I tried to offer to him on a once-a-week schedule the first year--which was what the breeder said. But he was snippy, and would hiss every time I put my hand in his enclosure and then ignore the prey item. As in full body hiss. Got to the point I thought he would never eat when I got him, because it was over a week of settling down (He took over a month and still was acting insecure by hissing and trying to strike at me--I didn't try to take him out for a while to see if he'd settle down.) and he wouldn't eat. I tried live prey, but if the prey item was too big, he wouldn't eat it. I tried much smaller prey items, but he wouldn't take them and ignored them, so I ended up trying to convert him to frozen-thawed, but he was much more stubborn than the other snakes about frozen-thawed. I had to go back and get him live rats (like the breeder gave him) a few times. It had to be exactly to the size he wanted it--not too big, not too small. The other ball pythons I bought that year didn't care.

I own other BPs and never had this issue before. It's only him. My oldest snake never cared about prey size that much, if it's a rat pup she'll eat it.

This meant a few months of him not eating sometimes as I struggled to try to get the right size and get him to eat ('cause only eats live and the pet store didn't always have the size he wanted which had to be exact.). I named him Adonis because of how picky he is. I tried to change the size of his hides too. Basically psychological issues led him to feeling stressed all the time and not eating, even though I didn't do anything to further that.

So in all of that time, he's only about double his baby size. The other snakes I bought in the same time frame are now taking small rats easily. He's only up to about weaned (3.5" - 4.5"). He refuses small rats (4.5" - 6.0"). It's his way or nothing. When he switched from rat pups to weaned, he stopped taking rat pups completely. --;; And it took me a while to figure out I had to size up to get him to eat again rather than him hunger striking. He half the size of the male that wasn't so insecure and pissy I bought at the same time.

I also bought a female at the same time period, after him, and she's 3 times his size. She also begs for food and I have to ignore her. She's only refused twice.

So should I keep him to a once a week schedule, or switch him to every two weeks like the other adult ball pythons? He's back to eating regularly and isn't showing the signs of stress he had in his first year. (I don't handle him that often since he's really sensitive).

I'm not taking him out to weigh him because he ate yesterday and he needs time to digest.