I have a young ball python that was an excellent eater for the first several months of life and with me was eating every 5 days (Sept-December) but since late December will typically eat every week for 2 weeks and then refuse for 2 weeks. The thing I've noticed is that if there is ANY waste in his tub, he'll refuse to eat; either he'll strike and then not swallow or will show interest but then refuse to strike at all. Once I go into his tub and find the "offending" waste and remove it and/or do a full substrate change out he eats at the next offering.

What's frustrating is that since he's still young and I'm trying to leave him alone as much as possible, especially on feeding days, he sometimes "sneaks" a urate or a small poop into his tub in the 1-2 days prior to feeding and then refuses to eat! It feels like I need to be searching his tub every day which I've trained myself to not do since I had my last fussy eater.

On the plus side he's gaining weight (slowly since he eats 1/2 as much as my other BP) and pooping and doing all those normal things...so maybe this is just the way it is with him. He's at ~212g up from his arrival weight of 120g (so 100g in 5 months, by contrast his "sister" is up ~200g in the same time)

Anyone else had any experience with a BP that is this fussy about tub cleanliness? Thoughts?