Trying this again, new here!

[mrgrimm]

I wrote up a pretty long post in here last night but can't seem to find it anywhere. It basically just said I'm a beginner and am excited to have my first pet snake, an adult Ball Python. I am 30 years old and have two daughters aged 10 and 5, my wife, 2 dogs, 3 fish and 2 pet mice.

We have decided to name him Pickle ( 5 year old daughter came up with that) He is very mild mannered and my little girl just loves to hold him. He is a little over 3 1/2 feet long I'd guess.

He was always fed 2 live mice weekly for at least the last 4 months in a tub outside of his tank. That's as long as the guy has worked there for so that's all the info he could really give me on this particular snake - other than that he is handled often and has a great personality. Since we have actual PET mice I figured I would give the frozen/thawed rat (after all he is big enough he should be eating rats from what I have researched) a shot rather than live feeding...Yeah I know it's kind of like eating the cheeseburger but not wanting to hurt the cow! Overall I feel it is safer for the snake though, too. I was just worried he wouldn't take to it since he was used to live.

Well I am happy to say that he ate down the pre-killed rat and it just made my day - because the guy said the snake had not eaten for the last two weeks, so I was naturally a bit worried about my new guy...but then again he may have just been stressed in the pet shop environment.

I was really wanting to get a younger snake, or try to adopt one from online somewhere, but I had this guy around my neck for about an hour in the shop and I just can't explain it but I felt instantly attached to him. I hope all continues to go well, with a resource like this forum I will be prepared, thanks!