New Snake Owner needs lots of help

[a_esk]

Hi, I'm Bryan, and I just got my first snake, a female ball python. I named it Lilith.

My friend reccomeded me to this site, as there's a lot of useful info here. As any first-time snake owner, I'm researching a lot and finding out new things.

As of right now, I'm kind of worried about her. I NEED to keep the humidity up in her tank (which is starting to get too small), and it's hard to take care of her every other week, because I commute to my mom's house. The week I'm gone, my father, who doesn't know anything about snakes, is expected to take care of them. Usually when I come back, there's a lot of cleaning up the BS that he created. We're having problems keeping the humidity up, and most of the time the stuff we buy for the snakes is up to his budget... And he just so happened to buy them BEFORE he had the money for most of the tank accessories... There's a lot of problems I hope you guys can help me out with.
I'm currently using reptibark, which I changed out from the substrate the tanks came with, a very "sharp" kind of bark that would really hurt your feet if you walked on it.

My father bought ONE lamp for TWO tanks, and then the snakes started to get to cold, so he bought another lamp. Mind you, a DIFFERENT kind of lamp. So, we can't put one lamp over each tank, but rather, he has both positioned between the two tanks. Common sense tells me this isn't right because all the heat is directed into the sides of the tanks. Also, the lamp he bought had a picture of an iguana on the front of the box. It's supposed to be a basking lamp. I asked him to buy a HEATING lamp. I figured if it was supposed to be a heating lamp, it would say HEATING lamp on the box. One lamp is red, the other is kind of a bright yellow-white light.

We don't have a humidity meter in each tank. For some reason, he's not getting one! He assumes if we spray both tanks the same, the humidity will be fine.

The snakes appear to be a little hungry, but aren't eating, and I don't really blame them.

I'm worried about their skin. I think it's starting to do what you would expect it to do if the humidity is too low. Their eyes are also starting to film a little.

If you noticed I've been saying "snakes" plural, it's because my dad bought two. One for me, and one for my other brother, who didn't ask for or want one. Needless to say, he doesn't take care of it. So I do all the taking care of, except for the week where I'm not here, where I stress about them because I know they probably aren't getting the care they need.

Someone PLEASE help me out. I'm really worried about these snakes. ANY help is appreciated. I need any help possibly to regulate humidy, and heat, help them to eat, and stop my dad from killing them.

[Rapture]

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=59

Print that out, read it, and show it to your dad.

[a_esk]

I think he knows the basics of how to take care of them, it's just that a lot of the time he doesn't go through with the responsibility. I need to take it to my mom's house so I can take care of it, but she's DEATHLY afraid of snakes and made it clear that they'll never go over there. I'm trying to talk her into letting them stay there when I do, though.

[Rapture]

It wouldn't hurt to read the caresheet thoroughly. Are you sure you know how to take care of Ball Pythons? Not every species of snake has the same requirements. Read the caresheet and you'll find out why you can't keep your humidity high enough, and what you can buy to read your humidity levels so you actually know for sure where they are at.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I think he knows the basics of how to take care of them, it's just that a lot of the time he doesn't go through with the responsibility. I need to take it to my mom's house so I can take care of it, but she's DEATHLY afraid of snakes and made it clear that they'll never go over there. I'm trying to talk her into letting them stay there when I do, though.

Well the basics are very specific and I doubt that with a lamp you achieve the required temp that is 80 to 84 on the cool side and 90 to 94 on the warm side.

You must provide belly heat to help facilitate the digestion of your BP and I did not read you mentioning having any UTH.

Also the humidity level MUST be known there is no guess with BP the humidity should e between 50% and 60% at all time (too low or too high can create various problem)

You need to get a reliable digital thermometer for each tank (check walmart or lowes they have some for around 13 dollars )

Now for your humidity problem here are couple of trick to raise the level

Partially covering the tank
Adding an humid hide
Adding a second water dish placing it on the UTH
Misting

Anyway if you need some more info on the basics and what you should have in each tank you can check this http://www.geocities.com/gaballpythons/


Good Luck

[Sausage]

Frankly, if you(or from the sound of it, your father) aren't able to care for the snakes, you should probably find them, or one of them atleast, new homes. Take a look at some caresheets and see if things go better.
Good luck!

[a_esk]

We don't just provide them with light, there's a UTH on the warm spot of each tank.

I just found out a little ago the thermometer he had wasn't the right type, but now I got a digital one and it seems to work fine.

I think what's been happening is that there's been too much light, and that's been affecting the humidity. The old thermometer wasn't the right kind, at it said the temp was way too low. Now, though, that we have the digital one, the temp is actually a lot higher than we thought.

I think we just had too much light, and combined with the UTH it was too much heat and that wasn't too great for them.

Thanks guys.