I have offered food to him again and Crane still hasn't eaten. Left one in with him over night and it was still there in the morning. I have tried Pinky Rats, Fuzzy Rats, and Fuzzy mice, and still nothing. He seems absolutely uninterested in it. When I had the live pinky rat in there, he slithered over and around the poor thing but never displayed any hunting behavior. If I try to wiggle the fuzzy around and make it seem alive, he will try to go away, and when I put him in a separate feeding container to see if that worked, he spent the whole time wall-climbing to try to escape and didn't seem to care about the rat.

I know that snakes (especially BPs) go through periods where they don't eat anything. The thing is, however, that I don't have any guarantee that he has actually ate anything before. Just the word of the woman I got him from. A worker at the local reptile pet store said that there was a problem with a bunch of baby ball pythons being sold for $45 in town and that none of them seem to want to eat. I paid $45 for him, so I am thinking that maybe I was scammed or something. I am starting to get worried because I have no idea if he has actually eaten before or if it was just something the woman made up to sell them.

Not that I want to give him away because of the feeding issues or anything. I love him dearly and I will do anything I can to keep him happy and healthy, but I am definitely concerned about the situation. He is about six weeks old, is my rough guess, since I got him on May 16th, and a few days before that the add said they were three weeks old. Of course, I don't know that for sure. Crane is an absolute delight besides the food issue. He is calm and isn't nippy at all.

But since he is a baby and I can't guarantee that he has eaten anything ever, what should I do? I am at a loss. I have read up about assisted-feeding and seen a few videos, but I would never do that until someone with experience (you guys), tells me that I should try it.

Any ideas?