So about a year and a half ago, we purchased an '05 female pastel, who we KNEW was kind of a picky eater. We've been able to bring picky eaters around most of the time, so we decided to take the chance on her.

Well, the entire time she's been in our collection, she's pretty much stayed the same weight. Sometimes if I weigh her a little too close to her last meal, she'll spike up to about 850 grams, but she weighs 750 consistently. She *might* have weighed around 700 grams when we got her originally. So in all this time, she's gained about 50 grams.

Her food habits are specific. She will only eat an occasional live rat. She absolutely will NOT take f/t rats, and believe me, we've tried ALL the tricks, and nothing gets past this girl. She's wise to us.

I don't really have TOO much of a problem feeding live when the snake won't take anything else and I've tried my hardest to convince them, but the pet stores around here flat out suck. The "medium" rats at Petco are the 3 year old super jumbos, and I just... can't... bring myself to pay 12 bucks per rat at the other store. We'll drive out of our way to check other Petcos, but we're able to get Hazel's size maybe once every three weeks. Once every two weeks if we're lucky. I'd double up on smaller, but she will take ONE rat. I'd breed my own, but we live with the in-laws and it's been a stretch just to convince them to let us house the snakes here.

Now, of course, just because we've found the right size doesn't mean she's in the mood to eat it. So she eats what we bring home for her oh about 75% of the time. I really wouldn't even bat an eye at a four year old ball python who only wanted to eat once or twice a month - some of our biggest and strongest adults seem to put themselves on this schedule - but she's not putting on even the slightest gram!

I have aspirations of breeding her someday. I really do. She's absolutely made of muscle, not skinny in the slightest, and very strong. But she just won't see things from my point of view.

She's kept in a Matrix rack system, with flex-watt, hides, a big water bowl, with her temps and humidity all correct and measured with insta-reads. Handling is kept to an absolute minimum (just cleaning, occasional weigh-ins, and sometimes I selfishly want a picture of her). She's been vet-checked a couple of times, put through a round of metronidazole just in case, had fecals, bloodwork... Everything. We've probed her a few extra times just to make sure she's female, I can't think of anything else to DO.

Does anybody have any suggestions? Any ball pythons out there this old and picky? Words of encouragement?

Hazel: