First post after long lurk..questions!

[zookeeper]

Hello , I have been lurking here and learning for a few weeks now . Very nice forum! I participate on a few about various topics , and this one is particularly helpful and friendly.

So , I do not know if I have a male or a female. I will go with "she" for now. She was given to me by a coworker because his son bought one at Petsmart without permission , and his wife had a canary . As in a phobia freak out , not as in the bird. As in it is me or the snake. AND it turned out constrictors are banned in their town anyway. The contraband snake was not discovered by the evil stepmom for a few months , so it was too late for the kid to return to Petsmart ( good!). In any event , she was not housed properly . HUGE glass tank ( the kind that is actually furniture , maybe 6 feet long ..it was definitely a fish aquarium as it had the split glass top) one UTH on one side , no thermostat , a HEAT ROCK , some kind of shavings , one sad log hide. One thermometer stuck to the glass which was reading 70 degrees . Not cool. Well , too cool actually . Dry as a bone in there I am sure .She was only eating two pinkies a week .

She had been with me 4 weeks. Today will be her 4th feed with me.

Basic info :

Weighed this morning - 252.31 grams ( 8.9 oz) ..a little more than 2 feet long ....about 30 " .She has noticeably grown since I have had her. Age and sex unknown. Explores when handled , not nervous at all. Happily went into new enclosure. She is in her warm side hide all the time ..occasionally comes out to poke around in the wee hours of the night. Briefly though..

We had one shed ..head portion came off complete , portion of body shed retained for two days ( mid way to the back) . Gave her a warm soak , held her gently with a warm wet washcloth , and she crawled right out of it . No problem. She is going into another shed already I think. Eyes were hazy for 2 days , today they are clear again. Skin looks dull. Upped humidity to 68 to 70% . Previous shed did not affect her appetite. Nor did any handling. She gets handled for cleaning , and for about 15 minutes a night while I watch TV. Explores , lots of tongue flicking. Then chills out cupped in my hands.

She was reputed to eat every Friday. So first Friday I gave her an adult ( but on the smaller size ) pre killed mouse. BAM ! Struck , constricted , dragged into hide , *burp* no issues. No poop.

Following Friday larger mouse ..same pattern. Pooped 2 days after eating 2nd mouse .

Last Friday ..biggest mouse I could find ..no issues.Pooped 2 days later ..white hard stuff too ( urates??) and something that looked like a blob of mango?

Today is her 4th feeding day and I have a small rat awaiting pick up . I am not sure what you would call the size that is *just* bigger than an adult mouse..a juvenile? A pup?

She is in :

24 " neodesha plastic enclosure that I found used for 26 bucks ..it was not so much that it was a bargain , but that I wanted an enclosure fast. I pretty much overnighted everything else and worked my Amazon Prime to death

There is 4" inch heat tape along the back regulated by Herpstat 1 set to 93 degrees ..probe is on the floor of the enclosure and covered by one sheet of butcher paper as substrate.

One Luke's infrared dome light on a dimmer hooked up to a Big Apple thermostat on cool side of cage. I did not make the lit side the hot side because I was afraid the heat from the lamp over the hot side hide would be too much heat in addition to the heat tape underneath. I have the Big Apple probe in the middle of the cage halfway up the wall since the light is meant to boost ambient temps only . I put the wood log she had on top of the cool side hide to insulate it /prevent it from being directly shined on by the infrared. So I hope the cool side hide that is well away from the heat tape but under the infrared light and covered by a log still stays cool side worthy?? If you think it is ok for the hot side hide on top of heat tape to also be under the infrared covered by the log , let me know. This is only an issue for another week anyway , explanation at end

2 hides are medium black hides from Reptile Basics.

Ambient temps :
Hot Side ambient temps outside of hide 81 -83
Cool Side ambient temps outside of hide 83 to 84

Hot Side Hide floor temp under butcher paper substrate- 92.3

Humidity runs about 40 to 60% . I mist once or twice a day to bring it up a bit for periods of the day. Highest humidity has been 70%

And of course a nice ceramic water bowl that is just big enough for her to soak if she wants to ( she has not wanted to) .

So , please feel free to tell me to tweak anything that needs tweaking. Aside from that , my noob questions are:

1)How often should she shed?

2)Is the size rat I am describing good for now? She is almost 253 grams. I know the mice were too small..wanted to build her up slowly . What size rat should I be asking for , and up until when?

3) If she does not get skittish when being handled , is ok to handle her daily as I described? I know not to handle her at least in the 24 hours after she eats . She eats Friday night and I do not handle her until Sunday night. So , Sunday night through Thursday night she watches max 20 minutes of tv with us lol

And - after all that detail I gave about her present enclosure , I want to mention I have an AP T8 on its way . With a divider . And I bought two radiant heat panels and 12 inch heat tape. And two more black hides and one more water bowl. I think my husband knows I am nesting ...and want another BP ! I believe in having at least two of everything

Thanks for reading my lengthy intro , and thanks in advance for the help. I knew nothing before I got this BP..I made all my decisions on gear and husbandry based on what I learned from lurking over here. So thanks

[CORBIN911]

You shouldnt need both RHP and Flexx watt, thats a little overboard, Other then that shedding depends hugely on growth/feeding/age

[zookeeper]

The ambient temp in the Neodesha 2 inch cage was running at 70 to 74 with just the heat tape , so I got the infrared light and put it on a Big Apple T-stat. Ambient temps now run 80 to 84. So I figured the 2 RHPs would serve the same purpose in the AP T8 I have coming. I am getting the divider and will put another BP on the other side ( after quarantine and all that )

The temps in my home run between 68 and 70. So I need a bit more than just the flexwatt to keeps the ambient proper. What is the minimum ambient temp?

