Braining is a technique by where you slit open the head of the mouse or pinkie, sounds disgusting, but stimulates a feeding response from the snake, sometimes works to get a snake to feed where otherwise it may not.

Flutterbye, i would start with a small RUB if you are obtaining a young snake (really useful box!), it is a lot cheaper and easier to maintain instead of a full scale viv, it also gives you the flexibility to upgrade to a viv without having invested quite a lot of money in a VIV that the snake may outgrow, please see the following sticky which is a excellent guide:

How to house your first snake.

Personally i bought the entire setup, i.e. the viv for the snake as the reptile store gave me a good deal with the items all together. I would however not always listen to their advice (i.e. i was told i did not need a thermostat ) !!

Feel free to PM me or reply to the thread with any other questions !

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1 Pueblan Milk Snake - Bullit
1 Western Hognose