Newb with some questions

[cramtatter]

Howdy all

I'm new to both Balls and this forum. I just came home Friday night with my first Ball. I adopted him at the local Herp. Society meeting. He is a mature male and i know nothing of his history. I may have stepped in a little over my head and am looking for a little advice. I have read up on the care of Balls and have most of the basics of care but i have a couple of questions..

The guy who sexed him for me stated that the Ball was very underweight and thin and suggested I try feeding him right away. I left him alone for 24 hours in his new home and then gave him a frozen thawed weaned rat. He took it right away. When handling him briefly at the society and when transfering him into his new home he was very docile and calm, but now that he has been fed he nips at anything that moves including things through the glass resulting in "thunks" that have me a bit nervous. I have left him alone since he was fed except to change his water.

I am considering just leaving him alone for a couple of weeks until he de-stresses from all his recent moves as well as covering the glass of his viv so he will not keep ramming his head into the glass.

Another thing is that he is showing signs of shedding skin about 6 inches behind his head on both sides. These are the only areas that seem to be showing any signs of shed. His eyes are clear and his belly shows no signs of pink.

My concerns at the moment are:
If he is underweight how often should i feed him?
Is the shedding skin a sign of start of shed or end of shed? (or somthing else entirely?)
If he is both shedding and undeweight how do i handle his feeding schedule?
The nipping is the least of my concerns at the moment but any suggestions on this front would be greatly appreciated.

[starmom]

Do you have any way to weigh your snake?
Can you take pictures of him?
Can you describe the enclosure better?
The shed sounds like an old and incomplete shed; do you have a way to measure the humidity in the viv?
Answers to these questions will permit better solutions for you...

[hawaiianice99]

>feed an appropriate sized meal on a regular schedule and his weight should come up.

>shed sounds like an old incomplete shed that didnt finish, without pics its hard to tell though.

>being nippy could be a number of things, but this animal sounds like it has gone through some abuse.

>let us know more about its habitat you have setup so we can see if that has any contributing factors.