresh kill (which will involve either finding someone to teach you cervical dislocation or purchasing a CO2 chamber), scenting with bird (quail seems to work quite well), or train-feeding which is where you offer a smaller-than-usual live prey item and while the snake is swallowing the live prey item you put a nice fresh thawed prey right behind it and they keep on eating. Eventually they’ll come to understand that thawed food is the same as live food.Transitioning prey can be a lengthy process and in some cases a snake will just refuse to switch over. I have danced this dance with Ponyboy for years before he finally started accepting frozen/thaw without a fuss.In these cases, do what’s best for your pet and just be vigilant during feeding to prevent injury.