My ball python, Gin, finally decided winter was over and the week before last emerged from his upside-down flower pot. He yawned and began looking for food. Back to his old tricks, he has refused one out of two rats already. For those of you who don’t know this snake, here’s an introduction: I picked Gin from a litter of tiny, adorable snakes at a breeder’s house about five years ago. He was the runt, and the breeder tried to convince me to choose another hatchling. All of the others were bigger and more interactive; while the runt remained curled in a ball in a corner of the tank, the others came up to my hand when I put it in the tank to investigate and climb. But for some reason, I wanted the antisocial one. He’s a cool pet, don’t get me wrong. So interesting and beautiful, and he’s come out of his shell some. When I take him out of the tank, he makes his way up to my hair, where he likes to hide. But he’s never been a good eater. For a few months, I had to “assist feed” him, a process that involved basically slowly shoving a thawed baby ratling into his throat. Since then, I’ve had to try one trick after another to get him to eat. I won’t get into these, because they’re disgusting. His main problem is that he doesn’t seem to be able to locate the rat most times. I dangle the thawed rat into the tank, for example, on the right side, and Gin perks up and sticks his tongue out and starts looking for the source of the food-smell and focuses his search on the left side. Half the time, he locates the rat, lunges for it, sinks his teeth in, and curls around it to constrict it to death (again). Half the time, he just can’t seem to find it. Sometimes he even touches the rat but then moves on, still searching. Sometimes, he lunges at the glass side of the tank. Ouch. Even when he does take the rat, he spits it back out if I don’t immediately leave the room and vacate it of all cats and make sure it’s dark. He is a very picky one, and possibly a bit slow. Anyway, rest easy, everyone, because winter is over. My brilliant snake says so.