BRB and Corn Now a newbie Baller

[SANDWiCH]

First of all I have my setup:


I have a couple standard hide places. An UTH and an overhead light. The overhead light is pretty much just for light because the thermostat shows 88 on the hot side and 78 on the cool side. My baby ball balances time between all sides. He is 6 months old and has shed almost every month on the dot. I feed him mice right now but he is about to step up to some thing a bit larger.

Here he is wondering around:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...50835153_n.jpg

I was told that he was a normal and got him at a reptile show for 25 bucks. I really like him compared to my others which are a BRB which is getting huge and a corn snake which was my beginner.

My questions here are:
1.) Am I set up for success or failure here
2.) He eats like a champ when they are mice but could care less about rat pups.
3.) He has two water dishes because I have not gotten one in the mail from amazon yet.
4.) He seems to like the colder side of his cage more than the warm, is this a problem or should there be any concern. I have pretty much ruled out most variables as well because I have swapped hides and it does not change the fact that he likes the cooler side.
5.) I was told he was a normal, any other obvious genes?

tell me I am an idiot or tell me I am ok. I can take it. the BRB is harder than this guy for sure.

[SANDWiCH]

oh p.s. it is a 20 gal long glass aquarium with a locking top. It is zoomed or something along those same lines. It has two small snap clips in the back and the screen slides in a track.

[RoseyReps]

My questions here are:
1.) Am I set up for success or failure here Looks pretty good so far
2.) He eats like a champ when they are mice but could care less about rat pups. Some bps get stuck on mice, you could try scenting (rubbing) a rat pup with a mouse to start to convert him if you want him on mice.
3.) He has two water dishes because I have not gotten one in the mail from amazon yet. That's alright, assuming the humidity isn't out of whack because of it. With the screen top, I doubt it's hurting anything.
4.) He seems to like the colder side of his cage more than the warm, is this a problem or should there be any concern. I have pretty much ruled out most variables as well because I have swapped hides and it does not change the fact that he likes the cooler side. This could be a problem, but it also could just be him. Do you have your UTH on a thermostat? Not a thermometer, a thermoSTAT. So it won't go above a certain temperature? It could be his substrate area/floor is too hot for him.
5.) I was told he was a normal, any other obvious genes? Looks like a pretty little normal to me

[SANDWiCH]

does he look like he is proper weight. I have never had to get a scale for my other snakes because they are eating monsters. But I hear a scale is good for ballz.

[RoseyReps]

He looks pretty good Get a scale, for any reptile it's a great husbandry tool to have. You don't have to weigh them religiously (I do, because I'm addicted to seeing how much they've grown ) but you don't HAVE to. It really is invaluable for keeping record of health though. They run around $20 from walmart in the kitchen section (food scale).

He's got a slight triangular shape, but nothing I would consider underweight and really, can be expected with him being a mouser. A step up in prey is probably a good idea though

[SANDWiCH]

I want to start getting rats through the mail. Do you know of any good online places where I do not have to buy a lot of 600 mice or something silly

[RoseyReps]

There are quite a few threads about frozen suppliers, off the top of my head I can think of the following (And I know I'm forgetting quite a few)

http://loxahatcheerodents.com/estore/
http://www.laynelabs.com/
http://www.rodentpro.com/
https://micedirect.com/
http://www.southfloridarodents.com/
http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/

Loxahatchee I've heard some really great things about their quality of rodents.

[Burzurk]

Real nice setup