Hi, I got a baby ball python from a local PetCo on the 4th of this month, and when I was at the store, the manager pulled this snake out, one of 4 that were in the cage, and handed it to me. I was holding it, and it was in it's Ball, and it slowly started to open up, and then suddenly lunged out, but with his mouth closed. Which usually just means he's annoyed, right?

Well there was a guy there who was really experienced with snakes and he held it and let it bite him even, and then showed me a gentle way of covering the snakes head to, as he put it, "Show it who's boss." I have not done this for a couple reasons. First, he hasn't struck out at me while I've been holding him, so I had no need to. Second, I'd be worried he would strike at me while I was doing it.

I'm not even worried about getting hurt when bitten, it's just that he strikes out so fast and it always makes me jump and I would be worried about dropping the poor thing. Anyways, there's the history of how he was striking at the store, but not when I was handling him at home.

As for feeding, we got him on a Monday, and they said they fed them on Thursday's at the store, so I tried feeding him on Friday, so he had been able to settle in to his new home. As a side note, the man at the store who was very experienced with snakes told me that this guy seemed a little skinny and that he needed to eat. So I tried feeding him on Friday, but he didn't eat, sadly. I put him in a brown bag, put the mouse in, put that back in the cage, under the heat lamp, left him there for about an hour, and he never touched it. In fact when I checked back on him he had just climbed out of the bag and was near the water bowl.

So on Saturday night, and now tonight, Sunday, he'll be curled up at the back of the cage, and I'll come into the room and walk up to look at him and he'll just strike out at the front of the cage, with an open mouth. Since he's been doing this, I'm worried something might be wrong with him.

What does it mean? Is he just hungry? Is he sick? Is he just a mean snake?

Please help! I love snakes and I just want to make sure this guy survives and is healthy and has a good life.