Hi everyone!

So, we got our little guy last Friday. The seller said that its feeding schedule was every Monday, and that it ate live mice. I had read all sorts of posts and opinions regarding F/T vs live and felt that I wanted to try going with F/T. I picked one up this Monday and attempted to get him to eat but he did not want to have anything to do with the dead mouse.

I had been told by a buddy on another forum (non-snake forum, but this guy used to breed BPs) that I was to wait another week and try again. Well, my wife is impatient and felt that the snake was starving, so she went to a local shop and picked up a live mouse yesterday while I was at work. I came home and she had me attempt to feed again. This time we were successful and the snake is now being left to digest his meal over the next couple of days.

My first question is this. Since we broke schedule and fed yesterday, do we now proceed to keep feeding on Thursdays, or should we still try to get him back on his usual Monday schedule?

Second question pertains to heating. We have a Rubbermaid bin for its enclosure, with the heating pad under one half of the bin. I have it hooked up to a thermostat, with the boundaries set to 88*F -> 90*F. The probe is set directly between the bin and the heating pad. When the pad hits 90*, the thermostat shuts off, however the temp still climbs about 92* before it levels off and slowly falls. Is this variation between 88 and 92 unhealthy for the snake? I'm used to keeping tropical fish, where temperature swings are avoided as much as possible, so I don't know if I'm being paranoid or if I need to find a more consistent heat source.

Thanks!