imprint feeders

I keep reading that ball pythons are "imprint feeders", and that if you feed them mice once, they can get hooked and refuse rats. From my experience, this is true.

How come they don't get "imprinted" on f/t rats? Why do they only imprint on things that are inconvenient to us?

I don't think this is accurate. I have an entire clutch of 9 babies that I started all on live mouse hoppers then switched to live rat fuzzies, and most are now eating F/T rat fuzzies. I still have one that won't switch off the mouse hoppers and one that wont switch off the live rat fuzzies, but I haven't given up yet as it's only been about 6 weeks since they hatched.

Some may never switch but I don't think it's imprinting, just an individual preference.

I don't find this to be accurate. I feed my BP both mice and rats depending on what the local pet store has on hand. If they are out of rats, I feed him mice. If they have rats, I feed him rats. He does not show a preference whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by hungba

I keep reading that ball pythons are "imprint feeders", and that if you feed them mice once, they can get hooked and refuse rats. From my experience, this is true.

How come they don't get "imprinted" on f/t rats? Why do they only imprint on things that are inconvenient to us?

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Most of them are not. Most will eat multiple types of food fairly easily.

Mine has been on mice for a couple years now (highly inconvenient), and we recently got the opportunity to switch her to rats. She apparently takes anything that moves without questioning it.

Had to feed my girls adult mice while waiting for my first rat pup order to ship, and they had no problem with either. From what I understand, most breeder start hatchlings with mouse hoppers because the movement entices them to strike, then they switch to rat pups once the babies have taken three meals and developed a good feeding response. I think it comes down to the individual snake's preference whether or not they're a mouser, and with most you should be able to switch with persistence and a few tricks.

All depends on the snake and what they want to eat.