There's a little mom and pop pet store by me where I first got interested in ball pythons. Every time I'd stop in to pick up dog food, I'd gravitate to the balls.

When I was ready to acquire my first BP, I went back there and handled a few, but noticed they seemed a little thin, so was happy I didn't "impulse" buy from them. Plus, they contradicted everything I had previously read about husbandry. They have some sub-adults (I think 5 or 6) that are in a huge tank together with no hides and a huge water dish and one is always in there soaking.

The babies are all housed in one tank with no hide either. Today when I went in to get a feeder mouse (thankfully they seem to be healthy, it's just their herps that are in sad shape), I went to look at their babies again (after I asked him if he carried Prevent-A-Mite, although I don't see any signs of mites on Kashmire, I just wanted to see if they had it). They had poop all over them, one was belly up with a mite crawling over it, and they were really emaciated. I wished I could "rescue" them, but of course don't have the money for separate enclosures for each of them. I said "you have a dead one in here, I think", then it slightly moved. He was like "yup, we have a couple that we don't think are going to make it" (like it was no big deal). I hate that I have to deal with them at all for mice, but there aren't a lot of options where I am, and right now, since Kashmire hasn't fed for me (I got him Thursday last week and have been allowing him to get acclimated and monitoring his weight, which has remained constant at 74 grams) and has only been fed live, I'm going to be offering him live.

Whether I'll switch to pre-killed or f/t is up in the air, especially reading 8ball's comments on the subject (thank you 8ball for always providing insightful feedback, it's been invaluable to me!)

Robin