I'm sorry this is long! In case you're too busy to read the whole thing, the gist of the thread is in the title. But if you'd like to read on....

I have had my beautiful ball python Pandora since last summer, and not once have I experienced any sort of problem feeding her. She was a little over a year when I bought her, and never gave the previous owner any problems with feeding, either. I feed her once a week with a live mouse (she's only ever had live mice), and she's usually in the feeding container for less than two minutes before she strikes and eats (sometimes she strikes almost instantaneously).

Now it has been over two weeks. Last Saturday, over a week ago, I bought a mouse and proceeded as normal. I put the mouse in the container, and then put Pandora in. She got into her usual S-pose and seemed about ready to strike. But the mouse started crawling on her, and it seemed to freak her out. She completely lost interest in the mouse. This has happened before, so I left her in there a while, thinking it would work itself out. But after a while when Pandora was clearly trying to get me to take her out of the container, I eventually gave up and took her out, thinking that I'd get her to eat later.

The mouse died overnight, I think because it got too cold for it, and I (obviously) didn't have the proper housing for it since I'm not used to keeping the mice for longer than 10 minutes. We waited until Tuesday to buy another mouse, as I thought that maybe she just hadn't been hungry, and I knew that the mouse had freaked her out.

Well, I have had this mouse from Tuesday until today. I've been alternating the heat lamp with Pandora's terrarium and the feeding container to keep the mouse from freezing to death, and it's been a severe PITA keeping this thing. I just wish she'd eat it, but I try each day for her to feed, and each day she just slides right past the mouse and tries to get out. It's as if she doesn't view the mice as food anymore.

What should I do??? I feel so terrible, not knowing how I can make her feel okay around the mice again. Any suggestions?