Congratulations! Idris sounds like a very normal young corn snake as far as wanting a live pinkie, but I don't expect you'll have much trouble switching him
to f/t...at least I never have & I've bred a number of them & also bought hatchlings from others. They stay small for quite a while on pinkies, so you do have
plenty of time for him to learn to accept f/t pinkies versus live. You mentioned dangling the pinkie...I hope you are using feeding tongs? If not, get some soon.
That's the best way to make f/t wiggle slightly & "look alive"; also, you can pinch the pinkie's nose (hard, to damage a little & release more scent) right before
offering. You can confuse a snake by leaving your own scent all over pinks when offering them by hand or handling them first...as I said, tongs are essential.
As you guessed it's also normal for snakes to just wolf down small (young) prey that offers no real danger or resistance...snakes themselves are at risk from
predators while they are busy constricting & then eating prey- it's much faster for them to just swallow it live, so many do that. Snakes sure do look happy when
gulping their dinners down...I don't hate rodents & prefer to be as humane as possible (f/t are also much safer for our pets) but I believe that most snakes need
to start off as they would "in real life", dealing with live prey that gets their instincts switched on. Don't over-stress about switching Idris...most corns are easy.
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