So I wanna talk about how to feed ball python listening to the advice that people give online and versus how I deal with mine. So first off, I'm really happy cuz my ball python took prey item from me for the first time last night around 1AM. Again, I just got him for like a month he did eat for me couple times but both times I had to leave it in there overnight. But the fact that he strike at the prey item last night really tells me that I have build a basic trust between me and him. So the way I do it is that thaw out ur food however you want, as long is thawed out its good. For me I put it in a zip lock bag and submerged it using a tong since the zip lock bag has air it in. If you don't then its gonna flow on top of water. I feel like that's not the way to do it cuz I want both sides of the rat or mouse to thaw out perfectly, not just one side. Then put it under a heat lamp for about 20-27 mins depends how fast or how strong is the heating lamp and your room temp. Most people said leave it there for like 10 mins or so (according to online) but I often found that not very useful because the prey item don't absorb much heat and the heat is gonna go away really fast. Sometimes you get this stubborn ball python that will not eat for the first min when u offered the food but you just had to like wear him down to eat psychologically. The longer warming section really does the trick cuz when I got closed to the mouse I could sort of smell it too(lol). After that turn 80% of the light off in your room, cuz u wanna mimic that environment they hunt in. If you open all your light then essentially what you doing is to warm up the air, and the heat that ur prey item has will just blend in and in my opinion most likely you gonna get two responses either the snake doesn't know where the food is located and simply ignores it or he strikes but missed. Its like the difference between when you see a black car and a white car during a sunny day, of course the black color is gonna give us more of a visual or sense identification. So for me its important to create that dim environment. Also, a lot of people said online that if your snake doesn't eat then wait a week or so then try it again, I disagree cuz what you really doing is that you starve ur snake cuz I don't think snakes are that weak mentally sometimes they don't eat cuz they don't realized the food is there. They don't have the heat source or smell of the prey(they are almost blind). So what happened to me was that I offered the food he starts off resisting it, now its important if your snake is stubborn then you have to be more stubborn to get him to eat. Cuz if you just leave its gonna promote his behavior. So he starts off resisting and I sort of cornered him and he starts to stare at the mouse and that's the moment I knew I trigged him for sure. Then he just took it nothing dramatic. So just be persistent, but don't over do it.