Dumeril's not eating

[lovemyskittles]

We've had Rhino since 9/19/10 and he has yet to eat on his own. We have taken him to the vet (more than once) and they continue to say that there is nothing wrong with him that should cause him not to eat/want to eat. We have altered our cage temps as the vet said, put a humid hide in there for him if he wants, she had us give him "humid spas" for a month because he was dehydrated when we purchased him.

We have tried everything we can think of (fyi: when we purchased him the man said "he's feeding fine, but on live mice") - so when he wouldn't take F/T at first we decided to see if he would at least take live but that was unsuccessful as well (we've tried live twice, we hate it and since it wasn't successful the first two times so don't see a point in trying again). We've tried killing the mouse right before giving it to him - nothing. We've tried different sizes of mice. Leaving him with the prey for hours (even over night last week). We've skipped trying to feed him. We've tried to feed him in his cage (more comfort) but nothing has worked with this snake. The vet had us go ahead and force feed him a few times but he really fights with us now. The first two times we force fed him (after trying to let him eat on his own of course) we just put the head of the mouse in his mouth and he gobbled it up. After that he would spit it out and then slither away from the mouse.

Our two first snakes are great and amazing feeders and we've never encountered a problem with feeding and we've tried everything the vet(s) has told us and what other people say work for them. Anyone have any idea what to do with this snake?

BTW - he's active, usually always out and about in his cage (which makes me think that he'd want to eat).