50% SD Retic Male questions

[Himitsu]

I went to the last NWReptile Expo here in Oregon at the old venue just in search of some ceramic frogs for my mom (she is completely frog obsessed), and ended up coming back with a 2011 (his breeder had been debating on holding him back) 50% SD male retic that I fell in love with. I wasn't supposed to get another snake so long as I'm living with my parents, but they let me keep him. I talked to his breeder a lot, although I did not catch the actual local that his SD blood came from, and got the basics of his temperature and humidity needs. His hot side when I measured it with my temperature gun was 88, his cold side was getting down to 75-77, and the front (only the front) of his tub likes to try and fog up a bit, so I believe I have that down just fine. If I am mistaken on that please tell me so I can fix it.

Now my questions come. As I said, he is 2011, and she said he was hatched mid to early 2011. After watching the video from this thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=retic+care I can't help but feel that he is really small for his age. He is only 4 feet long (2 inches shorter than that when I used a string to measure him, but he also wouldn't hold still so I could easily add or minus a couple inches from that...) and when I weighed him a week ago he was 513 grams. She was feeding him once every two weeks (which I have done since I got him), and told me he would get 8-9 feet max. I am confident I can handle a snake that big, otherwise I would not have gotten him. But should I bump his feedings up to once a week? Once every two weeks just seems too little IMO, and even if he got a bit bigger than nine feet I still believe I could handle him just fine. Also, he is currently staying in the tub above my Ball Python (he's in the top tub since his temperature requirements were slightly lower than hers) in one of these racks: http://www.reptilebasics.com/iris-sw...y-or-back-heat. About how much longer will that work for him? And when I do need to migrate him from there, should I just get him a T8 (or would he need larger?) or get the next rack size up (http://www.reptilebasics.com/iris-cb-70-rack) because I do plan on breeding ball pythons some day and will eventually need that? Also, is it alright to keep him in the same rack as another species (my ball python)? If he is alright staying there for now I would prefer it since while I do have the money to get him a completely separate enclosure if he is fine where he is I can hold onto that money for if something unexpected comes along. Also, I was wondering what was a good quality snake hook that I could use with him? I bought a cheap one from a local pet store to use for now, as well as 10" feeding tongs to minimize the chance he will get me during feeding (I also open his tub with the snake hook so my hands aren't anywhere near it when it opens), but it's very strong and decided to try and come apart on me the other day. Longer feeding tongs would also be handy. Does anyone know any good quality ones I should get?

I will get pictures of him up in this thread soon, but he is currently going into shed and I don't want to disturb him.