New BP owner introduction

Hey there!
Im a new snake mom with a beautiful normal baby ball python and Ive been lurking on this forum for a month reading everything I could find. I finally decided to register and introduce myself and my noodle :)
Sally (Salazar Draco Slytherin) was purchased from Petco (I know big mistake) on 4th of July 2018. Unfortunately Petco employees weren’t able to tell me neither his age nor his gender. They also told me I should feed him pinkie mice and never give him anything bigger than his head as well as keep humidity around 30%. Thank God I didn’t believe them. The poor baby was severely underweight and anxious and had lots of dry spots.
Thanks to your forum I was able to figure everything out and set up a better life for Sally. He has a 20 tank, with 78 degrees on cold side and 90-92 basking spot with a heat pad underneath as well as overhead heat lamp with red night light when needed (usually at night as the temperatures drop), I keep his humidity at around 60. He has 3 hides (one on hot side, one on cold, and one in the middle ish with damp moss) I work from home so I’m able to keep a very close eye on all of his conditions. He’s not skipped a meal in a little over a month I’ve had him. I feed him every 5 days to get him back to his normal size so he’s eaten 6 times so far. He’s eating rat pups and does so happily. He’s became way more relaxed while handling and better looking over all. He’s 19 inches long and 3.9 ounces. I know it’s impossible to tell how old he is based on that but my guess is he’s still pretty young (3-4 months maybe?)
He shed on July 18th all in one piece and nice and poops about once every two weeks. I think he’s still a little skinny but we’ll get there! And yes I’m absolutely assuming it’s a he, im too afraid to hurt him to pop him. Let me know if you think I’m missing something or any other advice you might have :)
Im a newbie on forums so I’m gonna attempt to attach a picture here hope it works:

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Welcome Sallysmom! Sounds like you're doing a great job of figuring out what to believe & what NOT to (Petco!) ;)
"Baby" snakes (neonates/hatchlings) actually take quite a while to size up, since they're growing in both length & girth, & eating young rodents...I would
estimate your BP is more like a year old, not that it matters. He (or she?) has a beautiful pattern & appears to have decent weight...I prefer the "normal"
BP colors to most of the fancy morphs. And I'm with you, I don't like tail-popping boas/pythons (snakes with thick tails). I'd say you're off to a great start. :gj:

Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of snake keeping!

It sounds like you're off to a good start! :gj:

Keep up the good work, keep reading and asking questions. We're happy to help whenever you need it.

Welcome !!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Your "lurking" here has clearly paid off. :welcome: We're very happy to have you with us...

Just wanted to show you guys a newer pic :)
Sal is a happy healthy snake!
He still hasn’t skipped a meal and I finally figured out a way to keep his humidity perfectly at 60% by setting up a small humidifier on top of his tank! Now I don’t have to almost him every 15 minutes yay 😄
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Welcome to the forum! There are a lot of good people with lots of good knowledge here!