I recently obtained a male pastel for $50 on craigslist. (I'll post pic's later). Quite the find eh? Anyways, he was fed live mice until he came to me. He is the same size as my female normal, so I really wanted to convert him to the same f/t rats that she eats, as it was more appropriate for his size. I am fairly new to BP's and was a bit worried as I've heard that switching from live & from mice to rats can be difficult. Well, yesterday was my first attempt and he ate it! I did the pre-scenting, warming the rat prior to feeding, as well as using tongs, accompanied by the zombie dance. (Same thing I do for my female). It worked like a charm!
Now of course the flip side is that my female who is normally a great eater refused last night. But I think she is about to shed. So that would explain that. Poor gal. Just wanted to share my newbie success.