So I have a female that weighs 1250 grams bought her a few weeks ago. the 3 attempts at frozen thawed with medium rats she had tried eating tail first . No matter what I do she always looks for the tail and starts there. However she can never get the hind legs through so she gives up and just leaves the rat there .
What should I do ?
I was thinking going a size smaller? But how can that affect her weight gain long term?
Have you tried making sure the head is really warm? If the whole thing is the same temperature it can be hard for them to tell what is the head and what isn’t. Are you offering off of tongs as well?
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No i haven’t tried off of tongs . The thing is she’s the those that after construction releases and moves around and gets back to the rat after . And she looks for the middle of the tail every time . But I’ll try again warming up the head more
you might try fresh killed instead of F/T for a couple of feedings. I don’t believe it is a temp thing, I think they can smell the respiration gases (CO2) or some other indicator of the head on a live or fresh killed rat that does not exist in F/T. You could also go with smaller rats and feed 2 or even 3 instead of 1. Always preferable to feed one properly sized meal, unless they don’t eat. Even 1 smaller rat that goes down is better than a right sized one that does not get eaten
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That’s smart. Didn’t think about that logic .
And about the multiple meals that’s what I just did. She ate two rat pups back to back. I may also try to dislocate the legs of the larger frozen rats . It might help with it going in. I’ll let you know if it works .
Cool, I hope it works for you. Nothing bothers me more than when one of mine won’t eat!
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It might just be a stage in life. Have a ball python girl I already have since she was only two months old and not even 100 gram. First 1,5 year she had no problem, always head first. About half a year ago she decided she had to start at the tail and had exactly the same problem. She just gave up. Tried everything but the only thing that worked was feeding smaller prey. Now she eat’s head first again but is still scared for bigger prey. She strikes, strangles, try to eat but then get scared and lay her head next to the dead rat like a sad puppy. So I still feed her smaller prey. She grows oke, so you don’t have to worry about that. She is now a little over two years old and a nice 1200 gram and is still growing steady. I think it’s better for a snake to get smaller meals but at least she eat’s every week than trying to get bigger in her but having a snake giving up on it. She eat rats of maximum 50 gram. A little over that weight and she leaves it.
Btw, sometimes she still doesn’t eat the rat, but when I warm it a little extra she does eat it. Same as my smallest girl. She strikes, strangles and the get’s distracted and forgets the food. When I see them crawling around and left the rat, I warm it a little extra and offer again. They strikes like she never had any food before and then does eat it.
My baby corn snake and common boa also eat sometimes tail first, but they are so motivated to eat that they will get it inside, no matter what 
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Thank you your experience is very much appreciated 
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Just an update for everyone. I dislocated the back legs of the frozen rat once thawed and she ate him easily. New trick I thought I’d share.
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