[zookeeper]

Also , I am reading some people have ambient temps as low as 75? I think it is the ambient temp regulation that I am most unsure about.

[bumblebee1028]

Welcome to the site! And congrats on your new baby!

It sounds like you've done your research! Your ambient temps sound good - ideally you don't want them below 78F. 75F or below is cause for concern. You want the cool side to be 80-84F, and the basking spot to be 88-94F (if you haven't already, see http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet). It sounds like what you're doing right now with the bulb and heat tape is working well. I don't know much about RHPs, but I wouldn't think that you'd need two. Did you talk to AP and see what they recommend based on the ambient temps of your house?

Aside from that , my noob questions are:

1)How often should she shed?

2)Is the size rat I am describing good for now? She is almost 253 grams. I know the mice were too small..wanted to build her up slowly . What size rat should I be asking for , and up until when?

3) If she does not get skittish when being handled , is ok to handle her daily as I described? I know not to handle her at least in the 24 hours after she eats . She eats Friday night and I do not handle her until Sunday night. So , Sunday night through Thursday night she watches max 20 minutes of tv with us lol

1) When they're young and growing rapidly, they shed about every 4-6 weeks. As they get bigger, they don't shed as often. As adults, they only shed about 2-3 times a year, if I remember correctly. When she looks like she's about to shed, bump the humidity up to around 70%, and she shouldn't have any problems.

2) I try to follow the guideline of 10-15% of body weight until they're 500 grams. So for her that would be a 28-35 gram rat every 5-7 days. I think rat pups are typically 21-30 grams and weaned rats are 31-45 grams. So that would be a rat pup or smaller weaned rat, depending on where you get it.

3) As long as she's eating well, it's fine to handle her. I try to wait 48 hours after feeding, and I also try not to handle on feeding day, but other than that, 20 minutes a day should be fine.

I hope that helps!

[bumblebee1028]

So for her that would be a 28-35 gram rat every 5-7 days.

Oops! I transposed the numbers! 10-15% of her body weight would be 25-38 grams.

[zookeeper]

Thanks! That helps

I got the 2 radiant heat panels because I am going to divide the new 48 x 24 x 24 enclosure into 2 halves , and shop for an additional BP

I have not started looking yet , but I know I have to quarantine . I figure I will put new snake in the Neodesha set up I have now , then after Q period make it neighbors with the BP I have now

So , when this snake ( I named her Proud Mary..hope it is not a boy lol ) pooped two weeks ago , there was the brown poop , the white hard bit (expected that)but there was also a blob of what looked like mango-or-(sorry) orange caviar? Normal?

[Mr. Misha]

Thanks! That helps

I got the 2 radiant heat panels because I am going to divide the new 48 x 24 x 24 enclosure into 2 halves , and shop for an additional BP

Welcome to the forum!

The RHP and the heat tape setup sounds good. I use the RHP for ambient heat and the heat tape for the hot spot. Works well for me.

Did you order an AP T8 or a T12 enclosure (since you mentioned it's 42x24x24)? I have both and I have both of them split in half. I use two 80 watt RHPs in the T12 and two 40 watt RHPs in the T8 for ambient temps and they work great! I do suggest getting a proportional thermostat (I personally use Herpstat brand but there's other ones available) for the RHPs that way it will make your life 100 times easier.

Other than that, you seem like you're doing great. Keep up the good work.

[bumblebee1028]

Thanks! That helps

I got the 2 radiant heat panels because I am going to divide the new 48 x 24 x 24 enclosure into 2 halves , and shop for an additional BP

I have not started looking yet , but I know I have to quarantine . I figure I will put new snake in the Neodesha set up I have now , then after Q period make it neighbors with the BP I have now

So , when this snake ( I named her Proud Mary..hope it is not a boy lol ) pooped two weeks ago , there was the brown poop , the white hard bit (expected that)but there was also a blob of what looked like mango-or-(sorry) orange caviar? Normal?

That makes sense, and I'm glad Mr. Misha was able to help with the RHP question. That sounds good for quarantining, just make sure that you have the second snake in another room, and that you keep them separated for at least 3-6 months (some people do a year).

And that poop sounds normal to me. I'm glad she's found a good home!

[zookeeper]

Thanks all

Yes , I really wish I had bought the Herpstat 2. I bet that happens a lot.People think they only want one snake , then they want more.

I will actually need another Herpstat anyway.One for the heat tape on the quarantined enclosure , one for the heat tape in the AP T8 .

Now that I am typing it out , I might as well buy a Herpstat 2 and use it to do the flexwatt and RHPs (40 watts each ) on the T8 , then leave the Neodesha enclosure as is for the Q period ( with the Herpstat 1 controlling the flexwatt and Big Apple T stat controlling the infrared ) .

Thanks again everyone!