General Ball Python Questions

[Wahoo92583]

This is a two part post. The first part (part 1) contains new questions, where the second part (part 2) contains questions from a previous post that weren't answered fully. Please bear in mind, I have only had my ball python for 1.5 weeks.

Part 1:
How often do snakes use the restroom? To my knowledge, my snake has only used the restroom once. Should I be concerned?

Scale Rot or Stuck Shed?!?! There is a dull area on my snake. Could this be a stuck shed or is this the beginning stage of scale rot? I wish I were able to upload a picture to this post, so you could see what I am talking about. However, 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.

What is normal weight for a baby ball python? My ball python is approximately 20" long. When I took her to the vet, the vet said my python is a little on the thin side. However, other than being a little thin, the vet said my python looks fine. I have a digital scale, and I weighed my python at 97 grams. Since I purchased my snake, I have fed her three times (Wednesday's and Saturday's). I want to fatten her up.

Part 2:
Recently, I purchased a normal baby ball python, and I am not certain if I setup her 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? 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.

Three sides of my terrarium are covered with aquarium scenery.

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. 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.

I have had my snake for a week and a half, and she is not very active at all. In fact, she spends most of her time in her warm side hide, even at night. Is this because she is not accustomed to his new home yet? Also, my snake has not soaked in its dish yet, and it has used the restroom only once. Is this normal?

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.

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.

Thanks,
Joe

[Vypyrz]

To post photos, first, you will need to upload your photos to your Gallery on this website or to a photo hosting website like Photobucket, Flickr, etc...

-Open up the Reply window to the thread you want to post them in.

-Open a separate internet browser window and go to the site where your photos are posted.

-Usually below the photo, you will find some URL links or codes. Look for the one that begins with [IMG] or sometimes it may be listed as "BB Code". Highlight and copy this entire code then paste it in your "Reply" window.

-Click on the "Preview Post" button to see if the photo becomes visible. If it does click "Submit Reply". If not, then double check that you copied the right code or the entire code. The end of the code should be [/IMG]...

Here is a link to a video tutorial also. Hope this helps...

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=32416

Snakes will poop when they need to. It depends on how often they eat and how much of the prey they are utilizing for growth. Mine normally go about every 3-4 weeks or so.

Just keep your snake on a regular feeding schedule of appropriately sized prey and she will get to a healthy weight. You don't need to rush it.

A cheaper and more effective alternative to buying different wattage bulbs is to get a rheostat or lamp dimmer switch and use it to control the intensity of the lamp.

[sparticus]

Hi Joe,

part 1:
snakes poop and pee very differently from us- to excrete liquids they pee out urine and also excrete what is called a urate which looks like a white chalky turd. So do not be alarmed if you see this in your bp's tank because it is a urate and that is normal. How often they poop depends on how often you feed them... but on a typical feeding schedule (once a week) they usually poop (mine at least) once every two weeks ... but they can go for much longer periods without pooping...

re: Scale rot or stuck shed- I cannot tell you the answer to this without a picture, and to solve your picture problem, use an image hosting site like photobucket and copy paste the "IMG" code into the body of your thread/reply and the image will show up - I usually click "preview post" before I submit just to double check.

re: weight... I cannot give you a definitive answer on this as I am not sure how old your python is (again, pictures would be good) but your feeding schedule seems a bit too frequent, and i think (correct me if I'm wrong other members) would generally be considered "power feeding" which is looked down upon in the BP community, although extensive research has not been done on it's long term effects... I would suggest feeding her once a week or once every 5 days at most. - again- other bp members correct me if I'm wrong.

Part 2.
I recently switched from tanks to tubs for many reasons- I plan on expanding my collection, It uses less space, and I am able to thermoregulate better and control humidity levels better... this is something to think about if you plan on getting more than one bp.

On that note...
Your humidity seems good ... but your temps seem a bit on the low side... I keep my hot side around 90-92 and my cool side around 80-83 and the ambient is around 86-87. It is good that you have hides on both sides of the tank allowing for your snake to thermoregulate, and while a tree branch may look nice it is not necessary as bps are not arboreal snakes. Your thermometers/hygrometers are good as well.

Ball pythons are not active snakes. They spend most of their time in their hides on the warm side, so this is very very normal and something you should not be worried about. My normal only soaks when she is about to shed and my pastel has never soaked at all...

you don't need to say "use the restroom" on the forum we are pretty chill and can say poop and pee lol but yes like I said earlier this is normal.

Aspen bedding is fine- just don't use cedar or pine.

Ok that was a really good reason for me to procrastinate on studying for my midterm at 9:30am today but now it's back to studying... hope that helped... I know a lot of other members will have some input as well.

