I would like to start it off on frozen and gradually move it up to live. Do I need to teach it? Is there a safe age I should start?

Please do not tell me to go frozen all the way.

Well the best way is to start with pinkies, because they are so small that they hardly move at all, but enough to entice the snake. And as your snake gets larger it will move up to fuzzies. They are bigger, but they have closed eyes, and wont see the snake coming, they move faster, but shouldn't bite. Then you go up to hoppers, but you can't turn your back, because they are more aggressive....
And there is no when, when the snakes are born, they start off with newborn pinky mice, they are small enough.
So just start him on pinkies, and work your way up...
Good Luck!

(Live feeding, although risks injury, is better if you plan to breed)

Reptile owner

Sorry, I'm going to tell you to go frozen/thawed all the way...mostly because I care about the health and welfare of animals. Feeding live is dangerous. It can lead to a blind snake, a snake missing a nose and worse case scenario...a dead snake. There is absolutely no benefit to feeding live. If the snake takes f/t off tongs, then feed that. Don't risk your pet due to some uh, I have no idea reason that you must feed live. I can show you picture after picture in my reptile medical book of snakes seriously injured-some to the death-from live mice and rats. Stick with f/t. If you still insist on risking your animals' life, you can feed live any time. They are instinctive when it comes to eating. The only thing is...if they are bitten badly, sometimes that will make them fearful of the prey and they will no longer eat. Good luck with that.......

Owner/breeder of snakes
www.franclycac.com

i own and breed corn snakes, i find for the safety of your snake feed them dead cause the mice can bite back and potentially injure your snake and cause infection or severe scaring which can lead to problems shedding, so in my professional opinion there is nothing wrong with feeding dead mice, i buy mine live and just thump them i hate frozen anyways cause they seem to lack the nutrients essential to growth, and not to mention it is more humane for the mouse to be thumped than to suffer and be swallowed alive and would be for your own morbid amusement, feed the snake to keep it alive not to watch another animal suffer.

scales and tails reptile store lakewood, colo. 80214

You don't need to train them... if you're insistent on live food, simply start with live pinkies, they don't get prekilled food in the wild, they instinctively know how to eat.

as your snake moves up to mice with teeth, you really should (if you're not going to go prekilled frozen) at the very least thwack it so that it doesn't have a chance to bite your snake... and NEVER leave a live (or even stunned) rodent with teeth in with your snake unattended... it can lead to disaster.

"Train" it to eat live? Huh?

If you want it to eat live, why would you even start off with frozen? That makes no sense. :(

If you mean you have a snake now that only eats frozen, you'd have to feed it a frozen prey item and then quickly give it a live one while its in feeding mode.

Still is a really stupid thing to do. Frozen prey has all the nutrition as live prey, and its safer for the snake. I'm sure my cat could take down a live rabbit, but its not worth risking injuring her for my own amusement. I doubt snakes can even understand the concept of live or frozen prey. They eat whatever they have imprinted on.

It depends if your snake is already big or not if it is already big it is al ready to eat live mice just watch carfully. If it is young find a place that sells live pinkies for your snake to eat.