Making another attempt at switching from mice to rats. Advice?

[Zelg]

Ok, so I recently got a young carpet and I now have a good supply of rat pups which are pretty much the same size as the adult mice I've been feeding my ball (all F/T).

Basically I'm just wondering if I'm doing things right or if I could be doing more. I'm committed to not giving him mice anymore unless he starts losing weight. Its been about a month since he's eaten anything. The last two weeks I've tried giving him a rat pup. The first week I just thawed and heated the rat pup in a baggie with two mice. Plopped it in his cage and my ball just stuck his head out of the cage, sniffed it and then laid part way out of his hide all night, ignoring the pup.

A couple nights ago, I scented the pup with mice blood/guts. Basically I just sliced open the mouse belly and smeared blood over the pup and rubbed the guts on it. (somewhat surprising to me there wasnt a lot of blood. I was expecting more to just flow out.

For the next feeding I'm planning on doing the same but this time cutting open a part of the pop skull to expose the brain.

I heat them up via heat mat to around 84 degrees, and to be honest, its probably warmer than I've heated the mice up to that he takes no problem.

The last feeding he did seem interested in it but I sat there for a moment to watch and then I moved and I think it spooked him and he slithered back into his hide. So i left and of course he didnt eat.

Any suggestions on doing more? Should I just stick with what I'm doing and hope he's hungry enough to take one eventually?