Just brought our BP home...

He may not be exploring. He may be looking for a place to hide. If I sit on the couch with one of my pythons, he makes a beeline for the underside of the cushions. :)

so i tried feeding him, he was smelling the f/t mouse but didnt strike or even attempt to eat it...im really hoping i didnt mess up somewehre since ive been handling him:(

Chances are he probably wants live. I always try F/T first if they don't take I then try live. Guess what? 9 times out 10 they take the live. It takes time to get them to eat F/T. Some of my snakes will eat F/T and other only take live. I hate raising rats but I feel its better nutritionally than frozen.

On a side note. If you have an older snake that is used to eating F/T, I wouldn't suggest feeding it live. I have noticed that the older they get eating F/T they become complacent when eating and seam to stop constricting. They will just go up to the rat sniff it strike it then maybe throw a side on it then they just start eating it.

I second the being bit by moving them to a different feeding enclosure... because I got tagged doing just that. Usually the routine is you take out the mouse, bring it to the room, move the snake... which means it already smelled the mouse which means it's probably in hunting mode... a heat source a.k.a. your hand reaching for it may cause it to strike and constrict.

Yup, ditch the black light. They don't need it and if it gets hot they can get burned.

Try leaving your snake completely alone for a week so he can get used to his new environment. They need to feel safe in their new home before they feel safe enough to eat.

Honestly, "cage aggression" is not a problem with these species. For bigger snakes, moving to a separate feeding area is beneficial but for ball pythons it doesn't matter. Many times, ball pythons won't eat in a separate enclosure because they are shy and don't feel safe.

Make sure your snake has two identical tight fitting hides. I like using plastic cereal bowls from the dollar store. Cheap and effective!

Remember, if your snake does not feel safe, it is unlikely to eat.

Also, why would your electricity bill go through the roof?

We put ours into a separate enclosure to eat, just because we were told to do that when we got our first BP years ago. We haven't had any unusual problems, but it definitely is personal preference.