A few days ago, my sweet ball python, Ramses, the gentlest animal Ive ever had, passed away, and I can't seem to get any closure. I was so attached to the creature, who I had only had for about a month and a half... I did everything the guy in the pet store told me to do, fed him, spot cleaned, only handled him once a week... which seems to have been my downfall as a responsible pet owner.... From reading up on symptoms for the past few days online, I was horrified to learn how terribly wrong their info was... for one, the guy told me that a heat pad was unnecessary for Balls until mid october, if my house was fairly warm. I, being the neurotic that I am, bought it anyway... Unfortunately, however, my heat pad malfunctioned and I had to send it back to the company... remembering the pet store man's advice, i thought my baby would be fine while I waited for a new one, so I put his cage under a reptile lamp until then... my Ramses was eating fine, until one day, when I realized that he had regurgitated, ... I called the pet store and asked for advice, and he told me I could not feed him for another two weeks, the days following, he began engaging in odd behaviors (weird, contorted positions, overactiveness, this "stargazing" behavior ive just found out about, )... I now presume his hunger, coupled with the fact that his cage was NOWHERE NEAR warm enough, was his downfall... it is ironic that the heater came the day i awoke to find him gone.... and I am ashamed, horrified that I did not even pause to question this man's advice and look online... I am sickened..................... needless to say, my guilt is overtaking me... I cant concentrate on anything... all I keep thinking about is my stupidity,... I keep wishing he would magically appear in his cage again.... I know I am rambling now, but its hard to talk about it to people who arent snake people, like everyone here................... I really really wish I could be given a second chance with the support of a good manual as well as websites such as this,,. but i cant bear to replace ramses yet... plus i feel like i dont deserve another chance with this beautiful pet.... I know I am more than capable of taking care of animals (i have two dogs, a fish and a geko) this is why i just cant understand why I was so ignorant and stupid in this case... advice to all, NEVER trust pet stores.... RIP Ramses the Great :'(