So my first is an 07 female pastel. She's tiny. BTW, this post could get pretty long..

I got her tuesday afternoon(I've had her about 4 days). She seemed to have been packed well, even though I don't know much about shipping a snake. She was in some kind of clear container w/ some kind of substrate, then put in a box w/ styrafoam. That box was in another box that had paper in it. When I brought her in, I didn't know what to expect! I was like.. when I cut this tape.. is she gonna fly out of this box? LoL. I was happy to get to see her for a minute in a clear container. I tried to show her to my wife (who wasn't having it) and then I looked back into the box and into the container. This is when she immediately tried to eat my face! Man, I won't lie, I got a little nervous when it came time to let her out because she obviously was a little nervous herself. All I did at that point was put this container into her home, slowly took the lid off.. and left her alone.

She explored a little. It wasn't long after that before she was under the newspaper and on the UTH. She pooped the day after I got her. I changed the paper, leaving her where she was laying on the UTH. Yesterday (3rd day at home) I still didn't see her. Decided to go lift the paper & take a peek, that's when I saw her laying in the middle still (still breathing! ) but laying where the thermostat probe(or)sensor used to be. Not sure if I should have done what I did next, but I needed an accurate reading. I picked her up and set her on top of the paper on the cool side while I put the probe back on top of the UTH. She didn't seem to mind. Then after a minute of trying to put her logs and hide back in, she started getting a little jumpy and breathing heavily? I moved slowly but quickly, if that makes any sense, and left her alone. The logs/hide/bowl seem to hold the paper down on all 4 sides.. so I was hoping she'd stay out and find a new comfortable spot. I left her alone while my wife and I went outside to smoke. After that, we went back down to see her exploring.. until she must have caught our shadows and hated it because she tucked her head to her body and did what looked like some heavy breathing again. Only briefly, because a few minutes later after we left her alone, she was looking around her logs and hide again. I was comfortable with that so we went to bed.

This morning I woke up and hoped to find her on top of the paper and in a hide.. or exploring. Nope. She got back under the paper on the UTH and some how got under the log as well. This log is pretty big in comparison so I have no idea how she could lift it and ball under it. I know I'm not going to see her much.. I just hope to every now and then.

So a total of 4 days and I "handled" her for about 3 seconds or however long it took to pick her up and set her down. Although she got a little startled a couple of times, her stay has to have been fairly stress free. She's been hidden & she's been in a low traffic area.

WHEN CAN I OFFER FOOD?! I'm obviously excited to see if she's going to eat.. and I heard a few days was ok to offer- I heard a week too. I'd like to try today unless this is considered a horrible idea.

My feeding plan: Live in her place (to reduced handling) for a couple feeds or about a month until she's really settled in.. then trying to switch to F/T in a seperate tub when she starts to realize I'm not the enemy. Any suggestions on this?

I think this is it for now. Oh, any my wife named her Clover. ..and I don't know why.


Thanks for reading.


Mike