New Ball not feeding

[anatess]

Wow, thanks everyone! So this is what ill do, I'll get a new hide and ditch the half log, and I won't handle her all week and ill attempt feeding again this weekend with a live mouse

From my experience, security and proper temps is very important in the first few weeks of getting a bp. This is usually the reason for the bp to go off feed evern if they've never skipped a meal at the store.

So, my advice - wrap 3 sides of the glass enclosure with dark paper. Replace the log with something that looks more like a cave. An appropriate-sized flower pot with a hole carved out of one side will do. Or even an opaque tupperware. The hide needs to be small enough that the snake's body touches the sides as he is curled up inside. Have 2 of these hides - one on the cool end one on the hot end. Then clutter up the place so that the snake slithers under something to move from one side to the other as it thermo regulates. Crumpled up newspaper will do. Check your temperatures so that the hot end is 92-95F and the ambient (general air temp inside the enclosure) is at 82-85F. Check the humidity so that it is above 50%. To raise it, you can use a bigger water bowl (a sturdy tupperware will also work here) or add a container of damp moss. Usually the ceramic heat lamp sucks out humidity.

Okay, after you got that all settled (don't worry about aesthetics right now if it's too much work to get it done, you can always redo the tank later when the snake is more established), give the snake a few days to settle (don't worry, they won't die of starvation that quicky unless your snake is really sick). Then feed small live rat (if it's the proper size or you can use mouse).

Okay, this is my snake's set-up the day I brought my snake home. I left her in here for a few days then I moved her to an opaque tub to feed and she ate right off. No problem. Now, I feed live rat and if you see the enclosure, it is a rat heaven with tons of places the rat can hide forever inaccessible to the snake... and it will be difficult for me to interfere incase the rat takes a swipe at my snake. So, I feed all my snakes in a separate feeding tub. No problems at all. If you don't have this same challenge, or if you feed frozen/thawed, it is better to feed in the enclosure to avoid having to move the snake.

Every single one of my snakes are transitioned this way (except for my very first one - I was a newbie and didn't know what I was doing).

So here's a picture of my snake's house to give you an example of how "cluttered" it is. It was a baby snake, under 200 grams if I'm not mistaken, so I put her in a 10-gallon (the smaller the better for baby snakes). I moved her to a 20 once she reached 500 grams and moved her to a 30 when she got past 1500 grams. She's a big girl.