Movement..

It's also not a good thing to constantly badger your snake to eat. Trying once a week is fine unless your pet is severely malnourished. If that's the case then force feeding may be an option, but I would only let a vet do that so as not to injure your snake.
By trying day after day to feed your snake, you are causing him even more stress, which in turn will prevent him from eating for an even longer period of time. It turns into an endless, viscious cycle. Once a week trying to feed is best. That way if he doesn't feed he has a week to work ono adjusting himself to his surroundings and getting himself back on a decent feeding schedule.

i don't have a regulator on th UTH, just on the light and i'm using a dimmer. i'll try to plug the UTH into the dimmer also and see if i can regulate it that way instead of buying another reohstat. i have a digital thermometer with a probe that is taped on the inside of his hide that gave me the 96 degree reading. then i have one that sticks to the glass on the side of the tank outside the hide and 2 on the cool end, one in the back and one in the front. When i get home i'm going to put the light on the cool end and see how well the UTH can heat the warm end and try to aim for about 90.

Well, you and I are pretty much in the same boat. I got my BP about 10 days ago, and went through what you are going through, with soem minor differences in temps. From the advice on this board, I ditched the lamps altogether since the ambient temp in the room I have him in is about 78-80 degrees. I use an UTH on the warm side connected to a rheostat. I had the issue of the warm side shooting up to 96-100 degrees even with the rheostat turned all the way down. Once I elevated the tank about 3 inches off of the desk, and got some airflow under it, I am able to regulate the temps perfectly (warm side between 90.5 and 92). I monitor it with 3 digital probe temps (1 under his hide on the cool side, 1 under his hide on the warm side, and 1 between the tank and the substrate over the UTH).

My BP stayed on his cool side for the first 3-4 days I had him. Now that I have the temps just right, I have noticed him going back and forth between the cool and warm sides... but only at night.

I hope this helps.