Just here to see if it’s normal for a ball python to start refusing food before going into blue. I can see her belly is slightly pink but her eyes haven’t gone blue/opaque and it’s hard to tell looking at her colors because she doesn’t dull very much when going into shed. She’s a pastel het hypo. Pretty girl! But yes, she normally doesn’t waste time to smack the rodent but she has refused all week to eat. Is this normal? Or could she just not want to eat for no specific reason. It’s been about 5 weeks since her last shed. She is almost 8 months old.
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I’ve had my BP for four years and I know when she’s going into shed before she goes blue because that’s the only time she ever refuses her rat. I’ve heard that they are notorious for going off food for no particular reason, especially the mature males, but haven’t experienced that so far myself. Though I do only have the one. As long as yours isn’t losing a significant amount of weight (and temps, humidity, etc. are all dialed in) I wouldn’t worry at all.
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Some BPs get very picky about eating when going into shed. One of my girls acts the same way and goes off food for about 2 weeks before the shed.
If it ends up being a longer food strike, that’s typically not as common in a female of that age. If she does shed and still isn’t eating after, I would check the habitat temps and maybe double check her sex. Quite a large number of people have had surprises on the gender, even some long-term breeders.
Another consideration is her body mass. If she’s a bit on the hefty side, sometimes they will try and auto regulate by going 2 weeks between meals. BPs do tend to be kept overweight by many owners, even those who are not conditioning for breeding.
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Yes, it can be normal. As @armiyana said, some BP’s can be picky. I have one girl that will go off food 2 weeks before his shed, and then wait an additional 2 weeks after to eat. I have some that’ll eat in shed, and then will be picky out of shed, and then there’s those favorite garbage cans that’d eat nonstop at a buffet if allowed. As long as your snake is eating before or after a shed, there’s nothing to worry about!
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Just curious as to what size of rat and how often are you feeding? 
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Yep.
Finnley has the appetite of a starved boa and will hit any warm body that enters his enclosure- except when he is In Blue. And since he’s a white snake it’s hard to know otherwise so that’s my main hint to give him some extra humidity to shed with.
After he’s done that, he goes right back to being a Hungree Boi.
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I had her on 2 f/t 18 gram mice when I first got her but have recently switched her to f/t rats (35-40 grams) and she’s been fine with them. She was also fed live rats at the breeder’s. Just randomly decided to stop eating last feed day. Tomorrow is the next feed day technically.
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Ok sounds good! Fingers crossed! 