Feeding problems: bit worried

I realize snakes go through periods of not eating, but since Ransom is so small (hes only on single pinks) I figured I needed to start asking questions.

He has fed for me twice, so far. The first 2 Times I fed him by putting him in his little plastic container and leaving him in the dark for an hour, came back and the mouse was eaten. The third time I did this he refused to eat and after 2 hours in his cup I put him in his tank and left the mouse laying on the plastic container top in the tank, no luck. He didn't eat when I tried 3 days later, same routine, or 3 days after that, this last feeding I even tried putting a rag over the cup he feeds in to make him feel more secure. Brained the pink too, but no luck.

Any suggestions? Am I doings something wrong?

is it a frozen thawed pink?

If so you might want to try buying an anole and scenting the pink. Also if f/t how are you thawing? and to what temp?

almost forgot, what are the temps/humidity/bedding/cage size? are there plenty of hiding places?

Is he about to shed? Some refuse food until they're finished with the process.

Its a Frozen/Thawed pink: Thawing= Pink goes into a ziplock back in Hot water for ~10 min, water is replaced w/ new hot water, then another 5 min. Warm in my hand as i feed it to the snake.

Cage: Cold is 70 deg. Warm ranges between 78-86 on the glass based on thermostat cycle. 4 hides and plenty of foilage besides that, at most 1/3 aspen exposed to view. Tank size is a ten gallon.

There is no way I can get an anole right now: nearest reptile store is 3 hours away and I have no where to put it, BUT the guy above me has a ginnea pig, think scenting with shavings from that might work to give the mice a bit more attraction?

Is it possible that somthing negative happened to the mouse scent when my freezer door was left open all day about a week or 2 ago? (actually, I think he HASNT eaten one of the refrozen ones yet) the mice all thawed out , but were still cold to the touch so I refroze em after asking for input on these forums.

Another possibility, Hes being fed outside the cage,(due to fear of him eating aspen) where air temp is 68-72deg, think that may be discouraging him?

u might want to try a live pinky and see how that goes.do u have hides in the tank?

Live food is a last resort after trying everything else, as they can be difficult to convert back to frozen.

I think it's more likely that he may be about to shed. Has anything changed about his appearance? When was the last time he shed?

Got him on May 15th. Since then I have not seen a shed. The last time I did a deep inspection of his aspen was a week ago, so there could be one in there, but I have seen no indication of a shed, no blue, no color loss, or anything. And isn't 12 days a bit long for a hunger strike due to shed?

Question: How long can I expect him to survive w/o food? I realize this will be based more on weight, which I cannot give, but hes just a few days over 2 months old.

This may sound stupid, it did to me until I tried it, warm the pinkie in chicken broth. Ive had 2 snakes that wouldnt have eaten for months without chicken broth. Put the pinkie in the cup with the lid and leave the snake with it overnight, all night in the dark and dont peak.
Make sure theres airholes.

Also I think your trying too often and conditioning the snake to refuse. I dont want to advise on how many days after the last refuse to wait because the snake is so tiny, maybe someone else can help, every 3 days may be too often though.

I would not try more often than every 5 days. More often just stresses him out. There could be lots of reasons for not eating. Going into shed is the most likely. If he has eaten several times (for you and for the breeder) and has good weight, he should easily be able to go a month or longer without a problem. Just do anything you can to cut stress (no unnecessary handling or activity around the cage, make sure the pinks are as small as the previous ones he ate, and try to think of anything else that would cause stress).

If he doesn't eat after 3 weeks or so (after the last time he ate), you should probably try a live pink if you don't see any signs of impending shed (cloudy eyes, etc). Do that before trying exotic scenting (such as lizards). If babies get stressed for some reason (who knows why sometimes?), a live pink is sometimes something they just can't refuse. Once they eat a live pink or two, they usually go back to f/t just fine. But don't get stressed out yet - he may be ready to shed any time now.

Thanks for the advise, I'll push back my schedule to 5-6 days and work from there. Let ya'll know how things turn out as they do. Hopefully I'm just getting overworried for nothing, but its just the first time I've worked with any snake other than an adult ball before.

When I have a problem feeder baby I offer their meal in their viv. I put it on a piece of paper towel to protect the snake from ingesting substrate. Place the pink next to the opening of the hide.

I try this method before I resort to more extreme methods and it usually works. I generally feed the problem feeder snakes a few meals this way until they are steadily accepting then switch back to a normal separate feeding enclosure.