King Snake Surrenders

After Ramses came out of his first hibernation, I used his hunger to switch him to frozen/thawed mice instead of live mice. This is more humane for the mice, helps Ramses avoid the "farewell bite", and makes my life a little easier. Ramses is no dummy. I have tried all of the tricks numerous times to get him to eat pre-killed food, but he would simply not eat something that he hadn't killed himself. He would move the dead mice around to determine whether they were alive or not and when the mice did not move, Ramses would not eat them no matter what they smelled like. His habits are so well-defined that I can predict his every move and I am counting on him eating frozen/thawed from now on.