Hello everyone! I'm new here and I got my first ball python today. He's a real cutie. I got him from a breeder who got him from a reptile show. He had wanted to breed ball pythons but changed his mind so he sold the male and female...the male to me.



I named him Chilongola. I had a dream once that I had a baby ball named Chili so I decided that would be his name. I wanted to give him a proper African name. Chilongola is a Kaguru name from Tanzania. It means first born son.

The unfortunate part about this event is that I prepared the enclosure for a
larger snake.





Chili turned out to be smaller than I expected so I made huge hides (that I worked pretty hard on!) And he isn't very smitten with them. So I put a plastic cup on its side in each hide and he's still disinterested. Instead he's on the warm side, tightly snug between the wall of the hide and the wall of the tank. Is this a bad thing? I don't want him too be stressed while acclimating to his new home. He's supposed to eat soon so I would actually like him to eat.

If he doesn't is it okay to refreeze the mouse or is it best to just throw it out?

Thanks for looking!