New BP owner.

[jmsemii14]

This is my first Ball Python... actually my first snake in general and I don't really know what I'm doing yet. I don't know how old it is, the pet store didn't tell us anything when we got him/her. Her name is Semii


How do I tell if it's male or female?

How do I figure out how old it is?

I've had her for about 2 1/2 months now not knowing when she had her last meal and the first month and a half she refused the pinkies (the guy that was at the pet store told us that's what she had eaten before.. We kept trying to feed her the pinkies every 4-5 days and she kept refusing. So finally I went and bought the f/t fuzzies. She snapped that out of the tongs quicker than I could even blink. She swallowed it withing 10 mins. And didn't even look like she had eaten. Fed her another fuzzie 4 days later and she swallowed it within 5-10 mins. I tried feeding her again a couple days ago which makes it a week since the last meal, this time the rodent was a little bit larger and she refused. So are pinkies too small, small mouse too big, but fuzzies just right?

Oh. I think she's about a foot and a half to 2 foot. Haven't measured her yet.

[albinos_rule]

You don't know what you are doing? You mean you didn't research the needs of your animal before you got him?

It would be hard to say how old the snake is. There are a lot of factors to consider when you don't know the hatch date. The most accurate way to determine sex is by probing. Please don't do it yourself if you don't know what you are doing.

Fuzzies and pinks are far too small for that snake. It can easily take rat pups.

Good luck!!

[bcr229]

Start here: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

And here: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ALL-caresheets!

Finally, most big box pet store employees are clueless about reptiles. A healthy hatchling BP can take a mouse hopper.

[jmsemii14]

You don't know what you are doing? You mean you didn't research the needs of your animal before you got him?

It would be hard to say how old the snake is. There are a lot of factors to consider when you don't know the hatch date. The most accurate way to determine sex is by probing. Please don't do it yourself if you don't know what you are doing.

Fuzzies and pinks are far too small for that snake. It can easily take rat pups.

Good luck!!

I looked up basic stuff, but I'm trying to learn more. I want my bp to have a happy life.

[jmsemii14]

Also, I just weighed her. She's 86g

[Velrys]

bcr229s post is really useful. Those care sheets talk about how to correctly set up an enclosure and handle your snake. Pretty much every health concern (including eating) has roots in proper husbandry. Though your snake is eating, if not regularly so that is a good sign.

The rule of thumb of food items is that the item is as big around as the snake. This can be off a little (like in the cases of two foot long 86g BPs) if your snake is not eating well already but like a said its a rule of thumb, a good guideline, and discussed in the care sheets.

There is frankly no way to tell how old it it, at least for a casual hobbyist. But there are a couple of methods for determining gender though I would hold off on doing so until after the snake is comfortable and eating regularly and the added stress will not overwhelm it.

After you read the care sheets please post a description, and photos are great, of your enclosure if you have any questions. There is a great community here to help.

[jmsemii14]

She's been eating regularly for the past 3 weeks now.
We just fed her a couple minutes ago and she swallowed the fuzzy within 6 mins.

[jmsemii14]

bcr229s post is really useful. Those care sheets talk about how to correctly set up an enclosure and handle your snake. Pretty much every health concern (including eating) has roots in proper husbandry. Though your snake is eating, if not regularly so that is a good sign.

The rule of thumb of food items is that the item is as big around as the snake. This can be off a little (like in the cases of two foot long 86g BPs) if your snake is not eating well already but like a said its a rule of thumb, a good guideline, and discussed in the care sheets.

There is frankly no way to tell how old it it, at least for a casual hobbyist. But there are a couple of methods for determining gender though I would hold off on doing so until after the snake is comfortable and eating regularly and the added stress will not overwhelm it.

After you read the care sheets please post a description, and photos are great, of your enclosure if you have any questions. There is a great community here to help.

[Velrys]

ok,

There are a couple of modifications that need to be made to your enclosure.

1.) Remove the heat rock

2.) Place the UTH under the hide

It kind of looks like you're trying to produce a basking area on the right side of your tank? Snakes don't bask so this is unnecessary.

The heat lamp looks like its on the side of the tank. Try moving it to the middle of the top to provide an ambient heat to the entire tank.

It looks like you have condensation inside the tank, which means your humidity is much higher than it needs to be, which is in the 50% to 60% range.

Honestly a lot of this stuff is covered in the care sheets and stickies in the husbandry forums, you might want to take another look.

Again, this is information from bcr229's links but...

How are you controlling your heat sources? How are you measuring your temperatures? What are they?

[jmsemii14]

Going to get a secondary hide for her tomorrow after work hopefully. The condensation is just from me misting the sides of her tank to create some humidity. There's still a lot I want to add to her home but money is tight at the moment so I have to do little by litte. I just have a reptile temp strip in the tank. Right now I'm just turning the uth on and off till I can get a timer.