It was messy but in the end he ate!

I bought an adult live mouse and he actually tracked it around his cage for about a minute before becoming disenchanted, so I went ahead and killed the mouse in preparation for braining and leaving it in the cage overnight. Before doing so I tried assist feeding just by ever so gently slipping the mouses head into his mouth and after a few minutes he started working his jaws around it! I've never had luck with assist feeding (last resort stuff) but was stoked that it worked. I wish that I had a f/t small rat to chain after the mouse but I wasn't going to push my luck. Its promising that he was interested in the live mouse for the first time ever, I'm hoping he'll be like the others who posted, saying when young they were picky but eventually got over it and became strong feeders. Thanks everyone for the advice, I'll keep trying adult mice then small rats, only using assist feeding if he wont eat for 3 months (like this time).

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