Pet shop "rescue" Help me give her the best possible shot?

[Pixall]

Hey guys. I know I did not "rescue" this Royal, I bought her. For HER it was the right thing to do. For the grand scheme of all the snakes to go through petcosmart, it was not.

Anyway. They had four or five royals in the equivalent of a ten gallon tank. All of them were being fed f/t adult mice except two. One was given live(no doubt they fed them all together in the tank), and mine was given f/t fuzzy mice. One a week. As you can guess, she is pretty darn skinny.

She was being fed every Wednesday. Unless told I need to change her feeding frequency I intend to keep her on this schedule. My corn eats on Wednesdays, so it is just easier to remember.

We picked her up yesterday, and I am going to offer her a f/t small adult/large weaner today. If she doesn't feed I am going to re offer in a week. I hate to say it, but I can only afford to give her two MAYBE three feeding attempts before I have to bring her back. I don't want to do this obviously, but the petcosmart "warranty" is only 15 days. If she hasn't fed by then, I am going to ask them to take her to see a vet. The other time I bought a petcosmart reptile(a beautiful baby red iguana) he died a week TO THE DAY of the "warranty" ending. I don't want to go through the heartache of loosing another herp. I don't know what it is about pet shop herps, but they just don't thrive with me. I have rescued herps before in HORRIBLE shape, and they all made it and thrive.

ANYWAY. I want to give her the best possible shot, so help me out here?

Her setup: 10gal tank, reptibark substrate, oatmeal box hide, dog bowl for water and second hide. Going to add an identical oatmeal box hide on the cool side once I go through another box of oatmeal. I have MAJOR quality control over her mice as I breed my own. Reptitherm UTH. This is a temporary setup until I manage to get to the hardware shop for a thermostat/dimmer switch and some PVC and other goodies.

[ShelbyCraig]

Don't try to feed her today, wait until next Wednesday. That will give her time to settle in your setup seems fine but you really need to get it on a thermostat.

[ballpythonluvr]

Don't try to feed her today, wait until next Wednesday. That will give her time to settle in your setup seems fine but you really need to get it on a thermostat.

Ditto. You MUST have something to control that UTH or that poor baby will get burned.

[Pixall]

Sounds good guys. The only reason I was thinking of offering her food was at the shop she was "hunting". Would it be okay to wait until say Saturday to offer her food? I know she can go till next Wednesday no sweat, but I do feel bad seeings how she is so skinny. Should I switch the UTH out for my CHE until I get a thermostat? I have a couple bearded dragons and thus have CHEs.

[pigfat]

You need to use a thermostat with a UTH. The CHE will suck out all of the humidity. Here is a link to a cheap thermostat:
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...8107926&sr=8-1

ALSO, if its an open screen top, you'll want to cover 3/4 of it with a damp towel or aluminum foil taped down so it will retain humidity. Your humidity needs to be between 50-60%. Go to walmart and get a thermometer that also measures humidity (around $8.00).