Mouse Appetizer Trick for Picky Eaters

[Pancake's Momma]

I recently found a helpful trick for feeding my picky ball python.
Ever since I bought my bp Pancake last fall, she has been an utter pain to feed. The person who sold her to me that she was a picky eater, but that was apparently an understatement. In the months that I've had her, she's never eaten more than once a month, and often would go 2 months before I could get her to eat (after hours of trying). Then, this spring, she stopped eating her rats altogether. From what I could tell she was scared of them, since she would strike at them, but never latch on. She did look hungry however, so I don't think she was on a hunger strike. After 4 months of trying different sized/colored rats (live and frozen) with no luck, I finally caved and bought her some mice instead, and WOW, her reaction was almost frightening.
The first mouse wasn't even in the tank for 10 seconds before she had it wrapped in her coils, and immediately after finishing it she went into extreme hunting mode, searching the tank and me for more. The next two mice were eaten just as quickly. I had never seen Pancake so eager about anything in my life, and realized that mice were something I knew she would eat. However I didn't want to feed her a ton of mice all the time if I could help it, so a few days ago I decided to try something. I purchased a single mouse, and a small rat of the same color. When I had tried feeding her a couple rats like this before, she had no interest in them whatsoever. However I hoped that by activating her feeding response with the mouse, she would be more inclined to eat the rat.
Once I had both rodents, I fed Pancake the mouse first, which she ate with just as much vigor as the previous feeding. Then I put in the rat, and before it was even able to touch the bottom of her tank she had struck and curled around it. I'd never had such easy feedings before, and it felt so much better than the agonizing hours it took to get her to eat before.

So, at least in this case, using a mouse as an appetizer seemed to work. Idk who else has tried this on their pythons, but for those with really picky eaters, this may be something you'd want to try.