Need help new bp owner

hey,
I am a new BP owner, I just have a normal ball python. I did do a lot of research before I got him so I could properly care for him. His name is Django and he is about 4 months old. Right now he looks really healthy he has nice colors and has a nice thick body. I just need help on a few topics to really get the husbandry portion of caring for them down.

Shedding
- his colors have dulled and his eyes have gone blue and shaded over. but he has not seemed to shed yet it has been a couple days I was wondering if this is normal? also is it normal for them to not eat during the shed.


Feeding
- The first time i fed him, i fed him a pinkie because i made the stupid mistake of listening to the pet store worker. I am not trying fuzzies but I think i might still need to get a bigger rat because they are much smaller than Django. He has not eaten since, its been about 1 1/2 weeks and he is not eating, i was wondering if this was because he is in shed or should i try other tactics to make him eat?

for housing i have one light for day and a infared light for night, also i have a heater in my room to regulate the temp. because we are in winter. I put a damp towel over 3/4 of the cage to keep humidity up and trap it... please let me know if i need to change anything... I also put a under tank heater there but i might take it out cause i dont have a thermostat

The uth needs a tstat. You said "might take it out." It goes under the tank not inside it. Turn it off until you get a tstat. Don't go cheap on it. You get what you pat for. I like these.

http://www.spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Many snakes will not feed during a shed. Your snake well go into blue (fogged eyes and dull coloring), clear up, then after a couple days shed.

The feeder should be as big a the snakes thickest part.

A pic of your setup could help us help you.

Researched?? Sure thing homie. Good luck and congrats

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

ok sounds good I will get a pic up as soon as I can. and I phrased it wrong. I did put the heater outside of the cage under his hide and since i was worried about the heater getting too hot I put about 1 inch of aspen shavings down for some insulation. but I will remove it for now then get a thermostat

Shedding
Yeah the change in eye color is usually the beginning and some BPs will eat when eyes are changed and some won't. It will be upwards of almost a week after their eyes return to normal that they'll then shed. Remember to bump up your humidity during this period to help the shed, maybe even make a humid hide.

Feeding
YOU NEED A THERMOSTAT to regulate the UTH. http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...ords=hydrofarm I use two of these and haven't had any problems, if money is a little tight. If money isn't an issue, a lot of people here love the Herpstat line. I'd say as long as your temps are around 90F on the hot side and 80F on the cool side you should be sitting pretty good. You can try feeding him once his eyes have returned to normal, that when I'll try get them to eat.

The Hydrofarm tstats are cheap and fail to often for me to consider them a reliable tstat for an animal that needs it to survive. I had one for a temporary setup, it only worked a few months.

You can get intro level tstats for around $100. I don't think that is to much for peace of mind.