Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
You didn't say how long you've had this snake (or if you did, I missed it)...but a bit of advice, if I may. While some folks have success in feeding a new snake right away, the best way to insure your odds of a successfully feeding snake is to give it a week or two to settle into its new home before offering a meal.
Brand new snake, bought to get her away from the blasted heat rock!!!

Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
It also sounds like she's already had more than one enclosure in your home and has at least one more change ahead of her. Each change to a new enclosure needs its own new settling in period. This should be a time for the snake to completely rest with as little disturbance as possible. Frequent handling sessions are a very common cause for putting a bp off her feed. Especially if she hasn't had a chance to settle into a home yet.
She went from a cardboard box (dumb guy) to a temp enclosure (12x8x6h). She was kept in the temp box for around 24 hours, as i did some cage reconfiguring and cleaning. from there, she was placed in a clean 20g long, and live rat was introduced after a 4-6 hour wait. She sensed it, found it, then opened her mouth and started trying to down the rat, which woke up jumping. Certainly this stressed her out, i will not be trying to feed her again for at least seven days. I am going to assume she's been fed prekilled, so we will try that next time.

I do not handle snakes often, only to move them.

Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
These guys live life at a different pace than we do and it can take days and days for them to learn something that we can see in an instant. We look at an empty enclosure and know it's perfectly safe for her and nothing can harm her. But SHE doesn't know that. She has to explore every single nook and corner...every limb and every cave....to assure herself that there are no other animals around she must be wary of. And then she has to check again. And again. It can take awhile for them to become confident that they don't have to share their home with anything else and nothing in their home will harm them.
I understand, and know what you're talking about. As a general rule, our snakes are loners, and don't get much more interaction than a "hi" and "bye". I've always offered new snakes a meal right off, which results in either an immediate kill and eat, or we remove the feeder and wait.

Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
AFTER they've had a chance to settle in and feel secure...offer a meal. And preferably a meal like they've been used to eating in the past. If she actually tried to EAT a live rat without striking and wrapping it first, then I would guess she's had nothing but pre-killed or f/t her whole life. If at all possible, please try to stick with that regime. This fright from this rat may put her off eating at all for awhile.

More likely (although I'm just guessing, as I wasn't there to see it) she wasn't trying to eat the rat, and wasn't interested in eating at all. She was just sniffing at the new thing in her enclosure...and it startled her. Which leads back to that need to settle in and not fear she has other critters running around in some hidden corner of her cage.
She tried to eat it; nosed it for a moment, then opened the jaws and started working. Rat woke up and started jumping, scaring her...

Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
LONG STORY SHORT: Give her at least a week (10-14 days would probably be better) to settle into her new home with as little handling and intrusion as possible. Then quietly offer her a small pre-killed or f/t rodent.
Will do; next meal will be a fresh killed small rat.

Thanks for the post!!!