You've seen the vet, you've got the snake set up in a safe, secure container in a quiet dark place and it has clean water to drink. That's about all you can do at this time really.

The biggest thing we've seen with the three WC adults we've worked with and everything I can read on the subject, is to minimize their stress. Stress can really knock a snake down, way worse than not eating in many peoples minds. Tracey Barker (an expert in this field by anyone's standards) refers to this as "the-lights-are-on-but-nobody's-home syndrome" (LONHS). She says basically that the snake, after living it's life in a very small area in the wild, is in shock so it's adjustment takes a long time.

Since I'm no expert I'll quote some excerpts directly from Tracey...we are going to be following this ourselves with our current WC adult female who is a non-feeder at this point but is still in good body weight (much as yours is)...hope it helps...

Ball pythons in the throes of LONHS can look good, move normally (when they are not coiled tightly in a ball), look around, flick their tongues out, and in general seem to be happy snakes. The diagnosis of LONHS is a matter of realizing the history of a snake, and also taking into account the fact that it has never fed and that it shows no interest in any food presented to it.

It's true that offering a live rodent will sometimes entice a snake that has been reluctant to feed; however, it's not a good thing to try ive rodents on a snake with LONHS. The problem is that if the snake does not eat immediately, the rodent will walk all over the snake, and that annoyance can drive the snake deeper into LONHS.


Actually, it's easy to start a wild-caught snake. It just takes time, perserverance, and patience. When we receive any wild-caught adult snake, we automatically assume that it is suffering from some degree of LONHS. We first examine the snake closely to be certainthere are no medical problems requiring our immediate attention. We then set up the snake in a cage. We use either newspaper or aspen bedding, a hide boxx, and a water bowl. We then put the cage in a quiet place, away from noise and activity. From that point on, we do not disturb the snake, we don't handle it, we don't touch it. We lift its hide box to look at it once a week, just a quick peek. We keep its water clean. If the snake is out, active and exploring (usually only young adults do this), we offer it a dead small rat. If the snake stays in the hide box, then after a week or so, we place a dead rodent in the cage near the entrance to the hide box. In some cases the rat is eaten, but more commonly it is not.

At this point, we start peeking in the cage, looking at the doorway of the hide box. Eventually, usually two to four months after the arrival of the snake, when you peek in you will see the snake, inside the hide bos with its head in the doorway, peeking out. It's hunting. It's awake. It has shaken off the bonds of LONHS. When we see it peering out, we open the cage - quietly as possible - and lay a dead small rat at the door to the hide box. We then close the cage and leave the area for at least twelve hours. Invariably the rat is gone when we check back. Four or five days later, we lay another rat at th edoor, and usually it will disappear as well. After we have succeeded in getting the snake to eat three meals, we begin to handle it - minimally at first - working to acclimate it to us and our collection. Once it has fed, it's on its way to a very successful stay.

The interesting thing about these ball pythons that went for more than a year without feeding is that they lost very little weight during their extended fasts. And it's possible that they had been fassting for some period of time before we received them. Even the snakes that went 27 months without feeding looked like normal ball pythons - a little rangy, maybe, but not emaciated at all.

One the other hand, we have seen other nonfeeding adult imported ball pythons suffering from LONHS, usually pet-store snakes, that were handled every day. These animals never fed, visibly lost weight until they looked skeletal, and died within four or five months. We can't quantify it, but to us it seems a spectacular example of the harmful effects of additional stress caused by human contact on a snake that is already terribly stressed by its removal from the wild.

You may want to do follow up research at www.vpi.com and also consider purchasing their books/tapes which are just invaluable resources.