I'm a new owner, and in love. But I do have questions.

[Tayking89]

I have many questions everyday with my new Ball Python. My friend gave her to me, her name is Lucy and she is a 9 year, but my biggest question is how do how much she likes me? she seems to love to be handled, she often will poke at my face and give me small likes around my cheeks. Her previous owner says that means shes getting use to me handling her and that she likes me. But I don't want to judge my opinion and knowledge of my new found love over what one person says. I do not know how long the previous owner had her, but I do trust the previous owner. She got the snake from a breeder who apparently was an improper breeder, and after my research, I hate to even call him/her a breeder. He left most his BP's without a warm or humid environment. My BP (who I call Lucy) is a survivor of many BP's who suffered cold and dry conditions for many years. She seems extremely docile to me, but she always seems different depending on when I handle her. I always handle her at night, mainly because I myself am a nocturnal type, and work into late hours of the night. Only to be home around 1 am till 10 am. She has not seemed to picked up a routine since I have received her, which was only less than two weeks ago. But she does seem to let me handle her when I am home, and she sticks to me very closely. I know a hiding bp is typically a happy bp, so when she hides in my clothing when I handle her, I like to feel like she is confortable, she will even spend hours hiding in my shirt before deciding to make a move. Some forums I have read state that it is a good thing, others state that she might be hiding from me even when I am handling her. I want my snake to love me as much as I am starting to love her, am I doing the right thing? To the date today, I have owned her for just under less than two weeks, but I plan to feed her this Thursday for her second feeding within my ownership. I do plan on buying a second tank, and training her to know that the second tank is for feeding only, and also to give me time to clean her main tank. her previous owner seemed to at one point also do this, but after a while only fed her in her main tank and had sold her second tank. Is it ok to change her feeding habbits? I have too many questions to ask, yet I feel like I may be on the right path to making her happy. Another question, when I handle her, I typically try to wear the same sweater each time, to give her someplace to hide in warmth and security. She seems to like hiding within this sweater more than other shirts and sweaters I wear, but I want to be sure she likes it. Tonight she stayed balled against my stomach for nearly 3 hours before I decided to put her back in her tank. She hardly moved at all except when I were to pet her and move her when I had to move myself. She seemed completely docile when I moved her and stayed contently between my sweater and my stomach, just as she does between my neck and the collar of the sweater. I have so many questions no matter how much research I do, I just want my snake to be happy with me. I know about husbandry, but I am not breeding so I just want to focus on her. Does the same ideology of husbandry attend to non breeding?

[Jwkempo]

Nice good luck! Keep it simple at the most basic level. Provide warmth, water and food and you'll be fine. Keep checking back at this site for more info on stuff like humidity etc. Make sure she feels secure in her enclosure. Provide two hide boxes. One on the hot side of the enclosure the other on the cooler side. Many users here believe that snakes simply "tolerate" handling. I'm not sure they "enjoy" being handled, but I think it's import to stimulate the animal by handling it on a regular basis. Watch her and learn there is no substitution for the power of observation.