Terms & How to:
You may see F/T be thrown around in the reptile community; it means frozen-thawed. For better use of storage & a safer way to feed your reptile, you may provide your reptile with frozen-thawed prey. It allows you to store your extra reptile meals in the freezer conveniently.
Braining a prey item like a mouse or rat means that you cut a slit in the head of the rat so the snake can smell the brain quickly.
How do I thaw frozen prey for my reptiles?
NEVER microwave the prey; the moment the prey is cooked is when you lose all nutritional value for your reptile. The safest way to thaw the mouse/rat/quail/etc. is to put on hot water from the sink, fill a bowl up & put the prey item in the water to thaw slowly. The bigger the prey item, the longer it will take to melt. Change out the water every 30 minutes. Before you feed your snake or monitor lizard, make sure you check the prey item if it’s completely thawed, one fool-proof way to check is to, with a bare hand, feel the thickest part of the prey item. If you feel a cold sensation or a hard piece in the belly, that means there is still ice in the prey, and that would be FATAL to feed your reptile. Keep thawing until the stomach feels warm on the inside, with no hard piece or cold feeling. You cannot correctly check with a glove.
My snake won’t accept F/T. What now?
Before moving to live prey, try these methods to entice your reptile to eat.
- Move the prey around like a zombie dancing on the ground of the enclosure (primarily for snakes)
- NEVER put a reptile in a feeding tote/box. It stresses these snakes out & may cause them to vomit later.
- Leave prey overnight and put a blanket over the enclosure so s/he has no distractions.
- Handle less often. The snake might be too stressed out from handling to want to eat (primarily a ball python issue)
- Brain the rat/mouse/prey (primarily for snakes)
- Re-evaluate your husbandry, the snake might be sick, or your enclosure isn’t set up correctly for them to want to eat.
- Offer a smaller prey item than what you offered before.
- Switch the type of prey, different color fur, different species.
Alright, I tried everything & still not working. What now?
Feeding your reptile live prey is extremely unadvised and dangerous because it takes one bite to be fatal to your snake, or a bite may be a vet bill.
- Before feeding the reptile live by itself, try to daze the animal first by hitting its head hard.
- You can also try to kill it before feeding it to your snake because some prefer fresh kill.
- Do not put more than one prey item in the enclosure with the snake.
- WATCH the entire feeding to ensure your snake is hungry and eat it.
- Be ready to intervene if the rat/mouse bites your reptile.
- If your reptile is bit and severe (excessive bleeding and a visible gash), immediately take it to a vet. There are most likely payment plans you can apply for.
- If your reptile bit is minor, with slight bleeding, and no gash or hole visible, then remove all substrate from the enclosure and switch to paper towels, clean all decorations & monitor your reptile for infection/cleanliness/worsening behavior.
Can I cook anything for a reptile?
No, but you can only boil an egg because it is too hard for a monitor lizard to eat the raw yolk served with calcium powder.
Tips on feeding your monitor/lizard insects:
Provide the bugs in an insect dish. It ensures that the lizard/monitor does not eat substrate along with its meal.
Tips on feeding your LIZARD veggies & fruit:
Ensure you know your lizard’s diet before offering them fruit/veggies. Cut them up in small pieces so the lizard will “accidentally” eat the healthy veggies they try to avoid every feeding.