Um, actually, one of my bps will sit there with the rodent in his mouth anywhere from 20-40 minutes. The longest he went with holding the rodent was an hour and he does this EVERY TIME--which is a pain in the butt because I want to make sure he eats it before going to sleep.

I usually leave him with it, turn off the lights, and go on my computer, once I hear the aspen rustling and moving about, I know he's started to position it to swallow--but should I go look and he catches sight of me, he'll stop again and hold it for another half hour or so. Leaving him alone seems to speed up the swallowing process down to 15 minutes--but he's still a slowpoke.

=_=;;;

I've always fed f/t so I don't know if there's a difference in swallowing rate between f/t and live.

(or you can also go to reptile expos and pick up rodents too =). good luck!)