First off....try waiting a full seven days between feeding attempts. These snakes live life very slowly and it can take them a relatively long time to get over something stressful.


It sounds to me like even if the tank is set up "perfectly"...he's not fully settled in yet. He may never have been settled in at all with his previous owner...it doesn't sound like he was kept in ideal situations....so it may take a little while longer yet, for him to feel safe and secure enough to eat.

Here's what I would try, were I in your shoes:

1. Don't handle him at all until he gets on a regular feeding schedule. Spot clean the substrate if necessary, and provide fresh water. Other than that...don't mess with the enclosure any more than necessary.

2. Take some newspaper and wad the sheets up into big, loosely crumpled balls. Fill his enclosure with them.

3. Wait a full week after the newspaper was introduced...then take a warm, thawed rodent...drop it in the tank with as little fuss as possible, replace the lid and cover the tank with a dark sheet or towel or something.

4. Leave it overnight.

5. Hopefully he ate the rodent. Most likely he did. If not, remove it....wait a week...and try again, exactly like this. If he DOES eat the rodent...same thing...wait a full week, and follow this routine exactly again.

6. After a couple of successful meals, you can start removing the paper...one or two wads after each successful feeding. Until eventually, he'll be completely paper-free....and you have a very snuggly-secure-feeling snake.