Technically he probably was eating properly, just not on what you wanted to feed him. While MOST westerns will convert or start right off on mice as they are not as picky as eastern and southern cousins, sometimes they require scenting and sometimes, although rarely from what I have heard, will refuse mice all together.

I have seen mine move on his side while eating in his cave from time to time, other times he just sits still. I just stick a rock against the cave and cage wall because as it turns out he is trying to pin the food down. Every hognose I have kept and currently keep are vigorous feeders that really lay into their food, I have never seen one just casually grab and eat like my corn snake will.

I am still a little confused as to the reason why your western has this behavior in his cage though. Do you or the pet store know if he was CBB? A WC may have more reason to exhibit a defensive behavior. One thing I just thought of to see if it is that he feels threatened is, while you snake does it, does he hiss or flatten out his neck at all? Mine has calmed down in recent months but while he was a younger snake he would get a little aggravated every time I came into my bed room.

And yes, nutrition could be a cause too. Although he may not willingly take pinks, this is a somewhat common occurrence in westerns, and very common in other hognose snakes in the Heterodon genus. It could be something that happened to the snake before you got it or after words, or perhaps during development in the egg or on the genetic level via mutation or cross over recombination. Note that every generation of every animal goes through gene mutations, just out of all the genes to choose from the actual chance of anything going wrong or even being noticed are very slim.

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