Reusing rats?

[Tirevy]

So I know I've asked this before about refreezing and rethawing prey. First of all, I need more clarification. How many times can I thaw it and refreeze it? My ball hasn't eaten since october 7th, and she's slightly loosing weight. I am offering her a weaned rat every week or so, though she keeps refusing. I just don't want to waste all these good rats.

What should I do?

[Cody John Steele]

I don't know how many times you can refreeze them, but I heard you could refreeze them a good many times. As long as you aren't leaving them un-thawed for extended periods of time.

[JLC]

Personally, I wouldn't refreeze more than once. Every time you freeze and thaw, the cellular walls break down a little more. If you're not careful, you'll end up with a gooey, nasty mess that smells worse than you can possibly imagine.

What I would do in your shoes (and have done) is go from trying every week to trying every two weeks...or even every three weeks if she stays stubborn.

How old is she? And adult bp can (and will) fast for a long time sometimes. But a young, still growing bp...if they go off food for longer than 2-3 weeks...you need to reexamine your husbandry and figure out why.

[Tirevy]

Personally, I wouldn't refreeze more than once. Every time you freeze and thaw, the cellular walls break down a little more. If you're not careful, you'll end up with a gooey, nasty mess that smells worse than you can possibly imagine.

What I would do in your shoes (and have done) is go from trying every week to trying every two weeks...or even every three weeks if she stays stubborn.

How old is she? And adult bp can (and will) fast for a long time sometimes. But a young, still growing bp...if they go off food for longer than 2-3 weeks...you need to reexamine your husbandry and figure out why.

She's about 1 year old now. I actually just fed her tonight, and she ate!! Finally! But very small prey... The breeder said I should feed her small rats, rather than weaned ones. I thawed out another one after she ate, but she never took the second.

From what I can tell, my set up is good.
UTH 92F
Cool side, 74F-ish (using a CHE)
Humidity about 50-65%

And that's it.. I don't have a thermostat to automatically regulate anything. It gets very, very cold in the winter where I live, and my room tends to drop in temp too. But i'm trying here!

[Jadonh]

Shouldn't drop below 75 at night, not 74 ish you need to find a way to increase temps also remember they are snakes from Africa. Need to heat 74 ish to 83 ish. Aslo try live sometimes snakes, especially Balls will not eat or will go off food for long periods of time. Try live and see if that gets her going. Its also winter normal for them to go off feed, you might try hibernating her, but if she is losing weight, that not a good idea till you have put more weight on her

[Tirevy]

Shouldn't drop below 75 at night, not 74 ish you need to find a way to increase temps also remember they are snakes from Africa. Need to heat 74 ish to 83 ish. Aslo try live sometimes snakes, especially Balls will not eat or will go off food for long periods of time. Try live and see if that gets her going. Its also winter normal for them to go off feed, you might try hibernating her, but if she is losing weight, that not a good idea till you have put more weight on her

In Alberta, we are considered "rat-free" so that means no live rats to feed my snake. what would be a better alternative to try feeding her live? Mice?

Also, when is a Ball considered an adult? Is a one year old still a juvenile?

[mykee]

I would be more concerned with your year old ball python losing weight after not having eaten for only 7 weeks. Balls can easily go a year without any depreciable weight loss.
As mentioned by the few here with common sense and I'm also guessing experience; you try once; if it doesn't get eaten, it goes in the trash.
The SECOND that rat is no longer frozen, bacteria starts to multiply. The longer it remains unfrozen (raw) they will build up a huge bacteria load.
The responsible thing to do it not to expose your ball python to that.