juvenile ball python WILL NOT EAT!!

[Craiga 01453]

So I actually did a lot of reading BEFORE I brought him home. I've read several care sheets, and have followed advice from the ones that seem the most legit. Also, the pet store employee has a BP and has owned it for several years...he's not just some rando that works in a pet store.

My BP's enclosure is warm and humid, with dual climates. He has two hides, one on the warm side and one on the cool. He ate on his first feeding day after we brought him home and we did NOT handle him for the first 48 hours after feeding. I don't know why he regurgitated the larger mouse, but when we fed him the first pinkie he ate that too, and kept it down. We haven't handled him since he stopped eating. When we realized his temp was too low we fixed it. We also changed the color of the light back to what he seemed more comfortable with. I'm really nervous about the heat pad because the glass got REALLY hot, but the mulch did not get warm at all, in spite of it being only about half and inch thick in that area. We've fed him at night since he is a nocturnal animal.

I have followed literally ALL of the rules I've read on multiple sites, and he is still not eating.

I really have read all I can from the internet about how to care for this animal, and most of it came from this site. That's why I decided to post here. I thought you all would be able to help me.

Please stop condescending me, and just offer me whatever advice you have at this point.

Nobody is condescending you. We're trying to help.

But if you did enough research you'd know you MUST REGULATE ALL HEAT SOURCES with a thermostat.

Your temps wouldn't have been too low

You don't measure the temp of substrate, but the glass surface itself.

Pinkies aren't even recognized by BPs as food because they're WWWWAAAAAYYYYY too small.

Just because someone has a pet doesn't mean it's properly cared for. If this employee has a snake and didn't tell you that a thermostat is A MUST, he doesn't know what he's talking about. If he told you to feed a pinkie he doesn't know what he's talking about.

This forum mentions the "3 meals before handling" almost every day. It's in countless threads.