Why are they doing this?

I have two ball pythons (a pastel and a bee) that seem to have stopped eating. I know this is fairly normal, I don't usually worry about hunger strikes, but both of these girls keep taking the rat like they are starved, strangling it and then not eating it. This combined with the fact that if I re-offer the same rat (without reheating it) they will repeat the process of grab, strangle, ignore and it has me very confused. Usually when I get a snake on a hunger strike they won't show any interest in the food. These girls are taking the food and then just not eating it. They are both 2011 and under 200g. I'm offering f/t rat pups and they spend nights cursing their tubs looking for food. Can someone help me shed some light on this odd behavior please? :confused::confused::confused::confused:

Edit:
Since I know it is going to be asked. They are in 17qt tubs on paper towels with hides (sandwich containers painted with non-toxic acrylic paint and air dried). Heat tape is at 94 during the day and 84 at night (they are in a rack with my breeders) so their hot spot is 91-92 during the day and ambient temps on the cool side at 82-84 all the time. They were eating fine until about 3 weeks ago when they started doing this.

I don't know if it's entirely normal behavior but I have a couple of females that will do the same from time to time. They will just kill the rat and leave it also. Though one of my males does have a bad habit of if you catch him at the "wrong" time right when he has finished killing it and he is about to start eating head first he will move away from it and that's it no more eating for him... so I'm not saying that's what you got going on but could be a shy eater.

Every once in a while I'll have a snake give up on a prey item. This usually follows them dragging it through the water bowl and/or not being able to find a good starting point in the swallowing process(some snakes won't mess with a prey item after a few failed attempts at finding the head through trial and error). It's possible you're getting defensive strikes from balls off feed, instincts are taking over and they're coiling the prey only later realizing they're not in the mood.. Are they males perchance? That might explain their high activity and unwillingness to feed this time of year. I'd offer again next feeding day and try to give them more privacy(leave room, cut off lights) for a good hour or two to make sure it's not just a disturbance issue then go from there.

Try live mice...If that works feed a few mice and then try the rats again.

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I'm fairly confident that these are feeding strikes and not defensive strikes. My bee actually ate the rat pup when I offered it again this morning, the pastel did not. I will try a live mouse with the pastel next week to see if she will eat that. She had been a great eater since I got her, took a f/t rat pup the day after I got her. :(

Leaving prey in overnight is how I got my shy babies to start eating. 2 of the 4 would do the same thing as yours. Once they struck id close their tub and leave them alone til morning. how many meals have they missed?

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Originally Posted by mpkeelee

Leaving prey in overnight is how I got my shy babies to start eating. 2 of the 4 would do the same thing as yours. Once they struck id close their tub and leave them alone til morning. how many meals have they missed?

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I tried leaving it in overnight and neither ate it, but the bee ate it when I offered the same rat (without re-heating) this morning. I believe this is only the second or third meal the pastel has missed. I'm at work and don't have my records in front of me to double check. :(

I'm not an expert by any means but couldn't they be going off food due to being confused from the "breeding heat cycle" that your breeder rack is on? Everything I've read and have been told says to keep the temps constant for the little guys and gals to help keep them on schedule. Again I claim to be no expert just throwing out my thoughts.

It's possible, but the other 2 babies I have in the same rack have been eating like pigs. It's not the hunger strike that has me confused, it's the striking/constricting/not eating that is confusing me.

I'm building new racks early next year so I can have my breeders/juvies/babies separated out properly instead of smaller tubs sitting in shelves intended for 41qt tubs, so maybe that will help. Hunger strikes don't worry me like they did when I first got into ball pythons and it's only been 3-4 feedings at most that they've done this. I do want to try to get some food into them next week because it will be the last time I feed them until January (I'm leaving on vacation on the 21st for almost 2 weeks and I want to make sure they are on empty when I go).

I have this happens a few times and have noticed that the f/t has cooled off a little and if I just reheat it with a hair dryer, concentrating on the head, they usually take it.