I am certainly not arguing with the reality of conditioned response. I am arguing that you are not giving your animal enough credit. Your animals strongest response will be to the ones it evolved to have. It did not evolve getting fed at the same time every week in a cage or in a tub. It evolved to learn the sites, sounds and smell of prey. I am not saying that this is true of all snake breeds, I am speaking of ball pythons. My research and experience is fairly limited to them. As for what the OP was told at the pet store. If we went by all the advice of the pet store we would all keep our snakes in aquariums designed for fish, use heat lamps best left to bearded dragons, have a half log hide or two, and have a nice stick on analog dial thermometer and hygrometer. Just because you are told something doesn't mean its true.