A friend of mine brought me an 18 inch eastern late last September. I didn't feel right releasing it so I decided to keep it until at least this spring. As you can imagine, I tried just about every trick in the book to it to feed voluntarily, all to no avail. I wound up resorting to force feeding it small pinkies until November when I put it in the closet in my cool spare room for brumation. Well I brought it out last week and gave him a few days to get acclimated and offered him a washed small fuzzie. Naturally he shied away from it so I left it in the end of the flattened paper towel tube I'm using for his hide and went to bed. This never worked before but to my surprise, when I awoke this morning and checked on him, he had nice fat bulge and the fuzzy was nowhere to be found! This is the first time I've ever got a wild caught eastern to take a domestic rodent. I'm so proud of the little guy. 
Surely this isn't the most interesting thread here, but I just had to share since many of us know difficult these guys can be to feed. I hope it lasts, though I'll probably wind up releasing him after I find out exactly where in Otsego County, NY my friend captured him.
Here's a pic of of him.
One more to show his true color.
