Female BP weird feeding habits

[Sharp717]

So my adult female ball python, Diana, refuses to eat when I offer her food. I take her out of her enclosure and put her in a bin either hold or put a rat in front of her (They are live, but I want to move them to f/t its just buying and feeding them live is the easier atm) and she just completely ignores it. The first time I was feeding her she moved towards the rat and then just shoots her head back when it moves towards her. She did this over the course of the day and the next day when it was offered (these times while she was in her enclosure.) Now on the third day I just put the rat in the enclosure and just watched to see what she did before, after about 3 hours of letting the rat be in there she just strikes, kills and eats it. Now fast forward to today, I do the same thing, put her in a bin, offer her a rat, ignores it. Now today I was worried that they where to big but my other ball python who seems a little smaller then her ate it just fine. What should I do? A guy at the store I get the rats from recommended I not feed her for a week and then offer her a rat but I don't know.

[Caspian]

For starters, ditch the bin. Feed her in her enclosure. There's no reason to stress her out by removing her from it. There is no reason whatsoever to feed her in a bin.

[T_Sauer]

I agree ditch the bin. Moving them before feeding is either A) going to stress the snake out or B) get you tagged, and no a bite from a ball python is no big deal normally, but getting tagged from a ball python that is in feeding mode is a whole different situation.

Make sure her water is full and leave her be for an entire week, do not get her out do not clean her enclosure, do absolutely nothing with her. This will allow her time to relax and become stress free ....

Since you want to switch her to f/t rats go ahead and get one ..... after the week of stress free environment is up, thaw the rat and then set it in the room close to her enclosure. Let it set there for about 20 min so the scent can spread. More than likely when you return after 20 min she will either be out of her hide actively looking for the rat she smells, or she will have her head at the front of her hide gently open the enclosure and introduce the rat to her .... try not to touch her with the rat, just slowly taunt her with it. The rat should be around 95 to 100℉ when you offer it to her as ball pythons use their heat receptors to track their prey

[Albert Clark]

This ^^^^^^ . Also try to refrain from handling the python at all at least 2 days prior to feedings.

[NoStepOnSnek]

Also minimize the time the food is in her enclosure. 3 hours seems like an overkill.