HELP! Brand New Ball Python Owner

[Wahoo92583]

Hello,
Recently, I purchased a normal baby ball python, and I am not certain if I setup his cage correctly. I was wondering if you could give me some words of advice. I would really appreciate it a lot. My aquarium is 36"x18"x16". I am using an under the tank heater that is rated for 30-40 gallon aquariums, since my tank is 40 gallons. Does it matter that my tank is a 40 gallon breeder tank? Should I use a larger under the tank heater? Also, I want to create a basking area for my snake, however, when I used an 8.5" dome light with a 75 watt basking light bulb, the overall temperature in my aquarium was too high. Should I use a smaller dome light with a smaller wattage bulb? The humidity inside my tank is 62%. Right now I have an under the tank heater which covers only a small portion of the bottom of the tank. However, my cool side is usually 75 degrees and my warm side is usually between 85-87 degrees. Is this an ideal temperature range? I have two hides for my snake; one on the cool side and one on the warm side. I also have a climbing branch and a water bowl for my snake, which is kept on the cool side.

I have only had my snake for two days, and he is not very active at all. In fact, he spends most of his time in his cool side hide, even at night. Is this because he is not accustomed to his new home yet?

I have an appointment to get my snake checked out by a veterinarian on Wednesday, February 23, 2011.

Also, I am feeding my snake pre-killed 'fuzzies'. Is this the correct size prey for a baby ball python? He is approximately 18" long. Should I feed him pinkies instead? He hasn't exactly eaten yet. I tried to feed him three times today. I tried three times; each time was hours apart from each other. The first two times he struck at the fuzzy immediately, however, he did not eat it nor did he land his strike well. He struck it, but he did not latch onto it and then he became afraid of the food item. So I waited about five hours and tried again, same result. So I waited another three hours and tried again, this time he did not even strike at his prey. I think it had to do with the fact that I accidentally dropped his prey next to him, which scared him.

What kind of substrate should I use? I am using aspen bedding.

I know there are a lot of questions contained within this e-mail, but I am interested in taking care of my snake properly, so I would really appreciate any input.

Thanks,
Joe

[purplemuffin]

As long as you have the right temps and humidity as well as a lot of hiding places, your enclosure is fine. Ball pythons don't like wide open areas and prefer things snug, but if you just basically give them snug hides within the bigger enclosure allowing them to move throughout it from hide to hide while feeling safe, they will be fine, just like in the wild. Balls don't need tall enclosures as they don't really climb much.

Your snake is getting used to his enclosure! He's scared and will hide. As long as he feels safe in his hide, it's all good. He may be moving around while you sleep.

just make sure your temps are right, humidity is right, and you have hides. After that, everything else is easy.

Substrate.. What you have is fine, just make sure you spot clean and switch it out when it gets dirty. Newspaper even works.


As far as feeding...make sure the prey is about as big around as your snake is, that's a good size. Don't go more than 1.5x the size of the widest point of the ball python. So, 1-1.5 the size is good, but try to get the prey as close as you can to the ball python's width.

[ballpythonluvr]

Your tank is just a little to big for that snake. You should be feeding him hopper mice at the very least. Attempting to feed to often will only stress this snake out. Only attempt to feed once a week, not every few hours. It sounds like your snake is really stressed. I would move the snake into a smaller enclosure.

[Vypyrz]

Hello, and to BP.net...

First of all, do not try to feed or handle your new BP for at least a week. Try to leave it alone as much as possible except for changing water and spot cleaning if necessary. Your snake needs this alone time to adjust to its new surroundings.
As mentioned above, provided 2 snug hides, preferably the same kind. That way your snake won't choose security over proper thermoregulation.

It will also help the snake feel more secure if you cover three sides of the tank with something like construction paper, contact paer or aquarium scenery. This will help the tank seem not so open. Also it will help if you add some fake plants or vines inside to fill in some of the space. You can get these at pet stores, but they are cheaper if you look at dollar stores or craft stores.

I usually use an Under Tank Heater that covers at least 1/3 but not more than 1/2 of the floor space, but if the one you have is providing the proper temps then there should be no reason to change it.

What are you using to measure the temperatures and humidity? And, do you have anything to control the Under Tank Heater?

If you could post a photo of your set-up, it would help. In the meantime here are a couple of links that may help out with setting up your tank and a couple of ways to cover the top to help with humidity.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...p-w-pics-*DUW*

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...tment-Tutorial

[Wahoo92583]

Unfortunately, I do not have authorization to attach an attachment to my posts, so I do not know any other way to be able to upload a picture of my enclosure to my posts. When I click the insert image button, it requires me to give an URL, but my photo is sitting locally on my computer and has not been uploaded to a server. If you give me an e-mail address, I can e-mail you a picture of my enclosure. Yes, my under the tank heater is on a lamp dimmer, so it does not get too hot. Before I placed it on the lamp dimmer, the warm side of the terrarium was way too hot. Currently, I am measuring the temperature with two digital thermometers with probes on the end of them, and the humidity is being measured using an analog humidity gauge I purchased from PETCO.

Three sides of my terrarium are covered with aquarium scenery.

Also, my snake has not soaked in its dish yet, nor has it used the restroom. Is this normal?