Sharon I know you are an expert, but the poster said they were using dry bedding so perhaps the "if you want to kill it" advice should be reserved for people who have actually got it wrong. No disrespect intended. I know when you are a professional it's tempting to paste a standard message for everyone who asks (imagine the primate boards), but I believe Varanid is a long-term contributor to this board and not the general public. We ourselves were collecting our first stock not long ago, and certain institutions might consider you or I to be standing on the public side of the counter, so it's important to give advice positively. I want to say your work with Nerodia and breeding accomplishments have been an absolute necessity to the popularizing of this genus, which no breeder of more universal reptiles can say, and anyone else here would be lucky to do the same.
Varanid I use a large water basin in all my tanks including corns, kings and tropicals because all snakes like a good soak from time to time. In the wild Nerodia almost always shed underwater so it comes off easier (which is why it's hard to find an intact skin). Although a clean, dry tank is essential I've always wondered about not providing the amount of time a wild snake spends submerged every day.
In my experience a wild snake will not take cut food (or anything it doesn't recognize) until you can provoke a feeding response, so I start off with toads until the snake associates my hand with eating, only then do I drop a fish in front of it. Starting with fish has led me to find dead fish because a snake isn't used to finding them on land. (Rhombifer might be different since they are not primarily toad-eaters, I think someone posted recently about them taking dead bait and carrion on shore.) I've noticed garters hunt by smell but N. Sipedon in the same tank are completely motion-based hunters. The ones I have now will not acclimate at all because they will not eat while I am watching, so I might have to consider a tank-within-a-tank to keep the fish alive. I have used carp and other minnows in moderation because they are a part of the snake's natural diet along with other prey. Once the feeding response is achieved they will take anything.

Len

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