New BP tank advice

[BeansTheDerp]

In order to keep your snake in an environment where it can explore freely and have enough room in general, I would say size up. I would say a good rule of thumb is that the snake should be able to stretch fully across one side of the enclosure in order for it to be considered enough space which means a 4 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot (4x2x2, a 120 gallon) pvc enclosure would be good for your bp, this is a commonly used size and material for bp enclosures. I know people say that ball pythons are pet rocks but they really aren't (though it ultimately depends on the personality of your snake as some can be less or more adventurous), sometimes people say this because they mistake the snake sleeping in the hides (because of the fact that they are nocturnal) as them being lazy and not explorative, they explore and they even climb so giving your snake room for ground exploration and branches for arboreal exploration would be really good for him! Also while it doesn't totally matter in the care or anything, I recommend looking into figuring out if your snake really is a male because it sounds like he is pretty close to being the usual size of a female rather than a male. He could always just be a pretty large male though!
You should send some photos of your snake, we would all love to see him. Speaking of which if you send a photo of the tail end, people on the forum could probably try to figure out if he is a male or female based off of tail length and width, It's not the most accurate way to check the gender of the snake but it does usually help decipher it.

[Pilch]

Guys,

I'm working on the new enclosure for my BP based on all the advice above. Also, because I'm relocating the tank to an interior room with almost no natural light (a little bleeds over from an adjacent room), I'm setting up a full spectrum lamp on a programmable dimmer that will simulate sunrise and sunset every day so he can still maintain a sense of night and day. The light will just reflect off the ceiling, so no direct "sun."

I'd love to post some pictures of before and after shots, as BeansTheDerp suggested, but it won't let me directly copy the photos into my post (just converts them into a long string of unicode text), and the only other option I can see is to provide a link to an online photo, which these are not. How do you guys post photos? What am I missing? Seems like this should be straightforward.


Andy

[Bogertophis]

Sounds good. Here ya go: ​https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures

[Pilch]

Here are the "before" pics of the old enclosure and my buddy, Angel. Still putting the finishing touches on the new tank, I'll post those in the coming days. (And thanx for the link on how to post photos!)

[Homebody]

Beautiful!

[BeansTheDerp]

Your ball python is such a cutie!

[Bogertophis]

Beautiful BP for sure, & when viewed even in semi-natural surroundings, it's easy to see why nature prefers these colors & patterns- great camo.

[Pilch]

Ok, it took longer than I thought, I ran into some equipment problems. But I have the new environment built as of tonight, and it's now acclimating. This is largely based on advice from the folks in this thread, so consider yourselves part of the architecture team. It's 120 gal, PVC, and I built a split level (yes, I water-proofed the wood) on the right side for Angel to climb up on with a hide underneath. The warm side is the right with the double lamp overhead as well as a UTH, and the cool side has another hide that will eventually get sphagnum moss in it as a humid hide. I'm still playing around with orientation and placement. I'll wait until things stabilize to start introducing him a little at a time. I also built a little instrument cluster on the right for the cool side temp and thermostats for the lamp and UTH as well as the humidifier and a little holder for the laser thermometer. I'll eventually mount a webacam on that ledge so I can view the stats remotely and another over the tank to view the inside.

[Bogertophis]

I think he's going to love it, once you get a little more "clutter" in there. Especially that split-level- snakes always love that kind of thing.

[BeansTheDerp]

Awesome! That looks so great! Like Bogertophis said I think you should add in some more clutter, like plants and/or branches. I'm sure your snake loves all the space.