Please do not feed your snake gerbils. I know you think you're giving your snake a special treat, but what you would really be doing is setting yourself up for hard times down the road.

Ball pythons don't need or even recognize "special" prey items.

Ball pythons will often imprint on gerbils and will refuse to feed on anything else. The ONLY cases I'm aware of where a BP was willing to starve themselves to death rather than break a fast, all involved the feeding of gerbils.

In addition, gerbils have large, sharp rodent teeth, and are very willing to use them.