I think the real confusion is assist feeding as opposed to force feeding. One(force) being much more stressful to the animal.
Assist feeding is done primarily to hatchling or young small BP's. They dont yet have the body weight to survive long fasting periods and usually have not yet learned how to feed correctly. Once they have been assist fed their metabolism kicks in and usually wakes up the feeding response.
I had a hatchling last year(my prettiest pastel) that would not feed after several months and every trick in the book. After one assist feeding her metabolism kicked in and today she is one of my best feeders. I had a hatchling (albino) this year that refused(live mouse hoppers) 5 weeks in a row. I thought I was gonna need to assist her eventually but I tried a rat pink and she took it down by herself(yeah!). Sometimes they are picky and you need to try different things. She still wont touch a mouse.
I always reccomend live rodents for hatchlings and problem feeders. Once they are established and healthy then you can try to switch over to PK or FT. They may refuse a few times or never switch over so you want them to be healthy enough to miss a few meals.
Bp's that are well started and then stop feeding are usually telling you something about husbandry problems. I see alot of these posts in the winter time and cant help but think the ambient temps have dropped and caused them to go off feed. My thought is not to check the temps during the day but see what the nighttime low is. Snakes that are 200+ grams obviously have been eating and should continue unless there is a husbandry problem.
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