Hello everyone. I'm a fresh ball python owner and I have a few questions regarding my beautiful snake.

I got into the possession of this snake in November 2017 when someone asked me to take care of it while they were away for eight months. Prior to this, the snake had a terrarium with all the necessities (hygrometer, tree branch, light, etc) and I handled it occasionally but I wasn't the owner. The snake was about a year old then. When it came into my possession, the owner brought it in a big plastic container and said it can live in the container til they come back eight months later. I was to feed it, make sure it was warm, watch when it sheds, but the basic instructions were to leave it alone cause the snake was hibernating, according to the owner's words.

Since Nov 2017 til Aug 2018 the snake was fed four times (twice inside the container with live prey, twice outside the container with dead prey, and no, I didn't touch the prey at all when I was feeding it), shed three times, and I tried my best to pull it out from the container once a month, leave it on the bed or on the floor or just keep it in my hands if it wanted to be on me. It would move around as it usually does, as it did before with the old owner when I would watch it or touch it.

Circumstantially I'm it's owner now, but it seems to me the snake is behaving different than it used to before. I bought it a new terrarium last week, big terrarium, and I've been watching it a bit. It shies away from contact sometimes and it tenses up its' neck occasionally, and a few times it just laid on the bed or on the ground and didn't want to move. I'm afraid it being locked up in the container affected it and I'd appreciate some advice on what to do now, how to handle the snake, because it seems apprehensive and tense.

Might be worth mentioning it was fed about three weeks ago the last time and shed after that.

Thanks in advance!!!