First P/k rat

Well after reading all the horror stories of feeding live rats I decided to thump one and give it a try, within 10 seconds she had struck and coiled and finished her dinner shortly after that.
I always thought it would be harder to make the switch, but in the 9 months I've had her (she was 6 weeks when I bought her) she has never refused a meal and never has taken over 30 seconds to strike.

Glad to here the p/k went so well. You'll hear a ton of stuff on the internet about balls being "poor feeders" and "prey specific" and "impossible to switch from this or that feeding method" or "live feeding is BAD!". Quite honestly at least in our experience and from discussions with breeders, most of it is internet crapola to be blunt.

Sure some balls go off feed for some reason or are picky about what they eat and lots aren't. A lot of feeding issues (not all of course) end up being husbandry issues and once that's sorted out you've got a strong feeder.

For us too, it's about understanding what that particular, unique ball python needs to thrive, not about a generalization of "all balls do this or that" so I'm not at all surprised your ball took the p/k so well for you. You provided what that ball wanted to eat and it did what it's supposed to do...have a lovely no fuss no muss meal of yummy rat LOL.

Congrats to you and your lovely snake! Sounds like things are going along wonderfully.


~~Jo~~