live feed to frozen

[buford]

I'm trying to switch my etb from live feed to frozen. So far I have tried superheating the rat with water and under his heat lamp and braining. I offer the food on 16 inch hemostats between 9 and 10 pm(thats when he usually eats). I`ve rubbed his pits as i was advised and also tried moving the food around under him to simulate a natural hunt. no go he either runs or ignores the food. I`m really worried about stressing my snake and putting him off food entirely. Is there any `safe way tò Keep him on live feed and minimize risk as his food items get larger

[reptileguy3]

Well getting a snake to go from live to frozen is quite tricky. I stick to feeding live personally. How big is your ETB?

[buford]

about 3 feet long 1 1/2 inch around. I just had a guy come to consult about him and check my set ups ect, and lo and behold hes got mites! So we had a good chat about the mites and the feed situation. He seems to feel that at two and a half years he wont really get all that huge so he may never need to eat rats so live feeding the mice is still an option. He said I could also feed more than one if it became nessisary.

[reptileguy3]

Well I'm sorry to hear that your snake has mites. At that size, adult mice wil do just fine. You may want to move up to small rats once your snake is done growing. It's best to just feed your snake a prey item that is the same thickness as your snake's thickest body section rather than feeding multiple prey items at once.