To preface, I'm new to owning (or is it being owned by) a reptile. I've had Professor Snape, a juvenile BP of approx. 3 - 4 months for 2 1/2 weeks. I bought him at a reptile sale from a glass sided tank with no hides that had probably 20 of them in there. It was during the day with lots of people peering at them, and all were very calm, no attempted strikes when I reached in to choose one. They were kept daily otherwise, this was just display for the sale, the point being he is super calm, captive bred, and in great physical condition, so I believe them when they said he'd been eating one adult mouse weekly, and that this is what he's used to.

So, I get him home and his first feeding is Tuesday of last week. I dropped the mouse and watched. He slowly uncoiled, reared up to weave back and forth and watched a bit before grabbing the mouse to squeeze. After squeezing he set the mouse down and nosed around to the head and got in a good position to swallow. It it did take a while to get the mouse down and it seemed almost too large, but he was fine with no regurgitation. The day after feeding he wasn't too thrilled about being handled, though he wasn't aggressive, just kind of ducked away from me trying to pet him. So I chalked it up to "I'm full, leave me alone" and put him back. Two days later, his temperament was back to super relaxed.

Fast forward to this week's feeding, on a Wednedsday because I had a hard time getting a mouse, so it's 8 days later. I'm not too worried judging by what people here have said about how long theirs sometimes goes between feeds, but he was a little skittish during handling Monday and Tuesday. Nothing alarming, just less chill than normal, so I figure maybe he's just not in the mood. Well he was in between his 2 hides when I put the mouse in, and he grabbed it before it took 2 steps. His position for gripping wasn't so great, but he got another loop over the mouse and took care of business. The second the mouse stopped squirming he tried to swallow it butt first. He became a bit agitated, trying a dozen or more times to just duck his head down and grab the mouse by all kinds of bad angles. He never would drag it out to where he could uncoil and get the mouse's head and finally performed a fairly impressive stretch straight upwards to start swallowing, and after that he was fine. The mouse was a little smaller and went down well, and I'm sure he's still learning a bit how to handle his food, but what does concern me a bit is I felt like he was so hungry he didn't bother to take his time.

I'm not interested in feeding extra just to boost his size quickly, I only want him to be healthy and comfortable. Being so new, I am wondering if I am reading his behavior correctly, because it seems to me he was just very very hungry. Given what people have said about them being finicky eaters and hunger strikes I was a bit surprised by this, but of course it's possible that's not what his behavior means at all. I'm inclined to try feeding every 5 days. Any advice?