Feeding Question

[mercerasian]

One of my males has been refusing food for a couple of months now. I'm not too worried yet since he's not losing a substantial amount of weight, but he is losing some and he's thinner than I'd like him to be. Tonight I tried giving him a small f/t rat which is what he'd normally take. He would be interested, go up close to it and look like he's about to strike. Then he'd flick his tongue and when he got close enough and hit it with his tongue, he'd back away from it suddenly and then just move away. I left it in there with him in front of his hide for about an hour, but I just caught him going over it to get back in his hide.

I guess my question is, should I just wait out this hunger strike? Or should I try switching him to live, or even possibly mice? I've never fed live so I'm a little worried about it, but I'm definitely up for trying anything if he needs it.

Also, everyone else is pigging out and he's in the same rack with the rest of them so I don't think husbandry is the issue. I haven't changed anything from when he was eating to when he stopped either.

If he's a breeding size male it might just be the winter hunger strike that a lot of bps seem to have around this time of year. If you don't think it's just a seasonal hunger strike or if he's pretty small, I'd try a live rat then. How was his last successful feeding? Anything that happened out of the ordinary that might have spooked him?