When to assist-feed a young BP?

[DVirginiana]

So, it's been a little over two months since my young BP stopped eating... She ate well for the first two weeks after I adopted her, and then suddenly decided she didn't want to eat food anymore. I've tried everything; feeding container, feeding in enclosure, all manners of holding the rat with the tongs, leaving it in with her, paper bag method, daytime feeding, late night feeding, waiting a week and trying it all over again: EVERYthing. She's definitely not sick, and is still active (or as active as you'd expect a BP to be) and alert. Passing urates, so she's drinking.
I can tell she's losing weight though, and I'm starting to worry; she's only 6-8 months (probably close to 8 now).

I've mentioned before: Live-feeders aren't an option for me (plus, she was taking f/t before). It's illegal for petstores in my area to sell mammals as feeders, and she's eating fuzzy rats, so I can't go in and buy an appropriately sized mouse/rat adult as a 'pet' and then feed it.

I'm comfortable with the idea of assist feeding; I've done minor oral medical procedures/medicine doses on some of my colubrids, so I'm not jittery about messing with their faces. I did want to ask opinions before I tried it. It's a death's-door last resort for garters (the other species I keep) and rarely works well, but from what I've seen it seems a lot more common with pythons...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Assist feeding should only be done when EVERYTHING as be done and obviously it has not live is still an option, not sure what pet store as told you it was illegal to sell live rodents as feeder but it is not in the US (no where I can think of at least), now it might be against company policy but this does not mean it is illegal.

If your chain pet store will not sell you live mice (that is what I would go with) try finding someone locally that will that will.

You really do not want to assist an animal that knows how to eat, what you want to do is assess your husbandry which is often the issue (temps, enclosure size, hides etc) and offer live until the animal eats with consistency.

[decensored]

How much does she weigh? I wouldn't worry too much, if she was a month or two old I would recommend you doing it now - but at 8 months she should be around 450-500 grams and she may fall off feed for a little bit. Make sure her heat and humidty are ideal, they can get screwy during the fall/winter with the change in weather. Pics and weights would help to predict when you should be worrying. Assist feeding a juvy ball python is much different than assist feeding a hatchling and you want to avoid it for as long as possible without risking her health.

[DVirginiana]

now it might be against company policy but this does not mean it is illegal.

You really do not want to assist an animal that knows how to eat, what you want to do is assess your husbandry which is often the issue (temps, enclosure size, hides etc) and offer live until the animal eats with consistency.

It may just be company policy, then. Every petstore I've been to has said they can't sell them as feeders. We have one local place, but one of my garters picked up a nasty parasite from some of their pinkie mice; idk how long they were freezing, but they looked a bit sketchy. I can try there though. Better than her starving...
My husbandry (according to this forum when I asked) is correct. Humidity 50-60%, Ambient temp 83-84, Hot spot 90, hot and cool hides, and plenty of hiding spots. She was in about a 15 gallon tub, but she is currently in something that is a bit over 5 gallons, as someone recommended a smaller area (the small one was actually what she was in when she ate her first two meals).

How much does she weigh? I wouldn't worry too much, if she was a month or two old I would recommend you doing it now - but at 8 months she should be around 450-500 grams and she may fall off feed for a little bit. Make sure her heat and humidty are ideal, they can get screwy during the fall/winter with the change in weather. Pics and weights would help to predict when you should be worrying. Assist feeding a juvy ball python is much different than assist feeding a hatchling and you want to avoid it for as long as possible without risking her health.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow. A gram-scale is on my list of things to get once my husband can find a job, but I don't have one atm (not really a necessity with garters unless you're breeding).
I've never dealt with constrictors before, so I'm having a hard time determining where the point of 'worry about health' would be. Her metabolism is so much slower than any of my other guys it's been a little unnerving!

[DVirginiana]

I'm warming up her larger tub in case it would be better for her to be in there?