First Ball

[Gooseman]

Howdy, I'm new to the forum, and balls in general. I've had several prairie king snakes before and I just got my first ball. But along with the ball, I have a few questions that have risen from conflicting websites when I was doing my research.

1) How often do y'all feed your bp's? I have read conflicting reports, some say every 5-7 days, others say 7-10 days. I have been feeding her every Sunday to be safe, but she acts as though she gets pretty assertive starting every Thursday. Is every five days too often?

2) I have always fed my kings stunned mice. I breed my own mice now, and although the mice cage is on the exact opposite side of the room, she won't eat if they're in the same room. She just stares blankly in their general direction. Then back at the stunned mouse until it starts to come-to. Seems that she wants them live. Should I just go ahead and feed her live once and see what happens?

3) Since she's still young I have her in a 20gal tank, and have large hides on both the hot side and the cool side of the tank. But she tends to just dig through the aspen and hangs out right in the middle of the tank most often. I don't really have a problem with this, but I haven't read about bp's doing this so I'm wondering if it's normal behavior. My only guess would be that she likes the temp right in between, but the temps are at what I've read are standard for bp's, I have the hot side hovering around 86 and have and UTH.

Thanks in advance for yalls assistance, this place seems pretty sweet.


P.S. She likes to eat her mice backwards...

[Sausage]

All looks pretty good! My snake likes to dig around too; I don't think that is of any concern.
Go ahead and try to feed live, just make sure you supervise. Also, I see that your snake is eating in a separate container from the looks of it in the picture. That is unneccessary, as the whole "they'll bite you when you put your hand in" is generally false.
You may want to pump the hot side up a little warmer- maybe about 92 on the warm and 82ish on the cool.
Oh and by the way: !

[xdeus]

Welcome to the forum!

Congrats on your new snake.

To answer your questions:

1. Once a week is perfect. Just keep feeding every Sunday like you have been.

2. Feed live if she prefers it, just monitor her when you do and don't keep the mouse in there for longer than 10-20 minutes. Remove it if she doesn't show any interest. BTW, stunning a mouse is considered cruel by many. You should either feed live or pre-killed.

3. You should probably bump up the hot side to the low 90s. She may be burrying herself in the substrate because the hides are too large. You can try giving her a smaller hide to see if she uses it. They like to feel the sides of the hides against them. Also, if you haven't had a chance take a look at our caresheet.

[Gooseman]

Sounds like I'll try a live mouse. Guess something I shouldn't be too proud admitting, but I've been feeding stunned mice since I was 7 when I got my first king. It's what the reptile specialist had told me to do (well, my parents till I was older), and I've been doing it ever since. Guess times have changed since I have last asked about feeding my snakes.

OK, then. In such case that she doesn't go for the live mice idea, how would you recommend pre-killing the mice humanely?

[Sausage]

You can get a co2 tank and a regulator and put the mouse in a closed area and pump the co2 in. The mouse will just fall asleep.

[frankykeno]

Looks like you are getting some great advice. I'd check those temps and have a good read through our caresheet here, maybe check to see if the hides are a bit big. BP's like a really dark, snug hide barely bigger than they are (the snake should basically touch all sides of it's hide when in there). Great pics btw!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

First


1/ You can feed your BP once week same day every week regardless of age.

2/ when it comes to feeding, feed whatever works for your BP, if your BP prefer live then feed live.

3/ Your BP might dig and go under the bedding to feel more secure, even if some do that as a choice, some do it because it make them feel more secure and large hides could be the causing that as well as the enclosure size, ideally you want your hides to be identical and tight so your BP can snug in (all the sides touching your BP's body) and you don't want a enclosure that is too big.

4/ Temps should be 90-94 on the warm side and 80-84 on the cool side and the less fluctuation, humidity 50%-60%. Make sure you get the proper reading by using a digital thermometer/hydrometer, as dial and stick don't work.

[Christina]

i feed my ball every friday and then make sure she gets 36-48 hours of time where she isn't being handled. they need time to digest. and i also use live prey. it doesn't really matter, whatever your ball prefers.

[Gooseman]

Mmmk, so I have another question. Nyla (her new name) is in the first stages of shedding, and just like last time her underbody scales seem pretty beaten up. Last time it was curred when she shed, and I have no doubts that it will happen again when she sheds in the coming days. My question however is, is this normal? my old kings never did this, and I havn't found any literature on the matter. Humidity stays a constant 55%, there's about 2inches of aspen bedding on top of the UTH. She likes to take baths so I doubt it's dehydration. Is this something I should be too concerned with?

The scales just look and feel all ragged, dry, and just in general bad shape. Sorry the pic isn't as clear as I wanted it to be.

[juddb]

Mmmk, so I have another question. Nyla (her new name) is in the first stages of shedding, and just like last time her underbody scales seem pretty beaten up. Last time it was curred when she shed, and I have no doubts that it will happen again when she sheds in the coming days. My question however is, is this normal? my old kings never did this, and I havn't found any literature on the matter. Humidity stays a constant 55%, there's about 2inches of aspen bedding on top of the UTH. She likes to take baths so I doubt it's dehydration. Is this something I should be too concerned with?

The scales just look and feel all ragged, dry, and just in general bad shape. Sorry the pic isn't as clear as I wanted it to be.

I've never seen that before. I hope someone who has will chime in, but it may be a beggining stage of scale rot ( i hope not). In that case all the baths that he likes so much might be causing it. Or maybe just take a look through out the cage for mold or anything like that . Then just take a look at your husbandry all together. But for sure if it gets worse i would see a vet. Actually you might want to take him to the vet anyway. Get him a stool sample check. Anyway i hope this helps....