Hi Group -

Since my first pet-store BP proved to be such a great pet and a good eater, I recently picked up a beautiful blushing yellow/gold female from a breeder at the local reptile show - and it's been all downhill from there.

I can't get this little girl to eat and I'm getting scared. The breeder says she was hatched 5/5/2005, that she ate on 5/12, we bought her on 5/19, and we tried a FT pinky and FT fuzzy on 5/26. She expressed NO interest in either, and doing the dangle-from-forcepts-mouse-dance just scared her.

So she's running 90-92 degrees on her warm side mid 80's on her cool side, has a 14 hour day, 10 hour night light cycle, and 4 hides in her 40-gallon breeder (bigger boy moved to a Visions). We went-hands off and tried her again on the 29th she's still scared of the mouse. Tried again 6/1, again, no interest, mostly scared of the mouse.

Last night I picked up a live pinky and live fuzzy. She was more interested in the forecepts than the mice.

I put her in a small critter-keeper inside her enlosure with each mouse, and finally with both, the container was covered in a towel and the room was dark. After 40 minutes the mice were sleeping in one corner, the snake in the other. She did give the fuzzy a stern look and a serious tounge-sniffing, but no action.

I've read Adam's hatchling-feeding page until I've almost memorized it, but I'm out of ideas. I'd prefer she eat FT like the other 4 snakes in the family, but I'm most concerned that she EAT something, we'll figure out the live/ft/pk issues after I'm sure she'll survive in my care.

She's absolutely beautiful, and can fool your average reptile-show-attendee into thinking she's a pastel of some type, but I'm scared that she's never going to eat and I'm a horrible snake keeper.

I'm guessing that my first BP (petco) spoiled me by eating FK from about the 9th day in my care and being a great eater.

Any help, either here or direct to mike@payneland.com will be most appreciated.