Issues Feeding

[dakski]

Hi guys, I’ve been having some issues with my girl. For the first 6 months that I had her she was eating frozen thawed very well. Then she went on a feeding strike so I tried feeding live and she took to it very readily, despite her hunger strike. Well now she seems to be afraid of any rat I put in front of her, or just picky? The size she should be eating is a weanling-small rat. She won’t take anything small, like fuzzies (20-30 grams). She’ll sniff it out but decide it’s not worth her time. Anything bigger and she gets scared? For instance I put her in the bathtub tonight because it’s a biggerr space and I figured that maybe being in a small space made her feel insecure since she can’t get away. I put a 50g rat in there, she acted interested, but as soon as it got close to her, she was no longer interested.
More details:
Always feed outside the cage in a large ziplock container
Tried different color rats and different sizes
Used to eat frozen thawed but will no longer touch frozen

Any advice? /:

I'll be brief, but here are some initial thoughts.

1. Feed in the enclosure. Many snakes, especially shy ones, like BP's, get very stressed being moved somewhere to eat. Let her eat where she is comfortable.

2. Feed F/T if she took that in the past, unless you want a snake that eats live. It can difficult to get them to switch back to F/T. You might have to be persistent and/or try live, then pre-killed, etc. Not sure what to tell you here. BP's often fast, and will sometimes take live more readily when fasting, but that's not necessarily good unless you want to keep feeding live.

3. Open space equal insecurity for BP's. They want to stay hidden and not feel exposed. Another reason she may not eat.

4. How are you defrosting and offering you F/T food?

5. How much does she weigh and how old is she? Do you have pictures? She might be fine not eating for a while.

Any responses would be helpful and feel free to ask for clarification.

Good luck.