ball python newb and I have a couple questions about my tank

Yeah i am in montgomery lol.. my brother gets his pinkies and fuzzies from wetpets and we have a few friends that work there too. I might drive to walmart tonight and look for that acurite and maybe a few rheostats cause we have 3 snakes all together and none of them have rheostats

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Originally Posted by JLC

I would also get that UTH plugged into a rheostat (dimmer switch) so you can keep it from getting too hot and burning your snake. You can get these very inexpensively at any hardware store and the heating unit just plugs right into it. Easy as pie.

EDIT: The rheostat is just a first step to controlling those temps. If you get a thermostat first, you can skip the dimmer all together...although it may still be useful to control temps on the cool side of the tank if you need a second heat source to get the right gradient.

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Hey, what kind of rheostat are you talking about? I went to home depot and looked around and the only thing they had was a white box that you tap, and each time you touch it it changes from low-med-high-off and it was used for lamps and was $10. I saw another but it only turned it off and on. I was looking for something like this that I found off another ball python website and the guy from that website is talking about the same thing but I couldnt find it

hey- about wetpets; do they sell frozen? we got some from petco for about 3$, jw incase i run out (i like to buy bulk at Dixie Reptile Show) ... (or did when i had my corn; Cyd)

im always excited by the prospect of a closer/cheaper foodsource!

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Originally Posted by Krynos

(I personally also add a UHT to the cool side with it's own thermostat, but that's overkill to be honest!)

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Personally, I'd go "overkill" too if I had a glass tank. Have you considered doing a write up on your setup? Its really well done as far as heating/humidity on a glass enclosure goes, and I'm sure it would definitely help out the new owners who do not wish to keep their pets in a sterelite/rubbermaid home. :)

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Originally Posted by shhhli

hey- about wetpets; do they sell frozen? we got some from petco for about 3$, jw incase i run out (i like to buy bulk at Dixie Reptile Show) ... (or did when i had my corn; Cyd)

im always excited by the prospect of a closer/cheaper foodsource!

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Yeah wetpets does have frozen mice, i went there a couple days ago and got a frozen fuzzy/hopper for $1.75, my brother got a bundle of 25 fuzzies from Dixie reptile show for $12

Oh yeah, I got another question. When it's feeding time, should I put my BP in another cage or should I feed it in its regular tank? My brother puts his in a separate feeding cage so they dont eat the substrate or so they dont his fingers on accident

You can feed in a seperate feeding container if you wish however a lot here feed in the snake's home enclosure.

From my point of view, I avoid moving a snake that is primed to eat and may be a bit nippy due to that, I don't have to move the snake back with a full belly and I think the snakes are more comfortable hunting in their own environment (I feed live). This is just my take on it though. As far as them ingesting substrate...they are made to fully digest whole prey (bones, teeth, fur, etc) so a bit of substrate isn't likely to cause them issues. If you are concerned you can always put a pad of clean newspaper down temporarily on top of the loose substrate. Also if the prey is not wet from being defrosted (if you feed frozen/thawed) it isn't likely to pick up much substrate anyways.

As far as them going for your hand, if you regularily are in there cleaning, freshening their water and gently handling them they soon know what is what. Establish habits and patterns the snake can recognize. We have a slightly different pattern on feeding day and the snakes seem to know it's time for eating. Make sure your hand never smells of prey...use hemostats, long tweezers or kitchen tongs if you offer frozen/thawed or pre-killed prey not your bare hands.

The fact is though if you own snakes, you are going to get nipped occasionally. Just part of the deal LOL.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by mm91187

Hey, what kind of rheostat are you talking about? I went to home depot and looked around and the only thing they had was a white box that you tap, and each time you touch it it changes from low-med-high-off and it was used for lamps and was $10. I saw another but it only turned it off and on. I was looking for something like this that I found off another ball python website and the guy from that website is talking about the same thing but I couldnt find it

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I found mine in the lighting/lamp area of the store. They had a LOT of different types. Mine is a small, white box with a sliding switch on it. You plug the dimmer into the socket, and then plug the heat source into the dimmer-socket.

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Originally Posted by JLC

I found mine in the lighting/lamp area of the store. They had a LOT of different types. Mine is a small, white box with a sliding switch on it. You plug the dimmer into the socket, and then plug the heat source into the dimmer-socket.

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Oooh.. I was in he lighting section and the only ones they had were the box shaped ones that you touch to cahnge the settings. I might stop be Lowes or the other home depot, does yours look like this?

Looks exactly like that. :)

awesome, ill have to pick up a couple of these tomorow