At 500 grams, she's still young enough to change. Try waiting an extra week or even two between offering her food. Sometimes making them think the food isn't always going to magically be there will help a lot. Sometimes they are just determined to drive you nuts no matter what.
Just keep offering the rats. DO NOT back track and offer mice yet. If you give in to her stubbornness now, that will be the end. Try switching things around on her. Alter her enclosure or put her in a different one altogether. If she's in a rack, change the shelf she's on. Move her higher or lower. Get her active and moving, and she's more likely to go back on feed. Sometimes that even works. You can even try changing her temps a little, a few degrees cooler for a week or two will sometimes get them interested again. I have never found the scenting thing to work much. No matter how hard I tried.
Mostly though, you just have to decide if it's worth the wait to get her eating rats again, or if you just want her to grow NOW, and give in to the mouse thing. I have several snakes that are ratters, a few mousers, some ASF feeders, one gerbil only, one hamster only, and a few who don't much care what it is as long as it has fur it's food. Since I raise all my own food, it really doesn't matter to me what they eat as long as they eat. Although the gerbil only female and the hamster only female sure to wear on my patience from time to time. Only you can make that choice. But I know your frustration.
Gale
Reply With Quote