Last night I was telling a colleague about my new baby, and it turns out his daughter has a ball python. He said that recently her snake had stopped eating, and she didn't think it was big enough or old enough to get away with it for too long. So at one point she went out of town and left the snake with a snake sitter who was apparently experienced with BP's. The snake sitter offered *half* of a rat, and the snake ate it right up. So after bringing the snake home, she chopped another rat in half and the snake ate that too. Apparently this was as messy as it sounds and resulted in rat guts smeared everywhere... but it got the guy eating. I don't know whether the snake has since started accepting intact food or not; we got busy and didn't finish the conversation.
But has anyone ever heard of this?? Obviously it wouldn't be a long term solution - there's no way it would be nutritionally complete with all the juicy parts squished out. It would be like squishing the creme out of a Boston creme donut (err, if there was anything nutritionally redeeming in a Boston creme). But presumably better than nothing, and maybe a strategy to get a snake eating that hasn't been? I've never heard of this... I wouldn't have expected the smell of innards to be especially enticing to an animal that usually only ever sees its prey on the outside, but maybe it is? Maybe half a rat is just less intimidating because it's only half as big?