Banana ball not eating, not shedding

[sophiedufort]

As some of you may know from previous posts, I bought a banana ball python, male maker, a few weeks ago. He was born on April 20th, and it arrived here on March 12th or 13th, so he was only three weeks old. He has his separate enclosure, and proper heat and humidity. He is active and seems healthy, clearly not stressed, but does not want to eat. I tried with both thawed and live mice and rat fuzzies, no luck. He ignores them. I tried to feed him in his enclosure, in a feeding tub, nothing happens. I wrote to the breeder and asked how many times was the snake fed before being dispatched (I didn't believe it would have been more than once, anyway). I also asked if he shed. I received an evasive answer: "Here we feed them rat fuzzies. Have you tried that?" Yes I did. But where's the answer to my questions?
Ten-twelve days ago (approx) I took the baby snake to the reptile store. They force-fed him, and said that he looked like he never ate before. He slept for almost 24 hours after that, and was much calmer for a while, clearly content with a fully stomach. Now he's very active again, and I believe he's hungry, but he doesn't seem to know how to deal with it.
Besides, he's been with us for almost a month, and no sign of upcoming shedding. His belly skin feels dry and rough, with scales feeling as if they're poking out. Humidity is good though, so I just don't understand what is going on.
Another weird thing about him, he doesn't like hides. I placed two hides for him, sized so that he would feel comfy and protected, but he prefers to go up on a vine at the top of his enclosure, and spends most of his time exploring the heights. He sleeps almost fully stretched, never balls up. sometimes he goes down to the bottom of the enclosure to drink or for a short swim. He used to ball up when we first got him, but that changed after a while. You can see him in my avatar, picture taken a few weeks ago.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.