Frustrated with feeding

[franken_stein]

Hey party people.

Before I even got my BP I did a lot of reading up so I knew they were finicky eaters! I never thought I'd get this frustrated though. My BP last ate around Christmastime. Soon after I noticed he was going to shed, so I decided not to even bother offering food til after the shed was complete. So that took a few weeks.

After he shed, I started to offer him food, and he refused to eat one time -- okay, fine. Had to let the rodent go. The next time he struck at the rat a couple of times and missed, thoroughly freaking out the rat so that I got bitten, and then I guess since he failed to properly strike he just... gave up. The poor rat was so traumatized I had to let it go, I just couldn't try feeding that same rat again another time.

ANYway. Now today he successfully took the rat and killed it, and tried to eat it. I have no idea why he was so stupid today though. He couldn't swallow it! It's like he couldn't get the front legs in. I have consistenly fed him this size before, too. Today he just couldn't do it. He was trying for about fifteen minutes and then just left behind a dead rat, half-drenched in saliva, and retreated to his hide. Now he keeps poking his head out of the hide intermittently but not eating as if just to annoy me.

I love this snake, but man, he is really getting on my nerves right now. I completely understand people who are squeamish about rodents, but I've never minded handling them or seeing dead ones or anything. At least til now. Now I'm getting a little grossed out at the thought of having to throw out this dead, half-soaked-in-spit rat, which is starting to stick to the newspaper I use as substrate. *SIGH*

Thank you for listening.

EDIT: Also, a quick question. How long would you normally leave a dead rodent around the snake before calling it quits and taking it away? I keep wondering if he MIGHT try to eat it again later. It's been about 30-40 minutes now.