I have a question for you K, regarding BP perception .
Goblin, my pre-'99 male, seems to have "bad aim" when he's striking at his rat. He sees the rat as I open the front sliding doors on his cage, and his head "snakes" out eagerly. But then as it's dangling in front of him (on tongs) he will strike at it and miss several times before finally grabbing hold of it. I know these are not defensive strikes because his mouth does not close if he misses the prey (plus one time he got my hand, and tried coiling around me, and that was definately a feeding response!) Now I use tongs... Incidentally, the rats are f/t.
So why do you think he is like this? My other younger BPs are dead-on with their aim. Goblin did have a bit of a scratch on one of his eyecaps when I got him (in sept. '03), but he has shed a lot since then and there's no visible damage to the eye. but I don't know if this would affect feeding because they use the heat pits. I always make sure the rats are noce and warm before feeding. Any theories?