Help with feeding my Female Dekay Brown Snake

Hello everyone...
This is my first time posting on here.. I am seeking some help in feeding my Willow girl. She is a Dekay brown snake. I am located in MD and I have a very woody backyard, which is a great place for them to live.. I have never had issues with them getting into my basement before but for some reason willow kept coming in and I kept setting her free far from the house and she would end up a few days later back in my basement.. with winter coming here and the days getting colder and colder I decided to keep her, I knew it was her, because she has this squiggle mark on her side, that i am calling a birthmark. it's how I kept identifying her. I have her in a 20 gallon long tank because she is about 9 to 10 inches long and she is a young adult, it is heat and humidity regulated and she has a pretty nice set up, I wanted her to be comfortable in her new home. She has a water dish and a food dish, hideaways, basking rocks and vines to clime, along with a 3D rock wall background, the substrate I use, is Zoo Med Eco Earth loose coconut fiber, and its enough she can burrow.. which she loves doing.. it's so cute when she pokes her tiny head up, to check things out. She is very shy and not thrilled about being held so I only handler her once a week for about 1 minute, just so she can get use to me. I have had her just about 1 month, I got her the last week of OCT but my first encounter with her was back in September when she was just out of the baby state. I went to the reptile pet store near by and they gave me red wigglers, that she will not eat. They also gave me mealworms, which she will not eat.. I read online they like slugs and earthworms.. So, am I feeding her the wrong type of food? and if so what should i be feeding her and how? should i get baby nightcrawlers and slugs? Also can I just put the live worms in her terrarium? they tend to wiggle out of the food dish even after cutting them up, is it safe to put a uncut earthworm or slug in her tank so she can hunt?... I have only ever had large breed snakes that ate rodents, So this tiny prey snake is new to me. Also let me mention she just went through a shed which was a very healthy one. The full skin and eye caps were intact in one piece. I read they don't eat before or after for a few days... I am happy to have found this forum and would appreciate any insight anyone can offer. I did see another question close to mine on here and read the info given which was helpful. but i still had a few questions of my own. Thanks again. -Kitty

Get a plastic lid, cut the worms and slugs into chunks. This was they won't go anywhere. Put the lid right outside the hide entrance. This was she won't have to come out to eat. Make sure she has a small shallow water dish.

Heat regulated? You are gonna kill that poor snake! She does not need help eating she needs help sleeping until April. Many basements have snakes brumating in them this time of year, they are ideal environments for brumation: damp, cool, steady temperature above freezing. That snake you have there is a Temperate Colubrid, very, very different from your tropical "large breed snakes that ate rodents." It will neither drink nor eat from about mid-Autumn until mid-April. It has been this way since dinosaurs were pooping in puddles. If you really care about that snake you will just put her in the dampest part of your basement and let her be. She has already begun to desiccate due to your intervening so put her in the coolest/dampest part of your basement (Not trying to be an a-hole here but just telling you like it is). If you must keep her then put the whole 20g tank on the floor of the basement, put lots of wet paper towels in the tank, cover it with a dark colored garment, and don't disturb her until the Spring Equinox. After that you can start peeking in to see if she is stirring about.

Thanks for the information! I rescued a female Dekay's back in February, after a brief warmup here in Michigan, found her in the parking lot as temps were dropping like a rock. I couldn't just leave her out in the cold (the warmup probably flooded her winter den). She's been doing great! Today she just gave birth to at least 7 new baby Dekay's!! Would love to hear any advice on how to care for the babies (what food, how to feed, where to find said food, etc). for the adult female, I dig up worms in my back yard that she loves. Much too big for the babies. (or can cutting them up be a good solution?)