need help

as you know, rex wont take rats. ive tried senting it. didnt work. hes ate 2 before, but wont even touch it. anyone have a working idea?

Every bp is different. You may just need to feed multiple mice instead of rats. Sorry, I don't have any tips other than scenting.

This only seems to work, defrost the rat in the same bag as a mouse.

Worked for me!

Well to get roxy over to pre killed and F/T i just skipped two feedings so she was real hungry and would take the P/K and F/T food.

Now i have to switch the new guy (or girl, he is sexing them tonight) over to Rats, right now its eating mice. So im hoping my "methods" work this time as well.

Personally, I think the key to any feeding problem (aside from an emaciated snake) is starving. The hungrier a bp is, the less picky it is. My male pastel was a picky mouse feeder when I first got him. So, I starved him out a bit the last few months, not completely but just feeding him less often than otherwise. It was more to improve his feeding response rather than to switch him to rats, but the last few times he was taking mice so eagerly I offered him a rat just for the heck of it and he took it right away.

I had a hatchling that was the same story; fed him less often and he's started to take rats no problem.

hhw...how long shouyld i wait without offering food

I just skipped one week

But im sure it wouldent hurt to skip Two feedings if you have to.

Instead of feeding every week, just feed it once every 2-3 weeks. A breeder friend of mine actually goes up to just once every 6 weeks, but I think every 2-3 weeks is long enough between feedings. After a few times, just try offering a rat. If you still don't have any luck, you can just keep on doing it until Rex becomes noticeably thin (although it shouldn't need to get to that point). Even if this starving method doesn't work out right away, it should greatly improve your probability of success when trying other methods as well.

I would only do this with a healthy ball python though, not a skinny one and not a baby until it has had a few good meals in it.

Also, I should warn you that this is just a theory (the starving method) that my breeder friend came up with, and I decided to try since all the females I got from him feed like boas (They eat anything and everything, and would everyday if I let them). The idea comes from 2 things. Firstly, ball pythons feeding frequencies are somewhat varied in the wild. They will fast for months at a time, or feed infrequently part of the year, but eat voraciously at times like before breeding season, gobbling entire gerbil colonies down at once. Starving your ball python a bit may closer replicate the feeding habits of wild ball pythons. Secondly, ball pythons are rather primitive snakes and by keeping them hungry most of the time when they are young, you imprint the sensation of hunger in their minds for life. (My friend does this for all his own baby ball pythons, even his spiders, as soon as they've taken 3 or so meals with regularity and then keeps doing it for several months. After that he offers them food as frequently as everyday) Therefore, from then on they should hopefully be good feeders for you for life.

The method seemed pretty logical to me, and has proven quite effective for me, although I haven't practiced it to such extremes. However, it's not something that I've seen recommended by anyone else anywhere, although I imagine a lot of breeders do it unintentionally through maintenance feeding. So, keep in mind it's just some crazy theory that seems to work for me; try it only if it makes sense to you as well.

thanks hhw, im gonna try that

Yeah sounds like a good plan to me.It makes sense.