Quote Originally Posted by enginee837 View Post
I dont believe this is a topic with any scientific study behind so I am looking at more of a discussion based on genetics. So here goes, 2 questions;
Is a strong feeding response and willingness to eat anything a gene that can be line bred for?
that would be awesome but i don't think it's genetic. i think picky eaters come w/ the territory if u have a BP or a collection. for this reason, i no longer believe that BP's are the perfect beginner snake. of course some are monster eaters but BP's in general are fussy w/ mice vs. rats, live vs. f/t, husbandry, seasons, meal prep, etc. u can fix things like husbandry but that will not help when your BP is in a fast.
i think alot of the pickiness comes from the transition from mice to rats, from live to f/t and the failures to convert them. Lol i think we can solve the problem by feeding all of our BP's plenty of live mice only.

Quote Originally Posted by enginee837 View Post
Is catering to picky/weak eaters rather than culling them doing a disservice to bp's in general?
how soon do u cull? 3 picky meals attempts, 3 months? what's the prey? what if u fail to convert a BP to a f/t rat after 6months of perfectly eating f/t mice? is that being picky enough and do u cull? depending on visual genetics involved, we might be missing out on some cool morphs if all we did was cull picky eaters.

Quote Originally Posted by enginee837 View Post
My reason for asking is I have seen discussions regarding picky irregular eating habits being a downside of bp's in general however I know they are not all like that. I personally have some that are absolute garbage disposals and some that are a pain in the butt when it comes to what/if they will eat (hatchlings and adults).
not every BP is a picky eater, it's just the "popular" consensus. just like not every Boa or Retic is a garbage disposal.

Quote Originally Posted by Deborah View Post
I used to have a real picky feeder from day one, everything was tried everything failed until I did something that kick start her feeding habit and now she eats like a horse and is very aggressive when it comes too food.
what did u do?