My George I've had since late December, and he had only eaten one pinkie mouse in just over a month n refused food otherwise. Until recently he has been eating way better.

As for feeding guppies or Platies you could try them yes. George saw his n didn't do anything, while Babs tried n tried to catch hers, it just kept flipping out of the dish so I had to be careful n pick it up, clean it off, try again. I personally if feeding live would do it in a separate tank so that you don't have to worry about him eating substrate.