Use a sturdy bowl that won't get knocked over. Change the water and clean the bowl with soap and hot water at least once a day. If your snake goes to the bathroom in the water, change it as soon as possible. Unless the humidity levels are too low, keep the water on the cool side of the tank. As a rule of thumb, feed your snake mice that are no larger than 1 times the widest point of its body. Choose frozen feeder mice instead of live prey, which could injure your snake. Thaw a feeder mouse completely before giving it to your snake, and wash your hands thoroughly after feeding your pet. A pinkie feeder mouse is the right size for a hatchling milk snake. As it gets older, switch to juvenile mice, then feed your fully grown milk snake adult mice. If your snake is under a year old, feed it every 5 to 6 days. Once it's an adult, feed it every 10 to 14 days. To feed your snake, place a wide food dish in the tank, grasp a thawed mouse with a pair of tongs, and set the mouse on the dish. If you breed your snake, feed it twice a week to ensure healthy egg production. Since milk snakes are nocturnal, feeding it at night and covering the cage could encourage it to eat. Thawing the feeder mouse for an additional 30 minutes, or until it's warmer than room temperature, could also do the trick. If you suspect your snake is bored with its food, try switching to feeder chicks. You could also try wiggling the mouse or chick with a pair of tongs to get your snake's attention. Use a long pair of tongs and keep your hands as far away from the mouse as possible to avoid getting accidentally bit. Stressed snakes don't eat, so make sure the temperature, humidity, and other conditions in the tank are within recommended ranges. If everything checks out and your snake still won't eat, schedule an appointment with an exotic animal vet.
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One-sentence summary -- Keep a heavy dish of clean water in the tank at all times. Offer thawed feeder mice that are about as wide as your snake. Feed your snake every 1 to 2 weeks. Try covering the tank or warming the food if your snake won't eat.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and then cover the baking sheet with parchment paper. Add additional balls of dough, leaving 1" (2.5 centimeters) of space around each ball of dough on the baking sheet. You want to ensure that the center of the dough is higher than the edges. Dust each cookie generously with the confectioner's sugar.
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One-sentence summary -- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180C). Roll a tablespoon of dough into a ball and place the ball on the baking sheet. Push the dough balls down with your palm to flatten them slightly. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until they just turn golden. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on the stovetop. Sprinkle the cookies with rose water or orange flower water and then cool the cookies for 2 minutes. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet with a spatula and place the cookies on a wire rack sitting atop a sheet of parchment paper. Pour confectioner's sugar into a sieve and position the sieve over the top of the cookies. Tap the edge of the sieve, which will sift the confectioner's sugar through the mesh, so that it can dust the cookies. Repeat the process with another baking sheet full of cookies until you have baked all of your dough. Finished.

The doctor will likely order these tests first to make sure you don't have a stomach blockage. A stomach blockage can cause symptoms that are similar to gastroparesis. For an endoscopy, your doctor will use a tiny camera on a flexible tube. You'll first be given a sedative and likely a throat-numbing spray. The tube will be threaded down the back of your throat and into your esophagus and upper digestive tract. The camera will help your doctor see what's going on more directly than they can with an X-ray. You may also receive a similar test called an esophageal manometry test to measure stomach contractions. In this case, the tube will be inserted through your nose and left in for 15 minutes. If the doctor doesn't see a blockage in the other tests, they'll likely order this study. This test is a bit more interesting. You'll eat something (such as a an egg sandwich) that has a low dose of radiation. Then the doctor will look at how long it takes you to digest it by using an imaging machine. Typically, you'll get a diagnosis of gastroparesis if half the food is still in your stomach after an hour to an hour and a half. An ultrasound will help the doctor detect if some other issue is causing your symptoms. Particularly, they will look at how well your kidneys and gallbladder are functioning with this test. If the doctor is having a hard time explaining your symptoms, you'll likely have this test done. Basically, it's a way of listening to your stomach for an hour. They'll put electrodes on the outside of your belly. You must have an empty stomach for this test.
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One-sentence summary -- Be ready for an endoscopy or X-rays. Expect a gastric emptying study. Ask about an ultrasound. Be ready for an electrogastrogram.

Indulge in a few healthy eating cookbooks to help inspire you with new and fun recipes. A cookbook might offer new recipes you haven't tried or give you ideas to help get out of a recipe rut. Do not let food be boring! Try new foods, recipes and cuisines. Try to find cookbooks with a lot of pictures. It may be enticing to look at beautiful pictures of healthy food! You can also find a ton of healthy eating blogs online. They typically release new recipes weekly and are a fun way to get healthy recipes and tips right in your inbox. Don't want to spend money? Look up healthy eating food blogs or other sites that feature healthy recipes that you might want to try. Healthy eating might be something that you're not used to or familiar with cooking. Try signing up for a healthy eating cooking class. You'll learn some healthy cooking techniques, recipes, and get to sample healthy meals! Bring a friend or family with you. Cooking together is a lot of fun as well. You can find relatively cheap or even free cooking classes. Sometimes your health insurance or local hospital offers healthy cooking classes to the public. Sometimes our favorite foods or comfort foods aren't always the healthiest. So instead of cutting those foods out completely, rework the recipes to make them a little more healthy! Swap out high fat ingredients for lower fat ingredients. For example, instead of whole milk, use 1% or skim or instead of full fat cheese, use low-fat cheese. Also use leaner cuts of meat like lean beef, pork, or poultry without the skin. Add more vegetables or fruits to your favorite comfort foods. These lower calorie foods can add some bulk to your meals without adding fat or a lot of calories. Many cities and towns have local farmers markets. These are great places to go to get inspiration for healthy dishes. Seeing all the fresh, local produce may spark a delicious, healthy recipe in your mind. Ask the vendors if they have any recommendations for produce or have recipes they enjoy. Farmers markets are also a great place to find more unique or rare produce. Look for something new or interesting and try it out.
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One-sentence summary --
Buy cookbooks. Sign up for a cooking class. Make comfort foods healthy. Go to your local farmer's market.