I'll admit, I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to ball pythons. I had two corn snakes until my friend called me in a panic saying that her friend was about to dump a baby ball python out in the Texas heat to die. I'm the only person she knows that has a love and passion for the scaled pets. I told her to give me the address for the snake so I could pick her up. I picked her up not even an hour later and she's in pretty rough condition. The owner said she was 6 months old, but she was only 53g when I brought her home. I thought that for sure she was a lot younger. She is skinny and her skin is patchy...retained skin? I've had her for about two weeks and I'm trying to mist her cage every morning to keep the cage around 60% humidity to help with the skin issue. She did each a peach fuzzy mouse (I didn't want to give her too big a meal for fear of regurg) on the 12th (I picked her up on the 6th). Today was the first day that I saw her moving around her cage outside her hot hide. She had dropped weight and weighs in at 44g today. Any tips on how to get her up to a healthy weight and help with the shedding issue?

Just to note: the day I got her, I went out and bought three books on ball pythons and read each one cover to cover as well as some internet research. She also isn't being handled at all except when I change the newspaper in her cage and offer her meals. I'm trying here...