Rat shy but will take mice

[BlueMoonExotics]

Some of you may have seen my posts about the group of balls I picked up: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...take-this-deal and http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...gress-Pictures. I FINALLY got the big albino girl to eat something today but it wasn't a rat. I ordered some frozen mice just for the sake of trying to get the non eaters to eat SOMETHING as some of them are getting really badly thin (not this girl but others). I'm both happy and a little sad about her taking the mouse as I'd like them all to be on the same type of food, not to mention that she's a big girl so it's going to take a lot of rats to fill her up!

When I first brought her home she already had a nasty bite from a rat. I tried to get a picture of it in that old thread but it still didn't show all of it. If you look closely you can kind of see where the wound starts to go up under her neck as well. I think she may be "rat shy" after a bite like that but is there any way I can get her back on rats? She literally seems afraid of them.

[Andys-Python]

Being grateful that she is eating now, I'd feed her what she will eat until she is settled in and doing well. Then try rat fuzzies or hoppers and start working your way up to larger, appropriate size rats.

Just my 2 cents.
Andy -

[Montypython696]

Great work getting them to start eating, now if I could only get my new albino girl to eat...

[BlueMoonExotics]

Being grateful that she is eating now, I'd feed her what she will eat until she is settled in and doing well. Then try rat fuzzies or hoppers and start working your way up to larger, appropriate size rats.

Just my 2 cents.
Andy -

I suppose you're right and I should just be happy with her eating. Once I get her rounded back out again I will try your idea. I was just starting off with small rats but maybe even smaller would work. If that doesn't work then maybe rubbing the mouse scent onto the rat would help? I don't know if that would even "cover up" the rat smell or maybe even confuse her. Just thinking out loud. I am super glad she's eating though so I'll take what I can get at this point on the "non eaters".