Brand new BP owner, first shed(I think), and advice on some other topics.

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Originally Posted by VereMyth

I will probably use cardboard then xD I live in florida and our ambient humidity at least where I am(Around the tampa area) is like 60% Lol.

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Sounds good!

My best two tips for Royals / Balls and I wish I knew when I first started are :-

If it's not a little hatchling there's no need to feed every 5 days ..
My Royals get fed anywhere between 7 and 10 days ... My two Albino Royals will eat EVERY time but only every 14 days !


Second tip ..

As soon as you notice they're in shed mode ( they lose their colour and their eyes glaze over & disappear for days ) I start daily spraying and increase to three times daily as soon as their eyes clear and they 'look' normal again .

They actually shed the skin anywhere between 2 and 7 days after the eyes clear - in my experience.


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So my temps seem to be a bit wonky :\ I think its becuase of my substrate being a bit too thick. as instead of the 1.5" I mentioned I do believe it may be about 2". I will double check with a tape measure today. But If it is that high and my substrate is blocking my temps how much should I leave in the tank? .5"? 1"?

The other question is, should I wait until after my first feeding to take him/her to the vet for sexing and wellness?
[spoiler]




[/spoiler] Did not realize the tape would be harmful


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/1dl1nVN.jpg


So I have made another hide now I am waiting for him/her to move out of the hide to switch em up lol. Also I don;t know if its terribly noticeable but the dulling on the head is shedding right? This is probably my best picture.(Ugly wires and stupid piece of reptibarke :mad:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VereMyth

So my temps seem to be a bit wonky :\ I think its becuase of my substrate being a bit too thick. as instead of the 1.5" I mentioned I do believe it may be about 2". I will double check with a tape measure today. But If it is that high and my substrate is blocking my temps how much should I leave in the tank? .5"? 1"?

The other question is, should I wait until after my first feeding to take him/her to the vet for sexing and wellness?
[spoiler]




[/spoiler] Did not realize the tape would be harmful


https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/1dl1nVN.jpg


So I have made another hide now I am waiting for him/her to move out of the hide to switch em up lol. Also I don;t know if its terribly noticeable but the dulling on the head is shedding right? This is probably my best picture.(Ugly wires and stupid piece of reptibarke :mad:

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So my substrate is actually about 2.5 inches off the tank floor......Too high, right?

Some bps really like to make a little ditch for themselves. Depending on what you see your baby do, the depth won't matter too much. You can always add less next time.

What you do wanna check is the UTH temp at the glass. Don't measure the temp at the top of the substrate because again, some like to nestle down and that glass might be hot underneath.

One of my younger girls likes to push her substrate around where her hotspot is and nestle down like that. Or she pushes The bedding out from around her water dish and will curl up around The dish with The wall of bedding around her. It's pretty cute really. The others just seem not to care as much so they don't have the substrate as deep as hers is.

Also, didn't check the image before posting. That does look like possibly some dry skin from a previous shed. The edges look too noticeable for it to be from skin that's about to shed for me... But maybe someone else can chime in on that.

My concern is if there's tape on that box I would take that out asap. Tape and snakes is a very, very bad combo. If the snake is shedding and starts to rub and pulls up a bit of tape, the adhesive can seriously injure them.

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Originally Posted by Armiyana

Also, didn't check the image before posting. That does look like possibly some dry skin from a previous shed. The edges look too noticeable for it to be from skin that's about to shed for me... But maybe someone else can chime in on that.

My concern is if there's tape on that box I would take that out asap. Tape and snakes is a very, very bad combo. If the snake is shedding and starts to rub and pulls up a bit of tape, the adhesive can seriously injure them.

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Yeah, I have made a new hide already with some cardboard that does not have tape in it, will end up switching them now, if that is dry skin its weird because the eyes were dull as well so if it was dry skin its getting a lot better then, I will continue to monitor it. Hopefully it goes away smoothly.

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Originally Posted by VereMyth

So my substrate is actually about 2.5 inches off the tank floor......Too high, right?

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Yes in my opinion anyway .

I use Orchid/ Repti bark ... between 3/4" and one inch depth .


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Yes in my opinion anyway .

I use Orchid/ Repti bark ... between 3/4" and one inch depth .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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I would have to agree though it would seem that I could use a larget UTH as well the one I have is rather small I got the 40g medium size from the exo-terra brand and it only heats a small portion(about a quarter of the tank) will probably end up switching them out for the 25watt(instead of 14) and the larger size after just measuring my tank out for the dimensions it would help out a lot more right now its a struggle to keep a constant 91(possible but I constantly have to check because the day/night cycle kills my temps. either to high (96-101) The 101 nearly had me jumping out of shoes get home and temp gun that and was like :O and then :tears:. does not happen anymore though I just stopped using the lamp. Will probably invest into a herp-stat or something similar to keep both heat sources on. right now I am using the cheaper jump-start thermostat for the UTH