help to a newb

hi all. i am going to be very short to the point here. this march i purchased a ball python on impulse from best buy, named him peter north. peter has been a great snake i guess(not too sure how you can judge a snakes behavior lol) anyhow in that time he's shed once(it lasted between late april and early may). he's about 28'' iirc. he's always ate live mice and just recently small rats never had an issue. i am having a problem so i am going to relay what i think is happening so i can get the best information. i recall when peter was going to shed that he didn't poo any until after he had shed. so this week when he went to bathroom i went and got him a dinner. he didn't touch it, he was interested but didn't want it. he has also been soaking himself in his water bowl(first i've seen him do it), he buried himself in the bedding(it's last i can't remember the official term for it) and i his under belly has a pink hue to it. to me all signs seem to point towards another shed, but for the fact he pooped already. i wasn't around to see most of his first shed so all i saw was he didn't eat a thing until afterwards. one last thing, was before he had like a compact hollow rock thing he hid in until last week after he ate i decided to upgrade him to a bigger cardboard box with an entrance and exit cut out in it, but i replaced it with the rock tonight(no that sentence was not a joke). humidity and temp has been the same since the day he arrived in my possession.to be honest i don't know a lot about snakes much less ball pythons so any input is welcome, but i am from another forum world so i would like to keep thread de-railing, and rudeness to a minimum please, atleast until some reasonable explanation is provided

Its possible that he's shedding again. You didn't say what your temp and humidity levels are, that's important info. What heating do you use, UTH or heat lamps. Has he grown since his last shed?

What type of enclosure is he in, how many hides does he have? Can you post pics of him and his enclosure, that's what people will need to help you?

Hi,

Those signs do indeed point towards an upcoming shed.

They tend to also poop and pee when they shed but they can certainly do it at any other time as well. :D

Here is a link to our caresheet - that should give you an idea of the temps, humidity and general guidelines we have found to work well. It could help you ask us more specific questions to get you sorted quckly. :gj:

Good call on putting the older tight hide back though - they prefer hides that are tight enough to touch them on all sides, are dark and have only one entrance.

As Jared said the more detailed info and pics you can provide the more specific our replies can be as well.


dr del

He's fine. As long as his temps are okay, the pink belly is just pre-shed. He just couldn't wait to poop that long this time (apparently!)

Just three observations about this thread...

1. That giant, rambling paragraph is not being very short and to the point...
2. Best Buy is an odd place to buy a snake...
3. Peter North is a creepy name for a snake...

Carry on...:D