Ball Python feeding

[VereMyth]

After leaving them out for a couple hours which is what I do also and you want to make sure the belly is good and soft. I even lay them out belly upward. But then I heat the feeder up with a hair dryer or heat lamp even. With the heat lamp you want to heat it belly down with the face close to the light, and keep a close eye on it with a infrared temp gun. It can get it up to 100 degree's quickly and that's high enough, 90's would be ok.
With a hair dryer I heat it up into the higher 80's and that really helps to get them to want it. Also during thaw I put the feeder on top of the enclosure which is a screen so by the time they thaw the snake is like a horse in a racing gate with fork in hand. Didn't sound like you where doing the heat up after thaw. That might really help you to do that rather than just thaw and present or lay out.

Also do you dangle by the tail? This will cause more misses. I would instead grab the feeder by the mid back with tweezers and make it walk sideways in front of the opening (that is if your snake doesn't come rushing out to eat) this technique will make it seem more like a live feeder. Usually works if they are hungry.

I also got that impression though, I am surprised you don't heat them higher with the hair dryer I typically heat them to about a surface temp of 115-130 with my temp gun. This seems to marvelously reduce the chances of being tagged on your hand instead of the rodent. Just a thought seeing as the human body rests at a usual temperature of about 98F.