So I've been having a problem getting Shen to eat F/T food, which is a bit of a pain since the pet store is a bit of a hike, and I've got a big bag of dark-furred, frozen weanling rats for him in the freezer. He eats PK mice with abandon, but will turn his nose up at anything frozen no matter what I've done to it. Some people suggested the smell of rats was too different, and maybe get him a live one first to try. After much hunting, I finally found a store within an hours drive that gets live rat pups, and they were more than happy to chase me down an especially plump black rat pup.

Given his previous refusal to anything rat I wasn't sure he'd take it, but he was on the thing before it hit the bottom of his tank! And he'd had a small mouse a few days earlier, so he wasn't particularly hungry. So clearly it's not the "smell" of rats...So my question is, what now? I seek the combined voodoo and wisdom of the BP community to get this stubborn little bugger on FT food! I've already tried with FT mouse or rat:

1) Thawing in boiling hot water
2) Slicing the nose open
3) Rolling around in mouse bedding
4) Leaving with a mouse for a couple of hours
5) Smaller sized frozen rat
6) Dipped in chicken broth
7) "Faking" with a live mouse before offering FT
8) Zombie dance
9) Leaving in cage o/n
10) Letting him get good and hungry for 2-3 weeks without feeding if he refuses (don't want to go too long, he's still a growing snake!)

Are there some snakes that just won't eat FT in their lives no matter what you do? God I hope not......heh.