a hiding BP is a happy BP, hides are always important. less so in racks since tubs act like hides somewhat. Many people use at least 1 hide in tubs (on the hot side) while the BP's are young, but once they get big enough they stop putting in hides.

I pull the hides off of my BP's almost every feed day. and most of the time they eat. so it might not necessarily be the fact that you pulled the hide, but one of the billion other reasons BP's decide that they don't want to eat for us...