First time snake owner week 6 first shed

[Gingerbreadman]

Hi, I am a first time snake owner. I chose the ball python after some reading and watching of the you tube. I bought my ball python (Jayk) at a local reptile store. I got a 15 gal tank closed in the sides and back with black foam boards and sealed all the gaps with electrical tape. I cut some plexi glass for the the top part of the cage. I have a ceramic light up top, and an ultra therm UTH on the bottom both are plugged into a thermostat. I am measuring the temp with three different thermometers (2 on the hot side and 1 on the cold side) and 2 different hydrometers. They are all within 5% of each other. I am using a repti carpet with cypress bedding on top and with sphagnum moss soaked in spring water treated with repti safe weekly. He has a hide on both sides of the cage and a water dish in the middle (also treated with repti safe). The thermostat and 1 thermometer are reading the belly temp in the cypress bedding, one hydro stat is above the substrate and one is in the substrate. I have fed him 6 times (tonight was the sixth). His first feed was a live pinky mouse, then a frozen pinky mouse, then a frozen pinky mouse, then a live pinky rat, then a frozen pinky rat, and tonight he ate a frozen fuzzy rat. I noticed a few days ago his belly was pink and skin was dark and eyes were grey, today when I cleaned out his cage I found his shed. While I was handling him I noticed a little bit of shed left on his head not very much, I made sure to soak all the sphagnum moss and spray the substrate very well. He ate his meal very quickly (I am guessing the work up an appetite shedding). I am so thrilled to have this guy and so are my kids and fiance. He is super friendly, and curious, he likes to crawl around on us and hangout on us while we watch tv, he likes exploring on the floor when we let him out too, oh yeah When I got him he was around 75 grams and weighed in last week at 127 grams. I like having him in the aquarium and have plans to decorate it so it looks a bit cooler and tidy up the wiring. I also have a tub that I am going to transfer his old hides and water dish to once I get his terrarium set up how I want it. I am going to get a heating pad for it and build a little shelf to hold 4 of the tubs. I think I would like to have a couple in the future, I have been looking at all the different morphs since getting him and they are so fascinating. I am not sure what makes a leopard a leopard, when I was at the store I was drawn to this guy because he was friendly but also moving around on me while I held him and he was pretty dark. Any way thanks for this great site and all the great information on here. Any suggestions or recommendations I am happy listen and learn.

[Dutti]

Beautiful nice looking Ball Python. Next time when his belly turns pink and his eyes turn grey, spray his enclosure to increase the humidity and he will shed in one piece.

[Gingerbreadman]

I will definitely do that, thank you.

[Dutti]

Also make sure to gently remove any remaining shed. Very important. Keep him on rats, more healthy. I feed my ball python live. I think its more healthy and keeps the snake active, my personal opinion. I just posted this feeding guidlines in another Thread. By the way, your BP has the normal morph which i find to be the most beautiful out of the 5000+ BP morphs available now because its the original one which you find in the wild.
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[Gingerbreadman]

Thank you for the feeding schedule. I put him in a moist towel for a little while and rubbed his head with the towel, his head looks good now. So he is normal leopard or a normal ball python? He looked much different than the normal ball pythons at the reptile shop I got him from and they told me he was a leopard and gave me a little card with the female and male parents morphs (not that it means anything). I searched for a leopard and the only things I could find were spotted pattern, stripe down the tail, and pattern on the belly ,It doesn't make a difference to me Jayk is part of the family . Jayk is staying on the rats too. Thank you again for your help and recommendations.

[Sunnieskys]

He looks like a normal to me.

[Dutti]

Thank you for the feeding schedule. I put him in a moist towel for a little while and rubbed his head with the towel, his head looks good now. So he is normal leopard or a normal ball python? He looked much different than the normal ball pythons at the reptile shop I got him from and they told me he was a leopard and gave me a little card with the female and male parents morphs (not that it means anything). I searched for a leopard and the only things I could find were spotted pattern, stripe down the tail, and pattern on the belly ,It doesn't make a difference to me Jayk is part of the family . Jayk is staying on the rats too. Thank you again for your help and recommendations.

I am not an expert on BP,s morphs and its my first time looking at them closely. I have to correct myself. Yours is leopard not normal after i watched the two closely. They are not that much differant though. I found this Youtube video of a guy presenting differant leopard morphs, and if you look closley at the first one he shows which is called "basic leopard, single gene leopard" it looks very much similar to your BP. And if you look at the normals, they are differant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfhE8TqYa9M&t=86s

[tttaylorrr]

that's a Leopard.

EDIT: welcome to the forum!!!