New to the Site :) Ball Python F 6-7 years 5+ feet

Hello All :) New to the site - pretty excited to see an online forum dedicated to Balls considering I'm a forum junkie.

A few years ago I owned a Ball who got a RI and unfortunately, passed. I tried everything I could with what I knew to do, including medicine provided by the doctor via syringe in the mouth. To my dismay, I did not know about forums such as this at the time, which would have helped me tremendously in providing an adequate environment for my pet.

Two days ago I found a listing on craigslist for a Ball Python. A family was getting rid of her because they wanted to get a new pet for their children. They had had her for four years, though she was about three years old when they got her, so that would put her around seven years old.

Her housing that came with her is not adequate for a ball python, so I am working on fixing it up. Their house cat used to lounge on top of the tank, which is 100% mesh at the top, and is bowing in. We plan on replacing the mesh with a heavy duty mesh in addition to the plexi-glass suggestions I've read on this forum to trap in humidity.

It appears that they were using Aspen, but just in case, I bought some Aspen to use as the bedding (also some Moss), as there are other substrates that look very similar IMO. They had a ceramic heat lamp, in addition to a fluorescent light and that was it.

Last night I purchased a day and night light to cycle with a timed power outlet switch. I also plan on getting an under tank pad once I am able to talk my boyfriend into building a stand suitable for the tank. Right now it is on a small wood stand that came with it, however, the stand is smaller than the tank, so I have no way to lift it off the wood properly.

I also bought the digital thermostat that gauges the humidity as well as the temperatures via probe. I had read about it on one of these posts, so stopped by Wal-Mart to pick it up.

When we got to the house to pick her up, the little girl was handling her, and then I realized the snake was in her shedding phase, so it struck me as odd they handled her regardless of what phase she was in. Needless to say, she shed yesterday morning, and it was the worst shed I've ever seen. Half of it was still stuck to her, with no hopes of coming off any time soon.

So, again, per this forum, I went and bought a rubbermaid bin, filled it with room temp water, and put her in there for 45 minutes. The shed came off perfectly. So thanks for all the suggestions!

She's very sweet and not aggressive at all. She's very head shy though, but I'm assuming that is from the young ones carrying her like she's a stuffed animal lol.

So, sorry for the long intro, just wanted to give you a background.

This weekend we want to fix her tank up properly - so I'll post pictures once I have it. I'm sure I'll do some things wrong, so I'll look forward to some input.

She doesn't have any hides right now, but there are a lot of sticks/logs in there and she likes to curl up between them. She's pretty large and very heavy. I was shocked. She's a little over 5 feet I'm assuming and I will probably have to build a hide for her as the ones at the pet store are much too small for her to fit under.

One question I do have immediately though - for a snake her size, would a regular size rat you would find at Petco or the likes, be sufficient? I know I've read that the feed should be comparable to the widest part of their body, but my god that would be a large rat. She's much fatter than a store rat, and her widest parts are quite larger than the rest of her.

I only have a webcam picture to show, which isn't that great, but I will work on taking some this weekend. The picture is pretty accurate to her size, it does not make her look fatter due to angle.

Thanks for having me on here and looking forward to many discussions.

Soshanna

:D
Miss Sammy L. Jackson -
http://www.soshanna.com/sammy.jpg

BTW Wall of text crit you for over 9000

Welcome to BP.net! :handshake

Sounds to me like you're well on your way to having an awesome snake in an awesome home! Keep up the good work!

As for feeding...you can offer a small rat every seven days and she'll be FINE. Some people like to feed bigger, but it's not necessary (not saying it's wrong...just that it's not necessary)...especially if they're eating regularly every seven days. In the end, it works out to a lot more food over a year's span than they'd ever get in the wild. ;)

Ditto to what Judy said...and welcome! :)

Welcome to the forum! :)

Sounds like you've done a bit of research already and I have no doubt the snake will do great in your care. She looks good considering the prior owners conditions you described; best of luck!

Thanks all! Good to know a small rat is sufficient, I was really dreading having to get a larger one. I've had some bad experiences with rats - they can be real jerks! I used to worry they would bite my old snake, and they would squeal when they died vs. mice just submit. Not to mention the time a rat decided to spin uncontrollably when I had him by the tail until his tail fell off and he went running. That was awesome.

She does have a slight wheeze, which worries me considering my prior snakes RI, but I'm hoping changing her conditions and giving her a more stress-free environment will help. Crossing my fingers.

Thanks again all! Been having fun reading all your posts for the past few days.

Miss Sammy L. Jackson...meet Samuel L. Jackson (The Bigger One)
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7909/img2791ug6.jpg

Holy Cow thats a big boy!!! ( you said boy right? ) We have some pretty huge frozen rats where I buy my feed and I figured they were for snakes like that! Hokey. Good luck, you sound like you are doing great!!! Beautiful snakes!!

Welcome to the group :gj:

Hi and welcome! :)

I think she said the snake was female. She looks about as big as my older girl was and she got a small rat every week or so. Sometimes she'd stretch it out to two weeks and was fine. At this point she should be done growing so I wouldn't worry about giving her the biggest prey possible; it's more of a maintaining this weight and size. Can't wait to see more pics. Welcome to the forums!