Hey guys. I'm a little confused about what to do next and maybe you could help me out.
Today was feeding day for my 5-month-old female ball python. This was supposed to be her 3rd meal with me and she has never refused to eat. This time, she bit and constricted the rat as usual but she dropped it and hasn't tried to eat until now. She crawled a little bit, got inside her hiding, and came out again and now she's inside the hiding with her head out by the rats side.

I noticed she was acting differently after her second meal. She used to be active at night and come out of her hiding to roam for a while. She did this when I first got her and after digesting her first meal (3 days after she ate). I was assuming this was hunting behaviour and that she was hungry. Now after the second meal she hid for a week, only taking her head out for a while at times. With the movement, she moved her hiding to be facing the wall and not the room, which was before and she would see us walking around. So, today I was expecting her to come out to eat and only after she was outside her hiding, I would grab the hiding and put it back in place, where she could see us walking by and don’t get unused to us. I did this after she released the rat from her grip and I guess she didn’t like it. Also, just when she released the rat she stroke at me (in my direction) and hit the glass. I was just standing there motionless and the room had very little light, just enough for me to see what was going on. I have always fed her after darkening the room.

I've also noticed that during this past week, I once looked closely at the side of the terrarium as I always did to see if she had her head out, and she hid her head immediately as if she was scared. Now, this is rather weird since I always came close with my face to check her out and she never expressed any sign of distress or being scared. She is very calm, even on her first day here, she was always very calm and I have handled her twice. This past week I haven’t handled her because she didn’t come out and I didn’t want to scare her, afraid she wouldn’t eat, especially after what I mentioned above. And now she’s not eating…

So I would like to hear your opinion on the subject since I’m new to this and I would also like to ask what do I do now? Leave the rat overnight? Take it out, freeze it again and try tomorrow (since she didn’t actually refuse it)?

Temperature is 78(it’s night-time) and humidity is now 80 (when I gave her the rat was 65).