Quote Originally Posted by andrewross8705 View Post
I've been thawing food on the lid above his tub and he's all over the place but still pulls back and tries to hide.



That's what I've been doing. If he's hungry, he will eat, if not, it goes to one of the others. It's more frustrating than anything because my other BP is a little more than a year and almost double his size. I know they all grow differently but it's hard to stay out of your own head at times.



He's on large adult mice at the moment and is ready to go up to the next size but refuses to eat rats. I try offering a rat that's a bit smaller than him every few weeks in the hopes that he will take to them but no luck so far. He's probably going to be on mice forever at this rate and that's fine as long as he's willing to eat.

Mine came to me shy.

Beyond what others have mentioned regarding the feeding issue directly what I did was:

Give him lots of cover. Loose substrate, PVC pipes, plants. Assure only one side of his enclosure is non-opaque. Allow him to scoot around unseen to me.

Thaw in late evening, when I see him already poking out (he's a watcher/lurker).

Heat completely, with heat being heated via blow dryer over my body temp.

Offer via tongs in the most stable way, so the rodent can't swing/fall free/etc. Settled on hind feet.

He would take 10-15 to strike and 30 minutes to actually get it down, to start. No wonder he was skipping weeks with the breeder, since they probably couldn't sit there and wait for him to muster up the guts to strike, and his coiling response sucked back then too.

Now he strikes soon as he lines it up and can have it down in under 5 minutes.

Really focus on how your items are heated and how secure the animal feels in its home overall, IMHO.