Picky Eaters

[Tash]

So I knew when I got my first ball python that there was a chance they would only be interested in live. My male turned out to be the opposite. He will only eat frozen thawed. My new little pastel onyx girl however doesn't like eating either. Tonight, I've successfully gotten her to finally eat a live rat. I was starting to worry and have been constantly fussing over her husbandry to figure out what's wrong. I've discovered that she doesn't like it as warm as my male does, and she's calmed down significantly. When I was pulling the baby fuzzy out it kind of broke my heart how sweet it was because I actually do like rats. I was half relived when my baby snake was refusing it but I finally just set the fuzzy rat on top of her and she coiled around it. No strike, she didn't even bite it. And she didn't even constrict it very well. It was still alive and crying for almost 20 min. But in the end she got serious and finally ate it. Super happy she ate but I will admit it was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. I knew it was a possibility and while I'm still going to try and switch her to frozen thawed I'm just going to put my big girl pants on and get used to it. I have one snake who eats f/t and one who eats live.

Anyone else go through this? Or am I just a bleeding heart?

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[Hannahshissyfix]

I had pet rats for years and hate feeding them live too. My 1 live eater has been a mouser lately so that's a lot easier for me. It sounds like your snake is still pretty young and I've never had an issue switching a you g one to frozen. What works best for me is wait until night when the room has been dark and quiet for a while, then when you offer the ft on tongs try to stay out of sight and make sure youre gripping it by the scruff of its back to its in a more natural position for the zombie dance. Don't get overly aggressive setting it on the snake of shoving right in its face.

[ReptiMoto]

I felt bad too at first. Then after about 10 more times (this sounds bad) but I got over it. Then after having to pre kill rats and mice by hand... It's kind of disturbing but it gets easier