Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm just curious if anyone elses balls have a preference to the color of their pray. my girl will snap on tan prekill mice right away, but if they are white i have to leave her with them a while before she just gently starts to swallow with out constricting. but with the tan she treats them like they are live with the quick attack and constricting.

i just wanted to see if anyone else notices this with their balls, or if it was just some other invisible to my eye detail, like temp or smell, i got these mice from a different pet store than usual.

thanks in advance guys, i am pretty interested in seeing what other people think on this one
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~dana~

1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)
1.0 cat (whiskers)
1.1 russian hamsters (peanut and tj)

ive noticed it too...very much so. my first BP came to me eating white mice. i got some frozen feeders that were black from a local guy. my BP punded the no problem. when i got some from a differetn breeder, they were white and my BP wouldnt take the. its now back on f/t white mice but it obviously has a preference for dark mice.
some people might disagree with the fact that they have a preference to any color, or that they can even see color. buts ive heard from many people that their BPs will prefer a dark mouse to a light mouse. for anyone that might be sceptical, keep in mind that it could be an individuals personality thing too.

i have on male pastel who will only eat brown mouse, i am not saying it is based on the colour, but mayby they smell different, and its down to snake preference

They do reccommend offering dark mice to fussy feeders ass it's more like what they come accross in the wild. However, I have one male who will only eat white rodents so I do think colour preference of the snake plays a part.

>>They do reccommend offering dark mice to fussy feeders ass it's more like what they come accross in the wild. However, I have one male who will only eat white rodents so I do think colour preference of the snake plays a part.
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Rob Talkington

In May of 2003 we bought 200 CH females. Many still in shed and had not eaten. So I do not think it was because they were use to a darker color prey it in the wild. Could they smell differently, maybe? But we get 500 rats per week and only 50 or less are NOT Albino rats. So they are mixed up with the Albinos rats pretty well. They should smell the same.

Here is the story. I grab some trays of rats and begin to drop them in the rack with female balls. Later I come back to find 40 or so did not eat. Good ratio right? Well not in color of rats that I have to take out, it is about 20 NON-Albino rats and 20 Albino rats. Week after week I see this after first realizing it. Remember we only get about 20 NON Albino rats per 200 and for the first 4 months they got both rats and mice(Albino). So I did not realize this until months later after we sold about 100 and the numbers were smaller and easily viewed. I still got a great percentage of the NON-Albino rats out of racks after feeding.

I sold 20 of these females to 1 customer and he was pleasantly surprised at their size given how old they were. I told him they were on rats 3-4 every 2 weeks. Well, he gets them and tries feeding them. Nothing! Not one eats! I speak to him and he tells me this. I said "what are you trying to feed them"? He said "rats." I said "what color rats?" He said "hooded rats" meaning colored rats, "why?" he asked. I told him the story and he said that he bred Albino mice and hooded rats and that he would find some Albino rats and try them. Well, I have not heard back from this customer with this complaint about the females not eating. Go figure. Could it be that ball pythons(snakes) can see color? I do not know, but sure looks like it to me.

Have you noticed the hair on the black mice is more coarse than the hair on the white mice? Maybe it's just me but if that's noticeable maybe there is a different smell to them as well. It's either that or BP's can see color.

What other explanations could there be?
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Rob Talkington

Both of my B.P.'s seem to prefer white mice... very strange! It seems though, when I warm up the mice, the darker one's even smell stronger to ME. My male B.P. will take a darker one, reluctantly... but the new female will have nothing to do with it... unless it's white.
Mindy