I currently own two ball pythons, a young female pastel I purchased at a reptile show a few months ago, and a male normal who I'd purchased at a pet store in February. I'd known much less about ball pythons then than I did now, so that's pretty much my reasoning for buying him from there rather than a breeder. I got plenty of help in how to take care of him from my aunt, however, who loves both reptiles and avians.

At the pet store he had been severely underfed, they only gave the balls there one adult mouse a week! And when I fed him for the first time, he took two mice in quick succession.
I was told that I wouldn't be able to switch a ball python over from live to frozen, but he switched over to frozen rodents with relative ease. He didn't take the first frozen mouse I offered him, but once I tried to feed him again a while later, he hungrily took the mouse. He's now eating small - medium rats, depending on the place they're ordered from.

The problem I'm having with him now, months later, is that he's extremely difficult to get to actually eat the rats I give him! As soon as he sees the rat, he'll strike at the side of the rat, coil around it, and once he's sure it's 'dead' he'll spend some time searching for the head, only to give up and drop the rat.

Once this has happened, it becomes extremely troubling for me, because he's very aggressive once he's gone into feeding response, and he'll swerve towards my hands and face once I open the top of his tub, searching for food, and planning on biting me instead! I love him, but it can get pretty scary when a 2 foot long snake is bent on biting your face while you're trying to get a dead rat back out of his enclosure to warm it back up. Not only this, but if he finds the rat before I can get it out, he coils around it again, preventing me from warming it back up for me again! Usually I'm not able to get the rat back out of the tub, so I'm forced to wiggle it around a bit with the tongs to get him interested in it, and I'm forced to continue the process 3+ times until he finally finds the rat's head and decides to eat it. This usually leads to him having to eat his food cold.

He ALWAYS seems to strike the side of the rat, no matter what I try! I've heard of heating up the rat's head to be a bit warmer than the rest of the body, but even then, he grabs hold of the side instead. I'm not really sure what else to do for him, and I'd appreciate some advice!

I'm currently feeding him in a separate enclosure, because that's originally what had been suggested to me by other people who own snakes. I read up about it on this form, and people said it wasn't necessary, but when I tried feeding him in his tank he began acting really aggressive, even days later, after eating the rat, as if he was stuck in hunting mode! I'm wondering if it may have been due to his strong feeding response, so maybe the scent of rat was still lingering in his tank, or had the sudden change in where he was fed caused the aggressive change in his nature? Is it possible for the scent of rat to be the cause if it was days afterwards, after giving him time to digest it? The only time he's ever bitten me was when I'd reached into his tank to change his water after this ordeal, and after that he followed me inside his tank, and struck at the glass for several days before he was calm enough to handle again.

I don't really consider feeding live rats a option. They could easily bite into him if he grabbed them by the side..
I'm starting to wonder if I should just switch him back over to adult mice and feed him multiple of them, I think it might be less stressful for him at this point.

Please go easy on me if I made a mistake, I was sort of scared to post here about the issues I've been having, because of how aggressive some of the people here can get about their pets (although with good intentions in mind), because I'm pretty sensitive! Overall, I just want what's best for my snakes, and I really appreciate any advice you can give.

Sorry for the huge text post! ~ Echo