First Shed Advice?

Hello All,

I am a first time reptile mom. I adopted a 7-8 year old ball python three weeks ago, and it appears that he is nearing his first shed while in my care (his belly is starting to pink and his colors are starting to dull), and any advice you more experienced snake owners may have would be much appreciated. Specifically, is there a brand of hygrometer you would recommend? I am having difficulty finding hygrometers with consistently positive reviews. And should I provide my snake with a larger water bowl during this time? He is approximately 4 ft long and his current stone dish is not large enough for him to fit his entire body in. I ask because I watched yesterday as he methodically crawled through the bowl in order to wet himself all over. I am changing his water regularly as I have read that access to clean water is very important during shedding.

I have noticed that y'all like to know as much as possible about the snake's environment before answering questions like this, so here goes. His enclosure is 4 feet long, 2.5 feet deep, and 2.5 feet tall. It is triangular prism shaped with an opaque top and sides with screen windows and a sliding glass door front. The right side is heated by a built in heating mat; the left side is cool. I use the mulch-like substrate that was recommended to me by the mom & pop shop reptile/fish store from which I purchased him (quite reputable, not a traditional pet store). He has one log hide, though I am strongly considering purchasing him a second one, one large stone water bowl, and a large tree branch that he enjoys climbing. I feed him one large rat every two weeks, but am about to upgrade him to jumbo rats because he is eating the larges very quickly and I have noticed some roaming behavior that may be indicative of hunger. I have a good sense of temperature from years of fish tank care, but am very uncomfortable guestimating humdity (hence the desire for a reliable hygrometer).

He appears to be a happy, healthy snake. Spends most of his time hiding, but likes to roam and climb from the hours of 9-11 pm. I handle him fairly often because he is such a good eater and is always curiously sniffing when I carry him through the house, but, of course, I am not handling him now as he appears to be preparing to shed.

Thank you kindly in advance for your advice,
Sarah

I have been happy with the following thermometer/hydrometer. I found it recommended several times in this forum. It will measure both humidity/temperature at the unit itself and a secondary temperature by a connected probe. I use one on each my warm side and cool side of cage.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347

Check out the care sheets here in the forum for more info also. Some great info there.

Do you have a thermastat for your heat source?

Thank you! That is actually the same hygrometer an engineer friend recommended (but I wanted to hear it from a reptile expert, too).
I do not have a thermostat for the my heat source... It part of the cage the snake has been living in his entire life (is my understanding) so I haven't been too worried. What would you recommend?

Please don't consider me as any kind of expert. I had snakes 20 years ago but only a year ago now have I gotten back into them.

I tend to be a bit over cautious when it come to husbandry. My current set up in a pvc cage (48x24x15) runs around 88-90 warm side, 78-80 cool side, ambient temps 82-85, humidity 55-60 unless she is in shed, then i try to bump up to 70. I have under the tank heat (flexwatt) as well as a radient heat panel both attatched to a thermostat. I use 2 heat sources because we keep our house on the cool side year around. 2 Identical hides, 1 on the warm side and 1 on the cool side. large water bowl (large enough for her to get in w/o displacing all the water) in the middle along with a few logs and branches to climb along. I also use aspen as a substrate (not totally sold on aspen).

From what i've read, an unregulated heat mat could reach temps well over 100 which is way to hot for your bp. I would certainly be monitoring the cage floor temps carefully until a thermostat can be attached.

An unregulated heat pad is an extremely bad idea! For whatever reason it seems to get even hotter when attached to a sheet of metal then if it was just placed under a tub by itself. I often times don't take advice so I usually learn things the hard way and I can tell you for a fact that a little 10 gallon UTH on a 41qt sterilite will over heat the area that it's attached too. If unregulated by a dimmer switch or thermostat it can and will be too hot and not possible to control. I've also had a giant sized one attached to a sheet of glass that was in the snake condo I bought and at first I transitioned it to the top of my rack system and found during testing that it got both tubs on it hot enough to burn my hand. As far as shedding recommendation... I have used about every one you can get at petco and petsmart and they have all worked great for me depending on where I place them. During shedding I will have 70 percent humidity give or take 5 percent. I also pay attention to the temps too because high humidity and low temps are more prone to give RI from my understanding. Even though all my Ball Pythons are housed identically I do have one that seems to have a tiny bit of shedding issues and I use on him what I use on my chameleons which is the shedding aide you can get at most pet stores and it's worked to help with a few issues.

A bath in the bath tub will help your snake.

A thermostat is a good idea, and a good fail safe just in case. This will not necessarily be a popular statement, but if after 7 or 8 years, the snake is fine with the heat pad being used, I would not stress too much about a thermostat yet. It sounds like you have a custom enclosure that was designed for him in mind; I'd monitor it (your house will not be the same temps as the pet store or his previous home) as seasons change and it gets cooler, but it is probably just fine.

You can mist the cage more often to help with humidity, and I've found that adding clumps of damp moss to the warm side of the cage helps give the snake a humid place to hang out while it builds the new skin.

If you get everything dialed in correctly, you shouldn't need to soak your snake. If he sheds and there are still pieces stuck, you'll know that for his next shed, you'll have to increase humidity more, and at that point a soak will be helpful to get the stuck shed off. Otherwise, he should handle it all just fine on his own. :)

-Jen