What do I do with this poor baby?

[SDA]

* was told he was eating live pinkies

You need to feed live then. I am sorry but it is more often than not that a new owner gets a ball python without any idea of the previous feeding habits. At least you know it was feeding live. You are going to have to do that for a while until you get it settled in and growing.

I recommend finding a pet store that offers fuzzy or hopper mice and purchase those. It is often very difficult to get a ball python swapped to frozen thawed rodents when you are also trying to correct husbandry issues and get them acclimated. It would be far better to feed the same prey type the breeder or seller was doing. Pinky mice are almost all gelatinous cartilage and fat and not really nutritious toward larger juvenile snakes like ball pythons. Starting on fuzzy or weaned mice would be far more nutritious and finding a smaller hopper mouse would be best.

Get him feeding then worry about switching to frozen thawed.