Depression! Help!

[nyx]

I lurked on this thread for a while but I can't help it...

One: How do you know what temperature her enclosure is? Infrared temperature gun? Digital thermometer? Anything else (stick-on thermometer, as an example) will be 100% useless in determining her temperature.

Two: Using "plant lights" for her thermal gradient means that either they are over the entire enclosure and she has no options, or they are over part of the enclosure and uncontrolled and unmonitored as far as temperature goes. If one's house is kept at 75°F year-round, this may not be a problem for North American colubrids, but if one's house dips into the 50s or 60s, this may be inducing a kind of partial brumation, or period of inactivity.

Three: She is drinking when you are not around. I have kept snakes for over a decade and can count on one hand the number of times I have witnessed any of them drinking. Please do not force her head underwater anymore.

Four: Not all snakes have the feeding response of a California kingsnake. It isn't unusual for some snakes to prefer to have prey left in their enclosures for them to discover later. It is also not unusual for an animal to only eat one prey item. Unless the prey must be small to accommodate an animal with a small head, like an indigo snake, it typically is only necessary to feed one prey item of appropriate size per feeding.

Five: I would strongly consider acquiring another thermal source, like a radiant heat panel or under-tank heater, along with a thermostat to correctly monitor and control the temperature. A snake's ability to thermoregulate is one of the most important aspects of captive care; an animal kept too warm or too cold is not living up to its potential as a captive animal.

Regarding heat sources (someone else had asked) all heat sources, including under-tank heaters, should be controlled and monitored. These devices can kill animals through overheating, or slowly kill animals through lack of warmth if insufficient. A thermostat, or at the very least, a rheostat and thermometer, are absolutely required when dealing with reptiles.