1st time BP owner looking for help

Yes I have 2 thermos. 1 for each side. I'm a lil weary of rats and Finch getting bit by them. I spoke to a colleague that said his friend feeds his BP a guinea pig every 2 weeks. Ever heard of this and is it a good idea?

Thanks again

A baby guinea pig is not really less threatening than a rat. An adult guinea pig is too large for any ball python I have ever seen. Even my biggest girls can't eat anything bigger than a large rat.

Your ball python needs an appropriate amount of food, regardless of the risk of a bite. NEVER leave a live rodent alone with your snake. If it's weaned, it has fully functional jaws and sharp teeth, and it can use them. Supervise feedings.

[QUOTE=Shake_n_Bake74;1876599]Yes I have 2 thermos. 1 for each side. I'm a lil weary of rats and Finch getting bit by them. I spoke to a colleague that said his friend feeds his BP a guinea pig every 2 weeks. Ever heard of this and is it a good idea?

guinea pigs are no less dangerous than rats and they have a higher fat content

If you have a glass tank, I strongly urge you to look into a thermostat like the Herpstat II. Use 1 probe for your UTH and the other for your light. With a tank the size you have the infrared buld will help a great deal with ambient temps. Use a 75W bulb and the Herpstat will adjust so the output is minimal to get the temp you want. It will cause a smaller bulb to run hotter longer to reach the temp and maintain it which is why I was told to use a larger bulb.

I was new to this not too long ago and was schooled up here rather quickly. I've also invested a lot of time and money on herpetology books, and books about boas and pythons and have been reading all I can.

In my opinion the best investment I made was the thermostat. The family went on an 8 day vacation and I had no worries about temps. We came home and all was well. I'm not an expert by any stretch, but you will hear THERMOSTAT here a lot. With the bulb at center tank, I have 79-80 cool side temps, 80-82 center tank temps, and warm side is 90-92 where the UTH is. That's with a glass 40 gal breeder tank.

I did use some insulation around the tank and under the UTH and I cover the right and left top part of the tank with reflective foil insulation. I use a damp towel under it for humidity and can keep it spot on.

Just a few ideas for you if you need some.

Good luck!!

Welcome to the world of reptile lovers Gio. I am also new here but I found this site useful specially to some of my questions specially in taking care of it.. Goodluck to both of us :)

Ok. So today I'm running out of options/ideas.

It has been 5 days since he ate 2 adult mice and it seems lilke I have a completely different snake. He is extremely aggressive, striking out at almost anything that moves by him.

I moved him out of my room to the end of the hall where there is less traffic and activity. I've placed aluminum foil on the mesh lid, cutting a hole for the heat lamp and a small vent hole on the cool side. Temps are 87 hot and 75 cool.

Whenever the lamp is on (usually during the day), he seems to prefer the cool side, laying in or around his waterbowl. Yesterday I turned his lamp off and he actually struck up towards the lamp. He is constantly coiled and if there is any motion that he detects, his head elevates a little off the ground and his body is so tense, he sort of shakes.

Today I am going to place him in a NIX bath to treat the possiblity of mites. During this time I am removing his aspen bedding and treat the entire tank. All, hopefully, without getting bit.

That went surprisingly well...without any bites!

I picked him up with a towel in hand, receiving only a minor hiss. Damn is he strong lol. I placed him into a Rubbermaid bin with the Nix solution. After a while, he was very calm and just sat there with his head out of the water. While he was in the "bath", I did a complete disinfect and cleaning of his tank and belongings. New, fresh bedding as well. After the 30 minutes in the bin, I placed him in the real bath tub with nice warm water. He was a little skittish once he got in the tub but calmed down after a while. 5 minutes later and a rinse, I put him back in his tank. Tomorrow I'm going to try him with a small rat and see if that pleases him :)

I wouldn't worry about getting bitten by a BP, it's almost adorable how they huff and puff and put on this big tough-snake act and then tag you... and you bleed for 10 seconds. :P They've got little needle-teeth so they really don't do much damage. It's more surprising than anything else! :) Keep working with him, and eventually he'll realize his bluffs have no effect. :P

After reading through this, I am going to guess that you haven't purchased a thermoSTAT for your heat pad. If that is the case, it is likely getting too hot and agitating your snake. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I would recommend unplugging the UTH until it is regulated by a thermostat or, at the very least, a dimmer switch. Heat pads are known to reach temperatures in excess of 130 degrees, plenty hot enough to do permanent damage to your snake. While it is great that you seem to have 2 thermometers, they most likely aren't helping you much with accurate surface & ambient temps. I suggest an infared heat gun for more precise temperature measurements.

My mistake if this happens to be irrelevant to the OP. Happy herping!

I would just leave him be for a week now, make sure hes got proper temps then after the week is up try to feed him.

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