New BP: food refusal & (possible) weight loss

[SheenaCamp]

***This is very long...and I am very sorry***

Hi BP.net!

I just got 3 snakes from a very close friend of mine (for FREE!!! eqip & snakes) a week ago and one if them is an 8yr old normal ball. I don't know the sex of it, but I'm calling it a he because I've named him El Guapo (from 'Three Amigos') because he has significant scarring on him and it makes him sorta ugly-ish. More on the scarring later.

El Guapo hasn't eatten for 4 months and, while this doesn't bother me, it seems that he's lost weight. My friend tells me that she doesn't think he has; she's owned him for 1.5yrs, is an experienced animal owner (does her research) and she used to work at a zoo with reptiles, so I trust her opinion. She rescued him from a "hippie" (her words) who left a med rat in with the snake over night and found the snake almost dead the next day. The rat had attacked it so badly on it's spine (pictures below, the scar stretches almost the entire length of the body), that the "hippie" thought it would die. Apparently after that, the snake has been terrified of rats ever since.

The last time El Guapo ate, it was a live, regular-sized, white mouse. I spoke to a woman at the rep store where I get all my feeders from and she told me to up the heat (it was at 87-88 on the hot side and 82-83 on the cool side and I had ONLY heat lamp). Currently, he's in a 55gal terrarium (though I think it's a regular aquarium), 2 UHT (one small, under the red lamp and a larger one under his hide on the cool side), 90-91 on the warm side and 86-87 on the cool side, large water bowl and a branch for climbing. I know they don't climb much, but it's low to the ground and my other ball loves hers so much, I figured, why not? He only has 1 hide right now and it's on the cool side but I'm pretty sure he doesn't like it since he is NEVER in there. I bought some new hides and I plan to throw one in on the hot side and the other on the cool side (I just need to cut an entry hole in them).

I tired to give him "Roger" (reg mouse, my friend's daughters named him that when El Guapo didn't eat him); he seemed interested and following him around in slow circles in the cage but never gave ANY indication that he was after him for food; and, at one point, El Guapo was under the light when the mouse walked over, made a nest a took a little snooze. (All of this was under my VERY watchful eye.) I attempted to give him a pinky (I had an extra frozen one) and he rubbed his nose all OVER it and hard....but no dice. After an hour, I removed the pinky.

To sum up this long thing, what do you recommend? I have 3 side of the cage now blocked off with dark brown paper and I have tin foil on the screen part of the lid. I don't want to take him to the vet just yet; I want to make sure it's not something I can't fix myself first.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...g/ElGuapo1.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...g/ElGuapo2.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...g/ElGuapo3.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...g/ElGuapo4.jpg

**I tried to get the pictures attached so you wouldn't have to go to a diff page. I'll try to fix it ASAP.**