Ok out of this list I would avoid the following

The rodents below are fine if you can find them

peromyscus mice (white footed /deer mice)
chinese hamsters
russian hamsters
roborovski's hamsters
Djungarian hamsters
gerbils
syrian hamsters
pygmy mice scent
rat blood scent
rat fecal scent

..........
OUT OF THESE AVOID ALL OF THEM AS ALL OF THEM CAN/WILL INTRODUCE PARASITES

guppies
crickets
grasshoppers
worms
.............
OUT OF THESE AVOID ALL OF THEM

anole lizards
sceloporous (fence) lizards
skinks
,,small whole liz or tails broken off and bleeding or scented pinks with liz blood on them........




In other words stick to rodents and you will be fine.

First thing that comes to mind is that you mention that she had a shedding problem. That means your cage is not setup properly. There are plenty of places to find the proper setups for colubrids. None of these involve sand.

For some reason a lot of people put a desert phase cal king in a desert setup. This is like putting a water snake in a cage full of water. It is just a name. These snakes require humidity. Next would be your temps. Make sure they are in the right ranges. Too hot and too cold will keep your snake from eating.

As far as getting your snake eating if everything is setup right. You can try feeding both live day old pinks and frozen in a brown paper bag. The bag should be the smallest one you can find. Like a bag they used to give you with your beer at 7-11. If that doesn't work you already know the braining thing. Just try it in a paper bag. Scenting seems to be something you are already familiar with and the do not feed list above can be used for scenting.

Another trick is using mouse tails to feed the kings to get food in them. It is not the most nutritious but it will get them used to eating mice. Cut off the tails of frozen mice and thaw them. Hold the snake behind the head and tease it. That is hit it in the head until it grabs the tail. Sound mean but it works. Wait and see if the snake will eat the tail on its own. If not try again. If after a few times it won't eat on its own or it won't grab the tail you will need to force the tail a little way down the throat. Again give it a chance to finish on its own. The idea is to let it learn how to eat in a way. Also give it at least 3-4 days if not more between attempts and don't handle it at all until it eats regularly.

Good luck and if you have the ability cooling it might work as Kerby stated.

Later Jason

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