Feeding and shedding issues
About two and a half months ago, I purchased a "Champagne Het for Pied" young male ball python from my local reptile store. He was sold at a discounted price because of feeding problems. We were instructed to feed him frozen thawed for a little longer after we bought him, but the feeding had to be assisted. She showed us how to wrap him around our fingers, and just rub a thawed feeder against his nose to provoke a feeding response. And she said if that didn't do anything, then to manually open his jaws, and place the feeder in his mouth. After a couple feedings, we realized that was the only thing we could do to get him to eat. He would only wrap around the food if we opened his jaws for him. We recently have attempted to feed him live fuzzies, but to no avail. He just doesn't seem to have any interest these past few weeks.
Some weeks ago, he started to go into shed, which we think is when his feeding habits changed. We tried to feed him a live fuzzy for the first time while in shed, and only half expected him to take it, as I understand that some snakes will eat while in shed, and some won't. We decided to wait until after he shed to try and feed again. The thing is is that he took three weeks to shed. We waited, and waited, and his skin just kept getting wrinklier, and wrinklier, to the point that we were expecting a shed any day, but nothing; until one day, I decided to run him under some luke-warm water, and one soft swipe of my thumb pulled off a large piece of shed instantly. This would have been the second time that I've helped him get his shed off, and also, only the second time he has even shed. He still has yet to eat, and it has now been almost two months since he's had a meal. All of that being said, it seems like this snake depends a lot on us to help him perform natural functions, and I'm hoping we aren't doing anything wrong, but if there's anything we can do to encourage feeding, and help him with his sheds, we are all ears/eyes, and appreciate any help/advice we can get. Thank you!
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