new and getting conflicting advice

i just bought my first ball python on sunday. it's a female, a little under two feet long.
i'm keeping her in a 75 gallon aquarium, with a screen lid, several plants, 2 caves, and a large shallow water dish. for heat i have a pad under one side of the tank, and a ceramic heat bulb above. the guys at the reptile store (a large specialty store, not just a pet shop) said this set up would be fine.

but now i am hearing that this is too big, and she will be stressed. is this really going to be a problem?
also, she is very active at night, climbing everything, soaking in her water dish, etc. is this normal?

It is a little big for a small snake, but you can make do. If she is eating well and sleeping most of the day, she probably isn't too stressed. They are nocturnal and will explore their cage at night, so that is normal. If she isn't eating or if she is awake too much during the day, that could indicate stress. You can add extra hides, put a partition in the tank, put a bunch of balled up newspaper to fill up the empty space, or a combination of the three. Make sure her hides are small enough so that she can feel the sides when she curls up inside.

The biggest problem with a big tank like that is getting the temps and humidity right. Make sure she has a nice gradient of 80-82 on the cool side and 90-92 on the warm side. The humidity should be between 50-60 percent. The ceramic heat bulb might dry out the air too much. Just something to be aware of. If the humidity is too low, she might have bad sheds or you might have a more difficult time getting her to eat. You can pick up a nice dual temperature/humidity thermometer from Walmart for about $13 (I think) which will help get things right.

Read the caresheet on this site for all the details. And give your girl at least a week to be alone (no handling) before trying to feed. They need time to adjust to their new environment.

Good luck!

The enclosure is a little large for such a small snake. If you want to keep her in it, give her more places to hide and lots of foliage, at least until she's a bigger.

Soaking can be a sign of mites or an environment that's too dry. A checkup by a decent herp vet is a good idea. Overhead heat lamps can suck the humidity right out of glass tank. You need to maintain humidity around 60%. Try misting and/or switching to an just an undertank heater. Use substrates that will help hold humidity, like ReptiBark. If you have a screen top, try covering it.

Unfortunately, you can't always trust the people at the pet store. Sometimes they don't know what they're doing any more than you do.

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Originally Posted by erinisnice

the guys at the reptile store (a large specialty store, not just a pet shop) said this set up would be fine.

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Reptile/pet stores make their money on the supplies they sell, not really the actual animal itself ... the more/bigger that they can get you to buy, the more they put in their pocket. It's easy to take advantage of someone that is just getting started and has more questions than answers.

There's good advice on this forum ... take notes and you'll be squared away before you know it. ;)

-adam

does it help that i have a whole house humidifier that is on every day?

the guys at this store actually breed ball pythons, so i don't know why they didn't tell me my tank is too big. i used to keep fish in it, but it started leaking.

The humidifier may help, but you won't know for sure without a hygrometer to measure the humidity level in the tank. You should also have a reliable thermometer or temp gun to make sure you have the proper temperature gradient.

digital thermometers (not the stick on kind) are the good ones right?

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Originally Posted by erinisnice

does it help that i have a whole house humidifier that is on every day?

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The humidifier will definitely help, but the ceramic heater will probably still dry out the air. Get a guage to measure the humidity, and you'll know how much you'll need to do to get it right.

Way to go Adam!!!! :rockon: you couldn't have said it better !!! the average retail price on a BP from a pet store is $50-$80....but the setup can be well over $200 if everything is purchased from the store.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erinisnice

digital thermometers (not the stick on kind) are the good ones right?

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Right!