Over the past year, my ball has been feeding on small f/t rats. He suddenly went off feed the last month. During this time, unfortunately, 4 rats were wasted as they had to be thrown away. Hating to waste rats and in trying to encourage my ball to eat, I introduced a live small rat which he refused. A few days later I offered my ball a live rat pup which he took like a charm...that was last weekend. Seeing that he finally ate, I offered a live small rat last night, which he refused. He was curious and got nose to nose with the rat, however, whenever the rat got curious enough and bumped into my ball, my ball would curl up in defense and seem discouraged. Is it possible, that with live, a small sized rat may intimidate my ball too much for him to accept it? On the next few feed days, should I stick with the rat pups? Perhaps 2 in one feeding since he used to regularly feed on small f/t rats? Just for info, I have decided to keep him on live for personal reasons so no consideration regarding switching back to f/t is necessary, thanks!