Do BP's have color preferance in their feeder rats

[blue roses]

Well, after 8 weeks and using every trick i could find on this forum, along with all the suggestions by my local reptile store, i finally figured out why my bp wouldn't eat. I was feeding her colored rats. The only rats i could get live or frozen were black or hooded. She wouldn't touch them. She acctually struck at them to push them away then went back into her hide. This week we were discussing it at the local reptile store, and one of the guys said, try one of the white rat pups we just got in and see if the color changes her mind abouteating. So i got the white pup, put it in her tank and low and behold, not 15 minutes later we heard the squeek and the food was gone. Has anyone ever had a bp that had a food color preferance, or was she just hungry enough to eat.

[Morjean]

I've heard about BPs refusing food due to colour, but only ever heard about the "artificial" white rats being refused in favour of dark ones hahah

[stickyalvinroll]

Doubtful

[se7en]

i've heard that, but it doesn't seem to come into play with any of my ball pythons. at least not that i've noticed.

[Morjean]

ED [can't seem to edit my post, strange strange]: Though it's funny to hear that yours seemingly refused the more "natural" ones! Has she eaten with you yet previous to that foodstrike? If not, do you know what the previous keeper fed her? i'm curious now haha

[Slim]

I've had people I trust tell me they've experienced color preference in their collections, but I've not seen it in mine.
With my boys, if it smells like a rat, dead or alive, it's a gonner.

[AbsoluteApril]

i finally figured out why my bp wouldn't eat. I was feeding her colored rats.

I have one that is the exact same way. Black/gray f/t rat? Won't touch it. Mostly white with black/gray hood? Won't touch it. All white, loves em. I'm still playing around a bit to try to 'prove it' (want to try cream solid/hood) but so far, it seems to be a preference. None of my other snakes (BPs and otherwise) care at all, if it's food, it's food.

[Morjean]

I have one that is the exact same way. Black/gray f/t rat? Won't touch it. Mostly white with black/gray hood? Won't touch it. All white, loves em. I'm still playing around a bit to try to 'prove it' (want to try cream solid/hood) but so far, it seems to be a preference. None of my other snakes (BPs and otherwise) care at all, if it's food, it's food.

Funny! Keep us updated if you do manage to "prove" anything haha, I'm interested in this

[blue roses]

Yes, she ate well after her acclumation period. she was eating frozen thawed, but then just stopped eating, and i thought it was because she was in shed. well she shed after 3 weeks of hiding, but then still refused and i started to notice that she would strike like she was pushing it away, i tried going live but no good. i ended up with 3 pet baby rats cause my daughter fell in love with the them. The only thing i can think of is that the only explanation is that since her shed i can only get colored rats. When my local reptile store got in white rats this week, he called and said lets try a live white one, cause all her previous meals that she ate were white. So we tried a live white rat last night and she ate, i have a couple of frozen weenlings that are on the small side, I will try one next week she is bigenough for themand they are all white. She was eating frozen when she stopped.
I am also picking up a new tank for her. Pet smart has exo-terra tanks 36x18x18 on sale for 110 dollars till tonight. Even though i don't need the bigger tank yet i can't pass up that price. I found this price on their web site and called the store and they said they would honor the on line sale.

[AbsoluteApril]

I had been waiting for a few weeks to get her really hungry and last night, my BP that was a hold out for solid white rats took and ate a (f/t) white with black hood rat. Finally broke the streak!