Yet another beginner with ??

[piper]

Hello everyone! Before I even start I must say that there is so much awesome info on here!!
So after a lot of research on snakes, I got my 9 year old son a BP for his birthday, with the clear idea that my husband and I would be helping him care for it. So we got if from a pet store, they told us it was captive born/bred and it had eaten. (We saw the care sheets) They had 4 babies there and we got to choose from the 2 that had eaten. My son held him and loved him. We don't know if it was a boy or girl, we forgot to ask. So we brought him home and set everything up. We don't have an UTH but from reading this I will get one the next time we are in the city as we live in a small town. We keep check on the temp and humidity.
Now for the questions. So the general rule is not to handle them for 7 days right? Well the pet store was feeding them every Monday or Tuesday but we brought it home Friday. So do I just wait to feed it, because we will feed it in a different container? Also, Tony(his name!!) looks like he is going to shed, at least I think. Eyes kind of looked bluish and I am pretty sure the belly was pinkish at the pet store. We can't see his belly now because we don't want to handle him yet. So should I give it time? He is also not much for curling up into a ball, mostly he assumes a "strike" position if our hands are too close. Could he be aggressive? Sorry about the rambling, we are such novices!!

Ball are pretty nervous snakes. If they feel threatened or what not they will ball up or if you put your hand in front of them the will "spring back" sometimes trying to hide their head and other times just being cautious.

The "no handle" rule for a week pertains to just taking him out and walking around the house, showing your friends the new snake/pet, and just general interaction with the snake. Once the 7 days is up you can try to start handling him. You can handle him to clean up his tank/tub and he uses the washroom, see if his/her belly is pink and if he is actually going into shed.

You can try to feed him but you risk him not taking if he is in fact going through a shed cycle.

Since this is your first(not last ) ball python, you will start to learn what they like/dislike. I have learned absolutely everything I know from this site, so trust more what you read then what I have to say if anything appears to be a little contradicting. Being paranoid is good! I have one you can pet her head like a cat and another where if you look at her head she'll ball up! They all have different personalities.

You will need a UTH, plus some sort of way to control the heat pad as well because they get way to warm for what a ball python needs and you will end up burning your snake. I use light dimmers myself which you will see around here, the only thing with that is you need to monitor the temps daily.

Cheers

Just my personal experience!