Hi everyone.

I picked up my first snake on June 1st, a female BP, and she has been settling in quite well I think. I have a few questions I would really be appreciative if some of you knowledgeable people could help me out:

1.

I weighed her when I got her home as she came in at 130g on June 1st.

I fed her a hopper mouse weighing 15g on June 5th (compared to her girth this looks a little small but I went with the 10-15% body weight recommendations).

I was planning to feed her again tomorrow which is exactly one week after her last meal. So as not to disturb her tomorrow before feeding I took her out and weighed her today and she was down to 122g so seems to have lost some weight despite the feeding 6 days ago. Does this mean she needs to be fed more frequently or bigger mice? See seems a bit thin too so I gave her another 15g mouse after I put her back into the cage after weighing her which she struck at and ate without any problems. Is the 8g weight loss anything to worry about? And should I be feeding her more often or bigger mice?

2.

She also has been hanging out at her cold end a lot and was cold to the touch when I got her out earlier today too. The temps have dropped a little here to low 20's (C) in the last couple of days but her hot end is continually maintained at 32C but she doesn't seem to go up there so much. Should I just trust her to know what she is doing with her body temps?

3.

When she came back, I waited a week for her to settle in before handling her for the first time. She was nervous but relaxed. Since then I have handled her two more times over the second week. Is this too much? I want to get her used t being handled without causing her any undue stress. This last time she was very twitchy and nervous so I cut it short after weighing her. She hasn't struck at me yet (although she did have a snap at my son while I was handling her), but I don't want to push her to it. What is the right balance between developing good handling habits and confidence, and causing the animal unnecessary stress?

Thanks so much in advance.