Okay, I intended to wait until Saturday to feed him, but the pet store had crappy records and multiple snakes in his tank, and their answer when I asked when they last ate was, "...about a week or so ago, I think." Eh...

So, he's been in his new digs for five days, and the temp situation is now under control (we are rocking 82F belly on the cool side, 93F belly on the hot side, and the ambient ranges from 78F to 88F from one side to the other).

I thawed his mouse and warmed it up a bit, and then I simply dropped it in his tank, since I don't have any decent tongs, and I figured I'd at least see what he did with a boring, still mouse (really figured I'd be throwing this mouse away). He wandered around for about an hour, but kept seeming to overlook the mouse. You could tell he definitely smelled something interesting, but I figured the mouse had now cooled off too much, and he would eventually lose interest.

I turned on his light, so I could retrieve the mouse, but he was still roaming around, and I was waiting until he made it to the other side of the cage (I'm new at this and a little nervous about poking around in there while he's worked up over a mouse). Well, he was sort of randomly poking around and finally flicked the tail with his tongue. That's all it took. He promptly grabbed it and ate it without even hesitating! With his bright light on, at that!

So, please tell me this is a good sign for future eating habits...? Is it too early to get excited about my "good eater"?

Pics of his first meal are here.

Also, any advice to secure the sensor cords with the thermometers? They're pretty long, which means a lot of extra cord bundled up in there.

Thanks for reading my excited ramblings! All of my friends and family are grossed out by his (her?) existence, so you poor people are my only real outlet for snake news, lol. I know BPs all over the world eat every day, but I'm not much of an optimist, so I figured mine would be one of the finicky ones. That, and the only snake people I have talked to in person are die-hard live feeders, and they kept insisting it would be soooo difficult to get him to eat f/t that I shouldn't even bother.