Hey everyone, I just recently (after doing a lot of research on them) purchased a baby Ball from my local pet store. I had a couple of questions though that there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer to in the literature that I've come across.

#1 The store which I bought her from was saying that they feed them 1 F/T pinky every week on Thursdays (So my first feeding is coming up tomorrow). I am set up to raise feeder mice so I want to start feeding live but my question is when is it appropriate to start feeding a snake her size a full-sized mouse? Right now she is about 16" long, I'm not sure of the weight but I'll check her when I get home. She was the most active snake that I saw in the store which is one of the reasons I purchased her and she keeps up a fairly high (I believe) level of activity in her current terrarium, moving up and down the basking branch I have set up for her and going in and out of her 2 hides. Given her level of activity should I be feeding her more frequently? Maybe on a 5 day schedule?

#2 My fiancee had her out last night and she noticed just one small black mite while she was handling her on her hand. I checked the snake very thoroughly and did not see any other mites and I examined the terrarium also but didn't see any others (though I imagine there's not much chance of me finding them in that relatively large area). So should I start mite treatment on her now? I'm going to go tonight and get some of the mite dust for the cage to try and prevent them from spreading. Any other advice for me though? Should I be really worried about this?

Thanks everyone and I look forward to being a part of this community!

- Adam