Thanks for the advice folks. Vaughn, it isn't that she wasn't offered food prior to shipping. From what I've been told she's been refusing to eat much of anything other than the very occasional small prey here or there. That's actually why I was offered her as the previous owner had gone as far as she felt comfortable going with this snake. So not a food being withheld situation.

I'm wondering about something. She was in a rack situation and is now in a private tub away from the other snakes and our entire busy household. Could this be a factor? Can a snake be stressed further by being in a rack near other snakes it can smell or sense but not see? Just a thought I was pondering on....

Mike and I don't wish to push her at all. She will eat we feel in good time and is not in a critically thin state, though obviously needs some good eats. We are thinking about trying a smaller than body size prey though to start. Something like a nice juicy live rat pup to get her digestive juices going. This would of course be far too small for a snake of this size normally but what do you all think of offering this first, making sure she eats it and keeps it down then just working weekly (or even bi-weekly if she refuses some weeks) to get her up to more appropriate sized rats or at least multiples of smaller rats till she's on a strong feeding pattern?

When a snake fasts or refuses food for any significant length of time, is there information out there on what happens to them as far as the "flora and fauna" of their digestive tract? In other words, when you or I don't eat due to flu or whatever, we sort of lose our hunger response after a few days, then need to eat small meals to get back to normal again, or we might throw up from too much too fast. Is it like that with snakes at all, considering they are sort of programmed by nature to go through times of feast and famine I would think it's much different?


~~Jo~~