First of all, welcome to the forums! Second of all... cut the cord to that hot rock and throw it away! PetCo doesn't know anything, trust me... it's sad how far they will lead you off the path just to make a buck.

There are many other options for heating a cage: an Undertank heater, ceramic bulb heater, or a red heat bulb. I prefer the UTH or ceramic bulbs because heat bulbs will simply dry out your enclsure faster, and you'll have to keep spraying the enclosure down to keep the humidity up.

The enclosure should be 90 degrees on the warm side, 80 degrees on the cool side, and have 50-60% humidty. I would get a thermometer/hygrometer to measure these---you can just leave it in the tank (they sell them fairly cheaply at Wal-mart).

To keep the humidity up in the tank, keep a bowl of water near the heat source, and mist with water bottle as needed.

He probably wasn't eating because he was in shed. If the shed hasn't come all the way off, a good thing to do: fill a rubbermade or sterilite container with luke-cold water halfway up the side of the snake. Put the snake in the container with the lid on for about a half hour. When you get him out, rub the stuck shed with a warm, wet cloth. The shed should come off pretty easily.

If you're going to feed live, don't put in more than one mouse at a time... while he's digesting the one, the other could take a bit out of him! I personally recommend frozen/thawed, but that's just me. Ball pythons can be picky eaters... and you gotta give them what they'll take.

Also, make sure the little guy has two hides, one on the cool side, one on the warmer side... this way he can regulate his temp without having to be insecure.

And, by the way, I'd get him a bigger tank. A rubbermade/sterilite with holes drilled or burned in works well, and is fairly cheap to make. They also hold humidity very well... and you can use newspaper or paper-towel for substrate---just a little time-saving, money-saving thing (P.S. beware setting a glass tank out in the sun... the rays through the glass could fry the poor little guy... it acts like a magnifying glass).

I'm sorry for the long post... if you have any other questions, please let us know. This is a great site with lots of info. And BPs are some of the sweetest little snakes... you'll soon love the little guy!

-------Of course, if I had read the post a little closer... this is ALL assuming you do indeed have a Ball python and not a burmese.