Welcome, and congrats on the snake! A couple of suggestions right of the bat: Try to keep your Ball away from your GFs Boa. The boa doesn't sound like it came from the best environment given the mites, and Boas are known to carry the IBD virus which can mean a quick death to pythons. Also, you may want to reduce the rat size for feeding. They don't eat that much in the wild and many of the feeding problems you hear about are due to people over-feeding their Balls and then get surpised when they stop eating. Keep them a little hungry, and they'll keep eating. A small rat is plenty for a large Ball.