Newbie Stressing Out: Is my ball python getting ready for shed?

[Ella18]

Ok, so firstly, I got my very first snake exactly a week ago(2 month old pastel male ball python)
Details on husbandary: he’s in a tub set up with newspaper, 2 hides, one at the hot side and one at the cool side and a water bowl. Humidity during the day stays around 62%, sometimes going up to 65%, and some nights it goes up to 72%, but generally averages at 65%. Hot side is at 90f (heated with heat pad) and cool side at 80f. He ate two fuzzies on Monday (his first frozen, was fed live by breeder)


ok so now for the q’s. I’ve been a total stress-ball ever since I got him, questioning everything he does, if it’s normal etc. now around saturday I noticed a slight pink hue on his belly,very similar to what i would imagine it to look when getting ready to shed, then 2 days ago (after leaving him for about 46hrs after feeding, cause yes, i did track the time, pretty ocd) anyways, he started acting a bit more lethargic, just hanging around when i hold him, not exploring much. He also started rubbing himself on me, like... massaging almost, and letting me rub his head. Now he does not have mites, as I have checked a few times already. When i set him down on my bed, he’ll return to my hand and rub and curl around it squeezing/rubbing himself on my arm and hand.Now this, with the fact that he’s become much lazier, has me a bit worried... but also, from what I’ve read, it could simply be him preparing for shed, and if it is, i would like to just leave him in his tub to finish the process. Attached is a link to photos of his eyes currently and then his belly yesterday. It looks a bit cloudy to me, but obviously it could just be me imagining what i want to see. Oh and just a side note, he has been very active at night, I heard some bumps last night, but the tub is aprox 20cm in height, so I doubt he can get hurt falling around in there.

[Craiga 01453]

Sounds like an upcoming shed to me. The pink belly is typically the first thing you'll notice.
The lethargic behavior is also typical of the shed process.

Your humidity seems on par with where it should be, but you could bump to 70% during shed. And yes, time to leave him alone and let him go through the shedding process.

There was one other thing I noticed in your thread: you said he ate 2 fuzzies. Are you talking fuzzy mice?

[Ella18]

Oh also, another thing. When I first got him, he’d tense up, and coil up, breathing getting a bit faster, if he saw my hand approaching him, however, since yesterday he doesnt curl up or make special effort to coil or curl up, and stays “relaxed” not really lifting his head to that S postion, however he did hiss at me this morning when I changed his water out, but a this evening when i came back from being out for a bit, i did a temperature check, and when he noticed me he didnt lift his head up (i didnt bring my hand close to him though, but he did notice me)

[Ella18]

Yes, fuzzy mice. The breeder fed him on 1 fuzzy mouse the day I got him, told me he has been eating 2, but next time I feed him (5 days later) I should only give 1 again, then wait 5 days and feed 2. But after reading many other threads it seemed like 1 would be much too little. He weighed 115g’s before I fed him, so I fed him according to the 10% rule.

[MD_Pythons]

That's kinda sketchy, Ball Pythons should be eating Hoppers at least.

[Ella18]

That's kinda sketchy, Ball Pythons should be eating Hoppers at least.

Yes that’s what i also thought. I did buy hoppers for him as well (after the breeder gave me frozen fuzzies) but I thought for his first frozen meal I’d just give fuzzies, then move him up to hoppers on the next meals.

[MissterDog]

Hoppers are what bp's eat straight out of the egg only for their first few meals. Frankly your bp should be on small mice, which at 115 grams, your little guy should be able to tackle no prob.

When in doubt you can refer to this chart

[Ella18]

Hoppers are what bp's eat straight out of the egg only for their first few meals. Frankly your bp should be on small adult mice, which at 115 grams, your little guy should be able to tackle no prob.

When in doubt you can refer to this chart

I’ll get him straight onto adult mice then. Thanks for the heads up.

[MissterDog]

I’ll get him straight onto adult mice then. Thanks for the heads up.

I actually misnamed the mouse. I meant small mouse and not 'small adult' . So you'd want a small mouse Sorry about that!

[Craiga 01453]

MissterDog beat me to it!

I was going to share the same feeding chart and info.