Still cannot get my bp to eat f/t rats

[Bogertophis]

... my pickiest 2 right now will only eat rats that I thaw in a ziplock baggie in water. I guess the baggie locks the rodenty goodness in while they warm up. Maybe try that with some mouse bedding in there. But make sure it's stinky enough first.

When you thaw rodents IN water, it washes off some of the original scent. So if you have a snake that prefers mice, it might work better to wash (soak) off as much of the rat's scent as possible first, before adding some mouse scent via "stinky mouse bedding". At least that's what I'd try doing. If you start with a frozen rat, they take a while to thaw, so I'd thaw in water for a while first, & when I change the water (part-way thru thawing), that's when I'd add the mouse-scent, OR roll the fully-thawed rat in the mouse bedding after it's fully thawed & blotted off on a paper towel.

Nutritionally speaking, mice are close enough to a BP's natural diet- and domestic rats are not their natural diet either- it's mostly that the size works better once BPs are mature, so they can eat just one item that fills them up, whereas mice would be too small & require more than one, and some BPs just refuse more than one item no matter what. A BP's natural diet is African soft-furred rats, which is usually abbreviated to ASFs.

As I refreshed my own memory on ASFs (as I've never dealt with any) I noticed that various sources don't agree on whether they're rats or mice: their size falls somewhere in between & they're in a category of their own. Just something to keep in mind. There's plenty of other links to read up on them besides this one. Needless to say (for the OP), domestic rats or mice are less expensive & far easier to come by than the BPs natural prey (ASFs), & in many states ASFs are not legal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_multimammate_mouse

(OP-) Keep in mind that there is more than one thing you need to "get right" for many BPs to eat reliably. The method above is about scent, but that's only part of the problem. Most BPs also rely on the heat-signature of their live prey, so that's where "the hairdryer method" comes in. Their prey should also be warm as well as scented for best results.