I have a Ball Python that I have had for 3 or 4 months now. I got him as an adult and he's always been a pretty good eater. I give him a small frozen/thawed rat roughly every 10 days. When I first got him he would eat at soon as the rat hit the bottom of the, "plate," I use to feed him (in his tank). The first time I feed him it was outside of his tank, until I knew better, but he still ate it without hesitation. He showed no interest a few weeks ago, I waited another week and then he ate. I tried to feed him about 4 days ago and he seemed to go after the tweezers instead of the rat. He completely missed and really started to follow the tweezers around. I left the rat in the cage and put a heat lamp over it, but he never showed it any interest. If I came up to the tank with the tweezers to pick it up and move it around he'd start watching the tweezers. I finally gave up and just tossed the rat. So, I waited and decided to try and feed him again tonight. He checked out the rat, tongue practically on it and then once gain started to focus on the tweezers. They are the standard 10" silver ones you can find at most pet stores. I don't know if it's a reflection or what. Has anyone ever seen this before? Do they sell black coated pet tweezers? Maybe just not hungry and annoyed?
He is at least finally showing interest in the rat (just sitting in the tank with a heat lamp on it) but I'm still curious if anyone has ever had a ball distracted by shiny silver tweezers. Also, interestingly enough, he seems to realize that this one is dead. He is not constricting it, just swallowing it. He's never done that before.
