Leaving rodents in overnight?

Two of my baby ball pythons are still struggling to eat. My orange ghost girl ate for me last week, she wouldnt strike but when I left it in for her she ate it after 15 minutes. This week, she striked two times but missed by a mile, so I left it in her tub again, its been 30 minutes but she's showed no interest. My pastave has shown zero interest the two times I've tried feeding him, wont strike or flicker his tongue.

In both cases, I am:
-Feeding once a week
-Feeding only 10% of body weight
-Properly thawing by bag+hot water method
-One properly sized hide in their tubs (pvc rack)
-92 F on hot side, 80 F on cool side always
-50-65% humidity constant

They are in my snake room, which has very little activity, and I also have not handled either snake at all, except for cleanings. Both snakes were on f/t rat pups before coming to me, so I was even surprised that my OG girl ate the f/t rat I left in her tub last week.

My question is, should I leave the two rats in their tubs for tonight? And see if they might eat it? Will the rats go rotten/stink up the room badly?

Am I doing everything properly? I heard someone say that if I just keep track of their weight once a week, and if they are not losing any weight, then it should be ok that they are off feed. I think Justin Kobylka once said that ball pythons arent stupid enough to starve themselves to death if husbandry is correct & food is being offered regularly..

Matt these are all smaller snakes? Do they spend most (all?) of the time on the cool side? It is possiable that the hot side is a touch warm for little snakes they do not need as much heat as adults and with the frequency of thermometer error I'd suggest trying a few degrees drop on the hot side maybe down to 88º and give them some time and try again. Small snakes in my experience are ready and willing to eat often and aggressivly. I might give the temps a shot striking and dropping could be temp related or prey temp related (I measure mine to 100ºF give or take) or security related or just snakes being silly. If you are having issues try a temp drop and see, if that doesn't work try something else.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Matt these are all smaller snakes? Do they spend most (all?) of the time on the cool side? It is possiable that the hot side is a touch warm for little snakes they do not need as much heat as adults and with the frequency of thermometer error I'd suggest trying a few degrees drop on the hot side maybe down to 88º and give them some time and try again. Small snakes in my experience are ready and willing to eat often and aggressivly. I might give the temps a shot striking and dropping could be temp related or prey temp related (I measure mine to 100ºF give or take) or security related or just snakes being silly. If you are having issues try a temp drop and see, if that doesn't work try something else.

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Oops, I meant to say they were both on live rat pups, so I am guessing they arent eating because of the switch. My lesser girl also lives in the same rack with 92 hotspot and 80 cool side and she slams food like a champ. I might try to lower the hotspot to about 89-90 though if that helps.

I would never leave a live rat with a snake unless you are watching it. It would make for a long night. I have left FT in for a few hours but typically if the snake shows no interest it is still there later, I only 'drop' feed when the animal is interested but timid.

Striking and missing is sometimes a sign that the prey isn't warm enough. Try hitting the prey item with a blow dryer for a few mins after they're warm. Focus on the head area.

If you do leave the prey item in overnight and they don't eat, I wouldn't refreeze, I'd throw it out.

As for the zero interest, perhaps try mice? I had a few that came to me eating rat pups then decided they only wanted mice with me so I had to go through the whole process of converting them back to rats. Ugh then I had one who was on rats just fine then all of a sudden only wanted mice and is just NOW back on rats.

They can be fickle little creatures sometimes. ;)

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Originally Posted by mattchibi

Oops, I meant to say they were both on live rat pups, so I am guessing they arent eating because of the switch. My lesser girl also lives in the same rack with 92 hotspot and 80 cool side and she slams food like a champ. I might try to lower the hotspot to about 89-90 though if that helps.

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Oh yeah, no. No live overnight. No live unattended. FT only.

I usually figure if they don't take it in an hour or so of the lights being out, they're not going to and it gets fed to someone else or refrozen.