Ball python only eat female rats

[Stitz]

Hello

I have noticed that my ball only wants to eat female rats.
I have had him for 2 month.
He is a very shy eater. He won't strike. He only eats if the rat is placed in he's enclosure. I called the previous owner and she said that he also only will eat if the rat was placed in the tank.
First when I got him he refused to eat(male rat)
Second time he refused also male rat. I then ordered 5 new rats online. They were all female, and he eat them all. Now I needed some new rats so I went to a local pet store, I buy him 2 new rats. They were male. He refused to eat them.
I will now order new rats for him online again.

My questions are:

Does your Ball python preference male or female, or doesn't it matter?

The last two rats from the local pet store, when they were defrosted, they seem skinny. And in a not so good condition.
Does your Ball python refuse a meal if the rat is to skinny?

Thank you for your time. Hope you can understand my English.

[Rjr24777]

I'm a first time owner too but I guess yours is just too picky, I've heard from breeders that they just have to assist feed until they start doing it themselves but I don't recommend doing that with out breeders help and lots of research. Mine I buy from the pet store too and she is just a fat ass and loves anything I give her


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[cchardwick]

I've never heard of it but I guess it's possible. I would think male rats have a bit more smell to them. In general I think the size of the rodent really depends on the snake, some like larger and some like smaller food items. I didn't think rodent preference was real but I have a snake or two that will only eat mice, they won't eat rats even the same size as a mouse.

[Stitz]

He eats, so I will not force it in him.
He has gained weight since I got him. He started on 750g. I weighted him two days ago and now his weight is 930g.
I think that's a good gain in weight so no need for assist feeding.

Actually some of the male rats smelled pretty bad. The females didn't smell at all.
Thank you for your reply.

[Rjr24777]

I am just a beginner but if he's gaining he should be fine, he's probably just picky and kinda lazy aha


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[Stitz]

I'm not concerned about his health.

My question is only about if other had trouble with feeding male or female rat.

He eat, drink, poop/pee and shedding. And is a happy ball python The only problem or weird going on, is that he won't eat male rats!

[Popeye]

Must be a very picky snake.

My snake will only eat white rats. It's been like that the last 3 to 4 years.

I've tried color rats and the snake refused to eat. Picky, Picky.

[Lizardlicks]

Actually some of the male rats smelled pretty bad. The females didn't smell at all.

Feeders should not have a"bad" smell to them no matter the gender. A little ratty, maybe, and that's it. My guess would be that gender has nothing to do with it and quality of the feeders is what tipped him off. The female rats came from a reliable online source and were frozen and packaged properly so he ate them. The locally purchased ones were bad or off, so he refused them. Gender is purely coincidence in this case.

[Stitz]

Popeye:

Sounds like you have bigger problems. All rat breeders around my town only have white rats. The rats i order online is almost black. Maybe color can have something to do whit it to?? Crazy snakes


Lizardlick:

I think you right, the smell of the rats from the local store smells bad, and the overall look of them is not great. I just order 10 new rats today online. So hopefully he will eat on the next feeding day. Thanks for your reply

[Lizardlicks]

Yeah, some of those individually packaged ones you get from stores can be really bad! They sit and defrost on a shipment truck and then the employees just toss them back in the freezer. When you get them online direct from a distributor they ship right to you, and you can inspect the feeders yourself and let the company know if they defrosted in transit. The other option is find someone who produces them locally and will do the same thing, but in general,I don't trust those store bought ones without a lot of inspection, and even then there can be something wrong with it that I don't see or smell but the snake does, so I trust it's judgement if it's telling me "no, not that one."