Do some bps eat only off of tongs?

My bp has been off feed for about 2 months and today i tried feeding her with scented f/t rat and she bit at it but didnt really take it. I keep reheating the rat and she looks so interested but she won't eat when i lay it right in front of her. I scented the rat with asf bedding. It worked for my other picky eater without tongs.

I dangle them in front of hades and hell strike at it and take it, or stare at it and leave if hes not hungry. if i lay it in front of him he just uses it as a pillow and sleeps on it.

Has your bp been used to eating live at any point in its life? Some of them need movement as well as the heat to trigger feed response. I have some that I can throw a dead one in the tub and they hit it and don't care if its moving, some that will steal it off the tongs on its way in, and some that will only eat live. Each bp and what works for feeding seems to be different. At least in my experience with the snakes I have.

I almost always feed with tongs, it separates the feeder's heat signature from my hand at the very least.

Some ball pythons are very picky eaters, but I don't think that tongs vs no tongs is your issue.

Jack you to take it right from my hand(held by tail) with a fierce strike and coil! Now he doesn't even look at it or seem interested. Now I just leave the f/t in his cage by his hide and he eats it at his leisure. That's the only way he will eat lol

Some are just a PITA lol

I just place the food item inside the hide of my snakes enclosure, then replace the snake and leave him for about an hour or so. With f/t only though, not live of course.

she has been fed f/t all her life and the breeder said that she was a great eater and that she would always come out of the tub on feeding days. But for me she just stays in her hide and looks at the rat, sniffs it, licks it, but no luck.

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Originally Posted by Maddumpling

My bp has been off feed for about 2 months and today i tried feeding her with scented f/t rat and she bit at it but didnt really take it. I keep reheating the rat and she looks so interested but she won't eat when i lay it right in front of her. I scented the rat with asf bedding. It worked for my other picky eater without tongs.

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Is she OFF feed, or has she never eaten for you? I ask because she may need you to do the "zombie dance" to believe it's alive, not just drop it on the ground. Hold the rat behind the shoulder blades with the tongs, rather than hanging it by the tail, and shuffle it slowly in front of her.

As long as you're monitoring her weight with a scale and she isn't losing, don't worry about going to great lengths to break a fast - she'll eat when she's ready.

Oh, and with the feeding response on some of my girls, there's no way I'd ever be placing a rat in their tubs without tongs. Rat tails just aren't long enough if she misses!

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Is she OFF feed, or has she never eaten for you? I ask because she may need you to do the "zombie dance" to believe it's alive, not just drop it on the ground. Hold the rat behind the shoulder blades with the tongs, rather than hanging it by the tail, and shuffle it slowly in front of her.

As long as you're monitoring her weight with a scale and she isn't losing, don't worry about going to great lengths to break a fast - she'll eat when she's ready.

Oh, and with the feeding response on some of my girls, there's no way I'd ever be placing a rat in their tubs without tongs. Rat tails just aren't long enough if she misses!

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I dont know if i did mention it but yea i did do the zombie dance every single feeding day and she always looks at it. Not look away and scared but just looks at it but doesnt do anything. Im concerned is because she didnt eat for me since the day she was shipped to me. She has never eaten and the only other option for me to have her to eat is put her in with a male because i heard when they breed, females will go back on feed. I scented the f/t rat with asf bedding but didnt work. And i do feed them with tongs.