[tysonsowner]

im new too but i had problems with my tank aswell as far as keeping temps and humidity right plus the downside in useing a glass tank. what i did was buy a zilla screen top with a small door in the front middle of it. then i taped off the top with ducttape (kids colored it with markers since it was ugly) exept for the door itself(for air) and where the light goes. i use a 50 watt day bulb and a 50 watt night bulb. also i used a aquarium sealant to seal the screen top to the tank to aid in keeping tyson in an reduceing the loss of humidity and heat. now all is fine warmside 87-92 cool side 79-85 60% humidity. all i do is keep his 5x6 water bowl filled an turn daylight on when i wake up and night light on when the sun goes down. under pad heater stays on all the time. now the inside set up i have is ofcourse the basics hide of same size on both sides (so they choose thermoregya wat ever lol over security) and a water bowl. i also use a gree reptile carpet. now like you my tank is to big for my 16-18 inch bp so i filled it up. i have branches, vines on the floor just to make him more comfy i guess. but the best thing i did to add security to the large tank is i put blue (u can use watever color or even aquarium background) around the back and sides tight to the bottom with a about 2-3 inches open at the top and a 3-4 inch strip accross the front tight to the bottom. then we decorated the paper of course for a personal touch. since then he comes out everyday and looks around soon after the night bulb is turned on. alsso its cool when they climb up the side and sit there and stair over the top of the paper. by the way my tank is 30/18/12 i believe its a 20 long. hope this helps some. tyson has no problem eating and eats every monday like clock work and sheds 100% at once no probs. as far as poopin and stuff roughly every 2 weeks. and when i got him he had a spot of skin still stuck to him from a bad shed before but after 2 weeks in a tank that wasnt 100+ degrees an 0 humidty he got it off no problem

[cinderbird]

It seems like the other questions in your post have been addressed.

You can safely feed your baby every four days if she's looking thin. Some people do twice a week for young snakes, some people do one. With ball pythons, typically if they are hungry I feed them (especially if its a cold time of the year, so my snakes could get fed up to twice a week). Once they hit about 800-1000 grams I go to a once a week type of feeding schedule.

This is not power feeding. There are quite a few threads on that topic if you use the search feature. I think the general consensus is that power feeding is forcing an animal to take more food than it would naturally take, not offering food to an animal that is still hungry. Unlike other species who would eat themselves sick, BPs are pretty good at self regulating. I would NEVER do this type of feeding schedule with ..say, boas or any of the larger python species.

[sgath92]

you don't need to say "use the restroom" on the forum we are pretty chill and can say poop and pee lol but yes like I said earlier this is normal.

Though that would be a cool trick, if a snake could be trained to go use a bathroom.

[Wahoo92583]

Okay, cool. I signed up for a Flickr account, and now I can upload pictures. Here is a picture of Cleo's terrarium. As you can see, I have three hides, a water dish, a plant, and a climbing branch. The UTH is on the right side of the tank and does not extend more than 1/4 the length of the tank. Any suggestions on how to improve her terrarium?


IMAG0220 by Wahoo92583, on Flickr>

Also, here is a picture of her. Is she thin? I purchased her from PETCO. I was going to buy one from a breeder, but I saw her and I couldn't resist. I know, I know... I took a huge risk by purchasing a snake from a pet store.


IMAG0217 by Wahoo92583, on Flickr

Is this the beginning stage of scale rot, or is this a partially stuck shed? It is hard to see in this picture. However, there are a couple of dull areas on her.


IMAG0218 by Wahoo92583, on Flickr]

[angllady2]

Firstly congratulations on your new baby.

Now, your tank set up looks pretty good. I know a lot of people frown on tanks, especially big tanks for small balls, but I say if your baby is hiding and eating just fine it's no big deal. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Keep an eye on humidity, because that is the single hardest thing about tanks.

The dull patches you see, which I can just barley make out, don't look like scale rot to me. However, being a pet shop snake it could very well be beginning stages. My recommendation is just to keep and eye on it. If it gets any worse, or does not clear up with the next shed, then for peace of mind have your vet check it out.

You baby is a little bit skinny, but I've seen MUCH worse from pet shops. I think as long as you keep the prey a little bit on the small side, twice a week if she'll take it is ok. As long as she has a proper hot spot to digest these frequent meals she'll be fine if you want to do that for a couple of months to plump her up before upping her prey size and dropping frequency to once a week.

Gale

[BuckeyeBalls]

Yea it looks a little skinny. You can tell by the triangle shape it has. Not a big deal tho they gain weight pretty fast.

Depending on your feeder supply you can feed every 4-5 days (i feed the smaller ones every 4 days)

[Vypyrz]

I usually size my UTH's to cover at least 1/3, but not more than 1/2 of the floor space, but as long as you are maintaining the correct temp with the one you have, then there is no need to change it.
I was a bit skeptical at first about your humidity reading since it looks like a dry towel on top and you are using an analog gage, which they can be notoriously inaccurate sometimes, but I just checked the weather conditions at your location and I see that the ambient humidity is ranging from the mid-50% at night to the low-70% during the day, so you might actually have an analog gage that works.
I've also found that when using one of the wood substrates, it helps if you have the layer only about 1/2-1 inch thick, at least on the on the warm side. It will let the heat radiate up through the substrate better and not build up under it as much.
So for now, the only things I would change is switch the positions of the water bowl and that log, that way the water is closer to both hides. And maybe add a couple of fake vines in the tank for a little more cover for her when she moves around.