Hi! New to Ball Pythons!

[Bogertophis]

Sounds to me like you all did a good job on your "homework"- The plastic hides are just fine- normally there's nowhere for mites or their eggs to hide & they're easy to wash. I couldn't tell from the photos what all you might have in the tank- with mites, you need to worry about the organic stuff as far as them hiding or stowing eggs away- those tree-bark tunnels, natural branches, moss, & all substrates other than white paper towels, which are disposable anyway. Or anything with texture (hiding places) like the old heat rock- though that could be soaked anyway, since it's non-functioning.

Real or fake plants have all sorts of hiding places too, though fake plants could be treated in a container full of soapy water & then rinsed after a very long soak- one that's long enough to fully drown* parasites. (* And IF it comes to that, a bit of soap- like dish soap- is essential just to break the surface tension of the water, which allows mites to swim or float & survive- but with no surface tension, they do drown. Real plants would have soil too, presumably, so here's to HOPING there's no snake mites- the plants look lovely. But as you can tell, we're all about health & safety first for our pets. Snake mites are just a nightmare we hope everyone will avoid, because if they're so numerous that they require pesticide to eradicate, that's also a risk for the snake.

Mites are tiny enough to hide under a snake's scales- & they're quite sneaky- hiding around the edges of their eyes, in or near nostrils or cloaca, under their chin...all the places that are hard to look. About the size of the point of a pin- they can be black, brown or red, with the color coming from their blood meal. So keep looking closely for any "moving specs" & also watch the water bowl too- sometimes they fall off in there.

Wonderful that he's had so many meals already- & is already on f/t. (which is our shorthand for frozen-thawed) You're off to a great start, I'd say, & Noodles is a lucky snake.