BP wont eat female rats/mice?

My friend has a ball python who eats live that she says wont eat female mice or rats. When I first heard this, I thought it was bologna.

I have two ball pythons that also only eat live (One I'm tricking into eating f/t by putting a luve rat in a cage in her tank). The smaller one I feed adult mice or small rats. Just by coincidence they have all been male (I check before hand so I can tell the little guy/gal I'm sorry and hope for a quick passing).

Well my BP has a female mouse. She's been in there 4 days! She made a little nest and sleeps next to him and he just ignores her. I have to feed the mouse now!

Is there a reason both snakes do this? This happen to anyone else? Do they know females make more food? Are these snakes chivalrous? Is it just a coincidence?

Kinda annoying. I now have a mouse and a hungry snake that wont eat the mouse. I'll go get him a male mouse on monday, maybe put the female mouse on craigslist.

You really shouldn't leave a live rodent in with a snake for 4 days. Get it out of there and offer it again later. Live rodents can severely injure or even kill a snake if left unattended for too long.

I second that. The mouse might actually start to chew on the snake and cause severe wounds.

I've heard that if a snake doesn't eat an animal in the first day it is unlikely to do so later because it either becomes used to the scent of that particular mouse and stops associating it with food, or the mouse itself starts to smell of snake and so is unrecognisable.

So, if this has only happened with one female mouse, it might just be that the snake wasn't hungry at that point, and now it no longer thinks of this mouse as food.

However, not to have a closed mind, if it regularly happens with female mice but not males, maybe you have stumbled onto something interesting - obviously the hormones of the two sexes will "taste" different to the snake. You could start to record the sex of the feeder animals and how long it takes for your snakes to take them.

I removed her from the cage. My snake is fine, a little wet because the mouse spilled the water. Gotta clean that all up now :/

I think I might do a little study on the gender of feeder animals. Could make a good college thesis. . .

Originally Posted by Runs_With_Wolves

I think I might do a little study on the gender of feeder animals. Could make a good college thesis. . .

You never know. While my first reaction is to say it's probably nothing, until investigated you cannot be certain....