Just something I forgot to mention: the "food" was a F/T mouse! YAY!!! (He had been alternately fed live and F/K so I'm glad he was able to make the switch so quickly. (It's REALLY hard to get live pinkies unless you raise them yourself.)
I did try the "Indian" trick since he didn't take the mouse at first.
I read about the "Indian" trick in a German book on GTPs that we have.
To convince a fussy eater, you can get some down feathers and stuff them in the pinky's mouth so that it has a feathery head-dress (that's why it's called "Indian")
Apparently the feel of the soft feathers on the snake's tongue excite them more and get them to bite at the food.
I'm not sure if this is what made the difference, but I was happy that he finally took the mouse and swallowed it. Hopefully we won't have to do this again.
(The lady at the pet store gave me a really weird look when I asked her if I could have some of the shed down feathers from her parrot!)
