Black rat snake feeding experience

[RAD House]

I just wanted to recount an experience I had with my luecistic black rat snake, Luna, and maybe get some feed back. Two weeks ago my little girl refused to eat for the first time since I got her three months ago. After the first feed attempt I left her completely alone except to put a mouse in her enclosure or check temps.

Although I messed with the temps a bit they were never too far off at the ground level, the lowest being around 82 and the high being 87 degrees Fahrenheit. I added a humid hide to her enclosure, which she showed no interest in. I even moved her out of my office as I spend quite a bit of time in there and was worried I was stressing her. I tried braining, feeding live, and even other foods like fish. All the efforts were met with non interest.

Besides being a bit skinny for not eating for 20 days she appears to be healthy. Scales look healthy, she is incredibly active, and is passing waste. Her enclosure has a multitude of hides, on both the warm and cool sides. She has plenty of things to climb on and explore.

The only thing I could think of was that here tub may be too short for a species that some consider semi arboreal. Her tub is 24x15x7 inches and she is only about a foot long so there should be plenty of floor space. I have another enclosure that was meant for her when she grew out of her tub, which is 52x16x20 inches. I toyed around moving her into this enclosure from the beginning but as it was so big I thought it might add to her stress.

She is still very young and small so I was quite stressed about her not eating for this long. After this weeks refusal I decided to throw a hail mary and move her into the larger enclosure. After a day of exploring she ate.

There are several factors as to why she may have changed her "attitude". First is that because it is a wood enclosure with a glass front, it may have added a bit more security on the three opaque sides. Second because it is wood which is a good insulator maybe the temps are more stable. I am inclined to believe a third option which is that this species needs to climb and have perches to feel at home. She has done nothing but climb around in the branches since I put her in the enclosure, including sleeping up there.

I just don't see the others being good explanations because if security was an issue she would hide instead of being out and a about a majority of the time. The temp issue I would think would take more than a day to really effect her as temps in the wild are much more variable.

I am just glad she finally ate. What do you all think about this, especially if you have experience with this species? I find it strange that none of the care guides mentioned have a taller tank for this species. In fact most group them with non arboreal rat snakes like bairds and trans-pecos.