You're doing good.I would try feeding. I always defrost the rodent in a bowl of water on top of the tank. You can also touch your feeding tongs to the defrosting rodent and then place the end of the tongs and the entrance to the hide til you see a nose with flicking tongue peek out. Smelling food before food is offered often gets a great feeding response. They are very instinctual creatures, and smelling prey will put them in hunting mode.
I used shredded coco husk til very recently and it sticks to rodents like crazy. So, I recommend drying the prey with a blowdryer, and placing a paper towel over the substrate. Otherwise, your snake will finish its meal with a mouth full of substrate, which is sooooo frustrating to watch. I don't think it HURTS them... but I don't think it helps either. My girl always got the substrate out by the next day, but I was just over worrying about her getting an intestinal blockage or something, so I switched to astroturf.![]()