Quick question about body condition/weight

[TofuTofuTofu]

Thanks everyone! So, I only tried heating up the mouse after thawing it because the Suboc book says it could help if the TPRS is a stubborn feeder--thought it couldn't hurt. We don't hair drier our Japanese rat snake's food, but he is a voracious little child.

So, quarantine enclosure stuff: I have a heat mat covering almost the front half of the enclosure (I was using one that was about 1/4 of the enclosure, until a few days ago). Half of each hide intersects the heat. Surface temp on the paper towel is about 85 F, maybe a degree or two less. My house temp is set to 76; I think the cool side can be a little cooler than that. The lid has literally a couple hundred holes drilled in it for ventilation. I did actually give him a humid hide with very lightly dampened sphagnum moss, and he will go in there a few times per day. His other hide is a smallish cardboard box that he will also use. He has a heavy water dish that I have not seen him drink from but he pooped in it once, lol.

I've been doing "choice-based handling" with him, and have only allowed him out when he "asks" to come out. If he is out, looking at me, I will open the lid. He will choose to exit the tub at a molasses pace and smell the things around his tub, and will usually just put himself back in his tub a while later. I watch him closely for any signs of stress (I have this snake body language chart taped above his tub) and will only interfere if he goes somewhere he shouldn't. I've only had to actually touch him twice: once to move him away from an area behind his tub, and the other time yesterday when he went towards a similar spot. I can see the perspective of saying no handling until he has eaten, although I'm fairly confident based on his body language and the fact that it has been completely his choice to come out, that he is not stressed by this. This is not the same as just opening his tub and picking him up, which I have never done and probably will never do unless it's an emergency. He is not being "handled" during these sessions, and at most will be redirected with a hook or using my hand/arm more like an object rather than picking up and holding him.

I know choice-based handling is a relatively new method and most people here probably are not familiar with it, so I just wanted to explain what I was doing. Could be a topic for another post, although there are good videos on the matter that would probably explain it better than if I were to type it out.

If he refuses food this weekend, then I will probably just leave him completely alone for a week and try again--just in case it could be stress. At this time, I don't believe he is stressed, based on his behavior. He isn't out of his tub every day by any means. Depending on what I am doing and if he appears to want to come out, those two things have to intersect (because he is so slow, lol, his "sessions" take a while since they are based around me allowing him choice without interfering with handling). But yeah. I know I'm new at this so, definitely am open to suggestions! I just wanted to type all this up because, kind of really interested in this method at this time, and wanted to share/explain what was going on.

If it's best to just keep him closed in the tub until he eats, then I will do that. But I wanted to clarify what I meant by handling, as it probably isn't what most people think.