Baby hoggie hasn't eaten for a month and a half

[TheAwkwardTurtle]

I've had my baby hoggie (Suki) for about a month and a half and she has yet to eat for me. She started out at 10 grams and was at about 8.3 grams last time I weighed her about a week ago. Still very active, tongue-flicking and everything. She was captive bred and the people at the pet store (who I know well and actually know what they are doing) said she was eating frozen thawed pinkies "like a pig" for them.

About a week ago I took her to my herp vet (he is very experienced with reptiles; not one of those vets who says they treat herps but knows almost nothing about them) and he said she looked very healthy and active, didn't even look underweight. He was reluctant to try tube feeding an animal that still looked so healthy despite losing weight so we decided to wait another two weeks. It's been one week and if she hasn't eaten by next Friday I will be taking her back to the vet for tube feeding.

Basically I'm just looking for feeding tricks to try in the meantime.

Husbandry
-aspen bedding
-lots of hides and artificial plants
-10 gallon tank
-heat mat under one side; warm side is high 70s to low 80s, cool side is mid 70s, basking spot is in the 90s
-water bowl
-I started with a light over her but the brightness seemed to stress her out so I got rid of it (at the pet store she got ambient light coming in the store windows but didn't have a particular light for her individual cage); now she gets ambient light from the window near her tank which more closely resembles what she was used to
-I have not handled her except to put her in a small box with the pinkie when I was trying that feeding method and to briefly weigh her (which took about five seconds and I did it after she was already huffy and stressed from a failed feeding)

What I've tried so far:
-super hot pinkie
-skin temperature pinkie
-brained pinkie
-putting pinkie in small container with snake and leaving overnight
-leaving pinkie in the tank in a covered area
-tong feeding
-rubbing pinkie blood/brains on snake's nose
-scenting with canned tuna
-scenting with chicken broth
-scenting with a live tiger salamander (didn't have a toad)
-leaving her alone for a week and then offering

Vet recommended trying some warm chicken flavored baby food on a spoon in front of her (or rubbing it on the pinkie). I've also heard that egg white can be appetizing to them too. Anyone had luck with either of those?

The thing that kills me is that she will approach the food on the tongs, even lick it sometimes and rest her nose against it. She's seemed so close to eating it several times and then she will hiss and start mock-striking it and then eventually run away and hide. She is such a tease.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Get a smaller enclosure temporarily something like this (Sterilite 2.7 Quarts) http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=sterilite%202.7




and aim for 80/82 and 90/92

I used to keep my hatchlings until they reach 20 grams in those (now I actually use even smaller tubs since I have a Pencil Box Rack)

Try feeding live pinks.

Do you know how many meals were fed before they sold this animals to you? Do you know if it was scented or unscented? How many F/T

Do you know for sure if it is a female (male are more prone to go off feed)

If you do all that and it still does not work here are some things you can do (it is a step backward but sometimes you got to do what you have to do in order to get them on the right track)

Scent the pinkie with either

Tuna
Chicken Broth
Salmon
Anchovies
Toad

Might take different tries with different scents.

[TheAwkwardTurtle]

When you say "aim for either 80/82 or 90/92" do you mean for the basking area, the warm, end or the whole tank?

I'm loathe to switch her to a smaller tank because she's not acting like she's intimidated by the big space. She's out and about all the time, moving between different hides and/or sitting out in the open looking at me for food. But I'm willing to try it if you think it will work. Won't it kind of be starting over with the getting used to the new enclosure thing though? I'm also a tad worried about maintaining the right heat gradient in such a small space. I have a ZooMed mini heat mat on her tank currently.

She is a confirmed female; the guy at the pet store probed her before we took her home.

I don't know exactly how many pinks she had eaten, but the guy mentioned that she was taking two a week (frozen thawed). He also said he didn't think they had been scenting the pinks but he wasn't in charge of feeding that particular snake.

I've tried scenting with chicken broth and canned tuna multiple times, but maybe I'll try those others you mentioned.

The vet said he didn't think trying a live pink would be a good idea in this case. Frozen thawed was what she was used to and she seems intimidated by the dead pinkies so live might scare her even more.