New Owner Worries

[YoJimbo]

Hi everyone, I apologise in advance for this long post and the constant use of Royal not Ball, but i'll try and break it down so you can skip bits:

Background

Last year while on holiday my son watched a wildlife show and got picked to handle a corn snake, since then he has always asked for one. So the wife and I decided that if he can save up some money he can get one..... Thinking that a 6 yr old would never save. But lo and behold he save all his Christmas money, Birthday money and even money from bits like Easter. So when he gathered £250 and asked if he can have a snake and having known he researched lots of you tube videos we couldn't say no. He is also autistic so we thought a pet would be nice for him to calm him and give him something to focus on.

We originally planed on a corn snake but having spoken to some reptile experts at a local zoo we frequently visit they suggested a Royal Python as they are slightly larger and slower to handle compared to the more slimline and agile corns... amongst all the other pro's and con's.

So we took him to a pet shop that was highly recommended and there he got to handle a corn and a royal, with him falling in love with the Royal.

Set Up

We opted for the forever home set up which looks like below:






The Vivarium is 48x18x18, we are using a Ceramic heater on a pulse stat. We have 2 hides a small branch, large water bowl, foliage and currently using exo terra snake bedding.

The hot end is around 32 Degrees Celsius (34 at probe) and the cool end is circa 27 Degrees in the cool end (Using a thermo gun).


The Snake​

the snake is roughly 7 months old and currently weighing in at:
He was supposed to be eating weekly rat pups.


The Concerns:

Since we have had the snake it seems to spend 95% of its time in the cool end in its cool hide, even when switching hides around or placing him in the hot end after a handle. It always goes to the cool end.

It has not eaten for the last 7 weeks, it will go and put its head next to the feed, then just not show any interest.

It has done one poo since we have had it, so now i am guessing it hasn't anything inside.

While i understand they can go without food for quite some time I'm concerned as to why it's gone from a regular strike feeder to food shy, i would have hoped that by week 5 it would have settled in and be ready to eat.

I've tried:
* Leaving the feed over night in case it was shy
* Tried different times in case it was a late night eater (around midnight compared to 8 pm when my son can try and feed)
* Tried Braining the rat pups
* Tried swapping from Rat pup to small mice in case it wanted something different



So i was hoping for either some reassurance (So i can re assure my son as he's getting worried) or some pointers for us newbies so we can improve the life of our snake.

Thanks for reading.