Your doing a good job and we are aren't all here just to nit-pick everything you do. But i also agreed with the above posters, that snake could definitely eat a rat pup no problem Even mice fuzzies are a little small for him, thats why hes so skinny! I know you said you weren't able to get rats from the person you normally do but i could definitely see that ball python eat a smaller adult mouse or rat pup. Feed by girth, or 2-3 times their head size, that way you see a nice lump in there, but it doesn't seem like too much.