Odd feeding behavior--sick rat?

I searched for this, but didn't find anything. Apologies if it's been brought up before.

I have a 4 month old female spotnose ball python who has always been a pretty aggressive feeder. She's eating small-medium rats once per week with no problem. I got a rat today to feed her and she did something I haven't seen before, but I'm a newbie, so don't know if this is normal. She struck without much hesitation and rolled it like always, held on till I was sure it was dead, and then basically spat him out. He got up and walked away (which shocked me) and she smelled him a few times, but stayed away from him after that till I finally took him out. I thought at first that she might not have been hungry because she's in shed, but she was agitated afterward like she was still hungry. I didn't see any marks on her and didn't see him scratch or bite her, so I don't think he hurt her. However, I did notice a strong fecal smell when he defecated just before she struck and after saw that he had what looked almost to be diarrhea and smelled awful like dog feces. Could he have been sick and that's why she refused him? Aside from the diarrhea, he appeared healthy (well, before she got him...), but obviously he wasn't. Or is it just that she's in shed and wasn't actually hungry, just struck on instinct? I'm going to leave her alone till she's done shedding and then offer her a different rat.
Her setup is right and temps/humidity are where they're supposed to be. Nothing has changed since I've gotten her and she's not acting strangely aside from being agitated after the rat was removed, but even then she wasn't aggressive, just definitely not the docile girl she's been since I got her which makes me think she's still hungry. I'm glad she refused him if he was sick because I'd never knowingly give an unhealthy animal to her, but I want to make sure there's nothing wrong with *her*.

I had something like this happen before. I'm honestly not 100% sure on why my snake refused the rat, but not a single one of my snakes would take this rat. Maybe they knew something I didn't but I do know that it smelled a little odd (but not to the point that I didn't feel comfortable feeding it to my snakes)

It could have been a number of things, impossible to say for sure. Hopefully your next feeding will be successful.

Small- medium rats seem really big for a 4 month old... That's usually what adults are eating. Maybe she's just not hungry?

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Originally Posted by NormanSnake

Small- medium rats seem really big for a 4 month old... That's usually what adults are eating. Maybe she's just not hungry?

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Depends on her size..................... most of my big girl eat medium or large;)

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I have had a couple of mind kill and leave it, don't know why:confusd:

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Originally Posted by NormanSnake

Small- medium rats seem really big for a 4 month old... That's usually what adults are eating. Maybe she's just not hungry?

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I second this. I'm not the most experienced in seeing hundreds or thousands of babies but I ca not picture a 4m/o well over 500-600 grams.

from my experience this happens when they are hungry and realize they can not get the food down due to size. My advice would be to try a weaned or pup and see how they take it.

A small to medium rat is a bit much for a 4 month old bp for sure, I'd think. Without pics of the snake though *shrug* I only feed F/T so I can't help you there

just last week my big mama normal in heavy shed kill puppy rat and i did find him in the tub next morning
i think she just don't enjoy the company :D

somehow I'm thinking it was a typo and they meant to say four year old.

No, it's not a typo. She's 4 months, but she's thick. I haven't weighed her, so I'm not sure exactly how big she is. The breeder said she's been on small-medium rats with him, so I've been giving her small ones. This particular one was smaller than her girth and she's taken rats a little bigger than this one before with no problem. When I went this time for rats, the place only had the two that I got (for her and my male who is smaller than her even though he's a little older and he took his without issue) and ones that were way too big. When I say small, I mean sub-adult. Even their large rats aren't as big as ones I've had as pets before, so I don't think it's a size issue with the rat. Like I said, the male took his with no problem and it was just under the size of the one I gave her and he's slimmer than she is. However, just to be sure, next time I feed her, I'll try something smaller just in case.

Do you have pictures of her, and of what you were trying to feed her? Do you have a scale, you could weigh her and then weigh the rat?

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My four month old is barely taking down small mice o.o

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Originally Posted by NormanSnake

My four month old is barely taking down small mice o.o

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Balls can take hopper sized mice right out of the egg. Chances are your Bp can eat a bigger meal.

DrDooLittle I have pictures of her in my gallery, but not of the one I was trying to feed her. The rat was definitely smaller than her girth, though. She's eaten larger without a problem, so I really doubt it was a size issue. I got the smallest one they had without going to a mouse, which is too small for her.
I don't have a scale yet, unfortunately.

You know your snake and you know what it's been eating up to this point - if she's been eating small rats up til now, I'm sure she's fine. For some places, a small rat is really a rat hopper or rat crawler, which can be about the size of a large mouse. She may also be older than 4 months, especially if the breeder was feeding her small rats before you got her.

I've had babies get large enough to eat small rats in their first 4 to 6 months, so it's not entirely unheard of. I also have the option to get very small small rats, so it's easy to bump them up early on.

Snakes can often sense things we can't, and if she didn't want to eat the rat, then she didn't want to eat it. I wouldn't worry too much, just perhaps try offering that rat to the male next week, and offer her a new one instead. It happens sometimes. I have a little long tailed grass lizard I got over a year ago to feed my Indonesian Tree Boas, as they hadn't switched to rodents yet. The boas wouldn't eat her. I figured maybe they didn't like that kind of lizard, and brought home some anoles and a male grass lizard to pair her up with. The boas ate the anoles AND the new male grass lizard, but they didn't touch her. Fast forward 6 months, and I ended up giving the boas to a coworker who is working with them, but I STILL have this female grass lizard that the boas wouldn't eat. I put the grass lizard in with my blue tongues, figuring up until she was eaten, she'd at least enjoy the space.
A week goes by, and she is basking on their heads. Fine, I say, my frilleds will eat her. They've eaten house geckos before when I put them in there for stray cricket control.
No. No they don't. They eat the second male grass lizard I get to pair up with her, and all the house geckos I try keeping in there. But not this one female long tailed grass lizard, who is now fat and sassy and all over that cage. I've given up at this point, she's totally healthy and fine but apparently nothing wants to eat her. She must smell funny or something. I don't know. But now she's got a name (Ingrid the Indestructible) and she's hanging around. :)

So, long story short, maybe the rat is sick, or maybe your snake can smell or sense something about it that we can't. It's not like our brains work the same as a snake's does, so it's impossible to say for sure. :) Good luck with the next feeding!

-Jen

Thanks Jen. And yes, this place's small rats are really small. They're bigger than crawlers, but not by much. I don't think she's older than 4 months because the breeder told me the exact day she hatched and which clutch she was from. He said she was memorable because her entire clutch was super aggressive, but finally chilled out. He did say they were all pretty voracious feeders and I've found that to be true.
Unfortunately, this rat was so injured that he didn't survive, so I don't know if my male would have taken him or not. I did check the female again today when I had her out and she's finally shed, but she has a couple of marks on her side that look like she may have gotten scratched. They're very faint and I only noticed them because she had a tiny bit of stuck shed just on that one spot. So maybe he scared her. I don't know. As long as she eats next time, I'm not going to worry too much about it. I was mainly wondering if anyone had experienced a snake rejecting a rat who turned out to be ill. I do appreciate all of the helpful replies, though!