Hey everyone, I've been heavily browsing these forums all week and I wanted to give a big thank you to everyone. I have learned so much information over the last week.
I just got my first ball python, Apollo, a week ago. I picked him up from a breeder in my area. He is currently around 3 months old.
Anyways I just had a few general questions about him and his environment. I attached a few pictures of him and his tank below. I was just wondering if the environment seems suitable? It's currently a 10 gallon tank; I'm going to move him into a 20 gal. L when he gets a bit a bigger.
I have one UTH on onside of the tank. I haven't gotten a rheostat yet, but I'm going to pick one up this weekend. Ambient temps/humidity are currently 82 degrees and 65%.
This is my first question... how do I lower my humidity? I live in FL, so it's already very humid here. I'm currently using cypress mulch, should I switch to a different substrate? If so, I was thinking about Aspen shavings... I like the aesthetic look of these rather than newspaper etc. My humidity sometimes jumps into the mid-70%s which is getting pretty high... He seems to like the hide over the UTH better so I drilled a few holes in the top because the humidity was so high moisture was completely soaking the top of the hide.
Secondly, how long should I wait until handling him after I feed him? I'm very anxious to start handling him, but he just ate his first meal (from me) yesterday. An adult mouse.
He also shed the day before that. It was a nice clean shed without any broken pieces left on him. I'm assuming the high humidity was good during this period, but now I need it to be lowered.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...97/Apollo1.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...97/Apollo2.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...t297/Cage1.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...t297/Cage2.jpg
So far, I think he is doing pretty good. Any advice would be much appreciated it.
Thanks everyone.
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