Not recognizing food?

[capykat]

How big is she? I know I went to a petco for a mouse once and had to sign a waiver about feeding it off.


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I'm not sure about her weight but she's about 17 in long. I feed weanling mice based on her body size that are between 13 and 18 grams each. What was the waiver for, diseases in the mouse or the mouse hurting the snake?

[DennisM]

a picture of the snake and a weight would be very helpful here. sometimes people see problems where there are none.

[PitOnTheProwl]

You have too many things wrong.
First you need to fix your husbandry.
Your snake is staying on the cool side more because you are really trying to cook it.
You are probably well over 120 degrees in the hot hide under the substrate so you need to unplug that UTH.
There is a way to regulate the under tank heater, its a thermostat that you need.
Substrate is not a way you regulate your heat, actually more than about a 1/4 inch is just helping it to sink and get even hotter.

[capykat]

You have too many things wrong.
First you need to fix your husbandry.
Your snake is staying on the cool side more because you are really trying to cook it.
You are probably well over 120 degrees in the hot hide under the substrate so you need to unplug that UTH.
There is a way to regulate the under tank heater, its a thermostat that you need.
Substrate is not a way you regulate your heat, actually more than about a 1/4 inch is just helping it to sink and get even hotter.

Someone before mentioned a inkbird itc-308 that I was looking into so I can monitor the UTH. My snake uses both her warm and cool side equally, she has never spent more time on one or the other. My UTH is not very strong and even after moving the substrate to feel the heat it's just a dull warmness. She has never burrowed and never seemed bothered by being over the UTH, she frequently goes here actually. I have unplugged the UTH at request and I will keep it unplugged until I purchase a inkbird itc-308 or if she starts spending more time on the warm side I will turn in back on. Her only heat source now besides the temperature of the room is an infrared heater above the tank on the warm side, keeping the temperature between 85-90 F.

[chrid16371]

The heater you have now will work until you get a thermostat. If it even feels a little warm under the substrate that means it is over 98.6 bc human body temp is 98.6, it should never be over 94 and won't feel warm at all to the touch.

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[Morjean]

The heater you have now will work until you get a thermostat. If it even feels a little warm under the substrate that means it is over 98.6 bc human body temp is 98.6, it should never be over 94 and won't feel warm at all to the touch.

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As a side note, whilst this is a good rule of thumb, it doesn't always apply! Human core body temp is usually 98.6F, that's right, but hand/finger temp isn't the same for everyone.
For example, my UTH feels warm-ish to me (it is at a precise 93F at the absolute hottest spot, measured with an IR gun), but that is because my blood circulation is terrible and thus my hands are usually at 75-80F. Lotsa peeps got cold hands

So, apply that rule with a grain of salt, that's all I'm saying. I definitey agree that any heat source requires a thermostat.

[capykat]

Thanks again everyone! I Just bought an inkbird itc-308 and it should be here next week, and the digital scale I ordered will be here by Friday. I'm going to try feeding her again on Saturday and I will try heating up the f/t mouse with a hairdryer, like someone suggested before, to try and entice her to take it. I really appreciate all of the responses and I will post an update here when I get the scale and weigh her. Thanks!