Feeling Like a Failure (Feeding)

[Bogertophis]

Well, the problem is, she already shows interest. Her head is out of her hide every night like she's waiting for food. So when it's time to feed, she's there and ready, and she comes up to it, sniffs it, watches it intently - if I move it around she follows it with her head. She just won't strike. Whereas before, once the rat got in front of her, she IMMEDIATELY struck and wrapped.

And yeah, I've tried everything with the hairdryer. Each week she hasn't taken, I've spent like 30 minutes alternating between blasting it and offering it... trying different things to get it "right" so she'll eat. I've done it on the high setting, on the low setting, for 10 seconds, for 30 seconds, on just the head, on the whole body,... I've dangled it close to her face, far away from her face, with little motion, with a lot of motion... I've left the rat overnight each time in case she decided she wanted it.

Before, she wasn't really picky about it. As long as the rat was warm and in front her face, she was gonna grab it.

See, the way I read this is that she is internally at war with her instincts: she knows what food is, and she still wants it but her instincts are saying "winter's coming,
don't get caught with food rotting in your stomach, fool..." I think her whole "problem" is seasonal...shorter days (even if her cage temps haven't changed) and her
instincts are telling her "don't eat, you'll survive!" I go thru the same thing in winter with my c/b rosy boa, for what it's worth...great eater all year, never brumated,
but she won't eat, or she eats very little, in winter months. Life goes on...try not to worry too much or wonder what you're doing wrong, because you're not, as far as
I can tell.