Hey all,

I'm the proud owner of a new ball python as of today, named Ronin, and am definitely excited. I've done a lot of research and have set him up in a 20gal tank (he's about 16in long or so) with reptile substrate (the stuff made for snakes, i don't remember exactly what it is), a water dish, a hiding spot, and a heating pad, and a little analog thermometer. After all i've read, i'm probably going to add a hydrometer (or whatever it's called that you use to measure humidity) and a heat lamp to get the ambient air temp up. The tank has an open mesh top. Does that need to be sealed with glad press-n-seal to keep in warmth and humidity?

And for my main question:

I've been hearing conflicting thoughts on how exactly to feed bp's. The store that sold it to me (salesperson was very knowledgable) told me I should remove the snake from its tank and put it in another habitat before offering it food. He said to do this so that your bp doesn't associate you opening the tank and reaching in with getting a meal, in the interest of not getting bit by him when reaching in to handle him. However, every post i've read on here seems to say just open the tank and either drop or dangle a mouse in front of him. This makes sense to me intuitively because he has to be warm and comfortable in order to eat, which he would not be if he were in some random box somewhere. So what do I do? Just drop a fuzzie in the tank?

Thanks,

Benn