Stupid question

[SRMD]

Ok, so i know this may sound very stupid but can the place you buy rodents from effect the ball eating it?
for example 2 medium mice i bought from one store my ball ate both but then from another store he hasn't touched them and when i bought them from another store the mice always seem to have a bloody nose when unfrozen which i thought was weird... can a ball be that picky? lol

Thanks

[xdaman666x]

i thort the same thing but then i wormed up 2 mice from 2 shops and he eaten them both.but i have knw balls to be very fussy.i like to keep to one place now.but try worming up 2 mice from 2 diff shops.i most of my rodents that i get have blood when i thor them out but i think that my ball likes the smell it gets him going when i feed him

[Blubb]

I can imagen bloody noses to smell more tasty for a snake. I don't know though

[BallsUnlimited]

the only thing i noticed about feeders is my snakes eat alot better if you defrost them an then completely dry them with a blowdryer. This is prob bc it will sent the room much better an i have had such a better feeding response by using that method. Now i have bought rats from a few different shows\people an as long as i followed what i just mentioned all of them ate no problems

[SRMD]

i always do this, i thaw the mouse out in the room the ball is kept in then blow dry the scent towards it, but he takes no notice i even leave it by him for about half hour, my ball is just weird hopefully he will eat soon im going to attempt him to feed again on tuesday

thanks for all the replies

[gsarchie]

While I think that they can probably tell if a prey item is spoiled or bad based on the scents that are coming off of it, I find it hard to believe that a ball python in the wild would do very well if it was in the habit of turning its nose up at meals that weren't perfectly healthy (though I could certainly be wrong). It would be an interesting ecology research project, offering wild balls sick mice to see if they would refuse or eat. I wouldn't want to do it with captive animals for fear of making them sick. Anyway, just keep trying and I'm sure he'll eat eventually. With frozen as opposed to something that you bred or even just live from somewhere, you can't really tell the quality of the item. Have you ever considered starting your own breeding colony? As for f/t when they don't eat, I would only refreeze a prey item once, as the more time it spends thawed out the more that bacteria will build up. Good luck getting him eating.

[Slim]

Never underestimate how picky a ball python can be...

If you have one that's very sensitive to scent, it's possible that one of the locations has an odor that your snake doesn't like, and that odor is getting on the mice. I wouldn't say it's a likely scenario, but anything is possible.