Now admittedly when I first got her I did have struggles feeding her, as I think a lot of other ball python owners initially have. I definitely was too excited to have finally gotten an animal that is my sole responsibility, and I started handling her too early. She wouldn't eat anything. She just got real close to the mouse and smelled it up. But then I started feeding her in the morning, and I haven't had a problem since. I think she was too timid to strike because she was confused if it was some weird moving tree thing reaching into her cage again or food lol. I don't know if this is related, but she gives up on food easily. She never hesitates to strike a rat in the morning on the initial strike, but she will quickly give up if she grabs it at a poor angle, or position. She sometimes powers through it, but sometimes she just lets go of it after attempting to unroll herself, and then begin swallowing it. If I attempt to feed it to her again she typically reverts back to how she acted when I first got her(intense staring match).