I've found over the years with ball pythons that four things are important when it comes to getting ball pythons to eat well ...

1. Have a consistent and regular feeding schedule and routine - If you feed on the same day each week, at about the same time .... follow the same routine each time you do ... make the same sounds ... expose the snakes to the same smells .... over time you will teach your snake what feeding day is all about ... once you do that, half of the battle is over ... once they are programmed as to what feeding day is all about and can recognize it before you even offer them food, it's easier to get them to accept a meal without a problem.

2. Feed small ... In my experience, ball pythons will "fill up" on food when it is plentiful and then fast to allow their bodies to catch up ... if you want to feed regularly, each and every week and be successful ... then smaller food items are better ... I have 4000 gram females that only eat 1 or maybe 2 40-50 gram rats per feeding ... but they eat every single week all year long.

3. Security, security, security .... keeping ball pythons in low traffic areas with small tight hides and disturbing them as little as possible makes them much better feeders than snakes that are handled and tossed around like show pets.

4. Heat, heat, heat .... Their metabolism is driven by how warm they are, so the warmer they are the hungrier they are ... balls seems to show very little or only luke warm interest in food if they are exposed to temps below 80, so keeping them warmer helps.

Doing all of those things do not make it a "sure thing" that your ball python will take F/T ... eating dead prey items isn't a natural behavior for them and it's something that you must train them to do ... but, doing the four things above in my opinion will greatly improve your chances of getting your ball python to eat anything you'd like it to very consistently.

-adam