Hi everyone! I've been reading these forums for a few days and gotten lots of good input. I thought it was time to ask for specific advice on my snake. First off, I've had ball pythons before, one adult and two juvenile, for a combined 3-4 years of experience. The adult we had to give away when we moved several years back, and the two juveniles got out when we were on vacation and our pet sitter didn't secure the cage properly. We searched for weeks and never found them.

Anyhow, I now have a new snake, tentatively named "Snyder" for its propensity for twisting itself into a perfect pretzel. It is a juvenile ball python and only about 22" long.

My SO went and bought it (knowing that it would be a welcome gift) from a petstore with a 15-day return policy two weeks before my birthday. I got the snake on my birthday (12/17) and saw immediately that it was dehydrated and hadn't had a proper shed the last time it shed. It wasn't until two days later that I saw that it was covered in mites. It's also the most lethargic snake I've had, rarely flicking with its tongue except in the presence of prey, and only a few times trying to explore its surroundings when held.

During the two weeks that Snyder was being kept at a friend's house before my birthday, they fed it one F/T mouse, a pinky, which is good because it ate and because it ate F/T, but not so good because at 22" it should have been eating at least one hopper, or a small adult. A few days after getting Snyder, I tried feeding it a F/T small adult and it started to take it but apparently panicked over the size and rejected the mouse. We waited another four days or so, and tried again with an F/T adult, but Snyder would only sniff and guard the mouse and made no move to take it. We let another five days or so pass then tried to feed Snyder F/T pinkies, and again the result was sniffing and guarding, but no striking. We warmed all the mice to above room temp and have tried feeding in light and in dark and blocking the view of the habitat.

In the meantime, through thorough cleaning of the cage and everything in it with hot soapy water and mite treatment (thoroughly rinsed to avoid getting the snake sick from the cure), removal of the reptile carpet substrate and replacement with newspaper, and soaking the snake in slightly soapy tepid water, it looks like I've just about gotten rid of the mites and rehydrated the snake, so it should be feeling better.

The habitat is about 87F on the warm end (low end of the spectrum I know) and 77F on the cool end. There's a hide and water at each end and the humidity is about 75%. In the middle is a heat rock wrapped in two layers of towel under the newspaper because I haven't found my old heat pad -- I plan to replace it with a UTH ASAP. It's an aquarium (24x12x12) with a homemade wood and metal screen top, half-covered, currently lit with a 100W incandescent in a reflector sitting on top of the mesh so the snake can't burn itself on the bulb. One hide is plastic, the other stone, and each has both rough and smooth surfaces for comfort and shedding. One water dish is shallow rough stone that Snyder like to drape through, the other is a plastic dish big enough to soak in entirely if it wants.

I went yesterday to a pet store to try to buy a live fuzzy or hopper to try to get it to eat, and encountered an employee with a very superior attitude. He suggested spraying the snake and its habitat down with mite treatment and not rinsing either one, insisted that it didn't need hiding spots or water at both ends of the habitat, told me 14 hours of light was far too much, told me there was no point in feeding F/T, and had an uncovered heat rock and no hides in his own ball python habitat that I could see. Based on all that, I question everything he had to say.

Does anyone have any further suggestions regarding habitat, the mites, or getting Snyder to eat? Is my idea of getting live prey a good one or just likely to turn it off of F/T? I know it's not unusual for balls to go weeks or months without eating, and it is winter, but I'm concerned because the snake is still so young and it's not been very cold here (and certainly not inside). I'm sorry about the super-long first post, but I thought I'd try to give all the background info I could in case it would be helpful. Thanks for your help!