I have two ball pythons that are eating live small rats at about 80 grams right now. The one is a young male about 6 months old, he normally eats adult mice but I fed off all of my mice to get breeding rats and the small rats are all I have right now. She'll have babies within the week. I figure if I feed him every 10-14 days instead of my usual 5-7 this should be fine. Well the problem is that I had this rat in there for a good half an hour before he took it. And he only took it when I was trying to get the now terrified and would probably bite me rat out of his tank with tongs. I was chasing him around the tank for a couple minutes trying to catch him when he finally took it. I would say the tongs triggered a feeding response if he hadn't been fed live all his life. I'm thinking that he is intimidated by the rats size which is five-six inches and twice his girth. I was just thinking that he would eat more readily if the rat is pre-killed instead of live. Also I was thinking I should do this for safety reasons, a rat that size in the tank for that long could injure him. Now with my female an 80 gram rat is perfect for her, also I have no fear of the rat biting her before she can constrict it because she never hesitates, always strikes and constricts as soon as the rat comes near her. So I think I will continue to feed her live rats and try pre-killed with my male. Worst case scenario he doesn't take it, I feed him a live one and feed the pre-killed rat to my female because i've gone back and forth live/pre-killed/FT with her and had no problems. Suggestions? Opinions?
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