Hi guys! Since this just keeps happening over the past 2-3 months, and is starting to drive me nuts, I figured I'd ask to see if anyone has any tips.

So Iggy, my 7-month-old male BP, keeps attempting to swallow his f/t rat sideways. When this inevitably fails, usually after a prolonged wrestling match with the dead rat, he will eventually give up, let go of the rat, and just retreat back into his hide. I have tried the following things, all with no particular success:

- The usual optimization of feeding conditions - evening/night, dim lighting, minimal disturbance before and after, etc.

- Focusing the blow-dryer heat on the head of the rat. I do this with all feedings anyway, but just thought I'd specify. I've tried both my usual 10-second blast of heat, and prolonging it to 15 seconds to make the head an extra-obvious heat target.

- Presenting the rat towards him headfirst, holding it in the tongs in a variety of ways (by the tail, by a rear paw, by the scruff of the neck, around the middle). Where he finally grabs and wraps it varies regardless, and most of the time, he bites it mid-body and then just commits to that.

- Re-heating and re-offering the rat after the first time he gives up on it. Sometimes he'll even strike and wrap it again. However, the end result is the same.

- Leaving the rat in his enclosure with him, even after he's given up and left it. I feed in the evening, and come the next morning, the rat is still there, untouched, and needs to be tossed.

- Sizing down the rat. I am now giving him rat fuzzies that are slightly too small for his size, in the rather desperate hope that the rat will fold over enough that he can swallow it even sideways. He still can't, and still gives up on it.

- And most recently, in a fit of frustration tonight after this happened again with the 1st and 2nd offer attempts, I just opened the top of his cave hide and chucked the rat in there with him, in close proximity, before closing the hide again. I'm planning to wait several hours, until whenever I decide to go to bed, to see if he decides to eat it at his leisure after spending some quality time with it right next to him.

I wouldn't mind this so much if he did eat the rat eventually. The problem is the "giving up" part. He's still getting meals down about every couple of weeks when he feels like being more persistent, or gets lucky with his strike aim, but he really should be getting more than this, considering that he's young and still growing. Also, the fact that he's grabbing the rat readily, and making a considerable effort to swallow it, indicates that he HAS the appetite and WANTS to eat.

Is there anything else I can try, to help him out? Is he going to get better at figuring this out eventually? Come to think of it, why did he start doing this in the first place, when he used to be able to find the head and swallow headfirst just fine back when he was a 3-month-old?