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

Welcome to the site!!! Yea~ independent learners rock!!!!! And make sure to ask questions and let us know what's working for you and the snake too!!!!
The suggestion for a small rat is a great one; Judy, how many grams are yours? My small rats are 55g and they seem a lot lighter than other members' small rats! Anyway, my big girls get medium rats that are 80g and I bet that's more of the size that Judy's talking about....
Anyway, Miss Jackson is BEAUTIFUL!! Glad you rescued her and are taking such good care of her!! Again, Welcome!

Welcome!

This is a fantastic site. Your pickup looks wonderful!

What a lovely tangle of gorgeous snake. Welcome and congrats. :)

Bruce

Welcome to BPNet and congrats on the new snake!

You might want to consider hitting WalMart or one of those type of stores and grabbing a small kitty litter pan. Put a hole in it and you have a pretty nifty, very inexpensive and easy to clean bigger snake hide. Most of my adults only have a hide on the warm side as they seem quite comfortable lazing out on the cool side without one (their water bowl is also over there on the cool side). Aspen is a great substrate choice. With heavier adults it's a good habit to finger fluff her aspen especially under the hide once in awhile. Aspen tends to compress under the heavier snakes and doesn't let the heat through as easily (if you are using an under tank heating source).

Do watch that wheeze. It could be some skin over her nostrils from all that stuck shed but it also could be a brewing RI. If you have any concern about her health, a good herp vet is always your best bet. As you know from your previous experience, it's best to get on top of an RI before it gets too advanced. A lot of vets now prefer injections rather than meds by mouth for these snakes with their super duper digestive acids.

As far as rat size, even our biggest female who easily tops 3,200 grams these days never gets more than a small to smallish medium rat offered to her once every 7 days. We feed live rats and find this the best, safest and healthiest option for the big girls. A search through our forums (use Search and put in Live Feeding) will give you literally tons of threads on safe live feeding methods if this snake is used to live feeds.

Thanks for all the advice and compliments all! She does have a tiny bit of skin stuck on a nostril, so perhaps that is causing the whistle. I tried taking it off today, but since she's so head shy, only a piece came off, and some is still stuck in her nostril. I'm hoping it comes out on its own. I am going to get a rat today to feed her, so we'll see how that goes :)

I took some pics today as promised :)

http://a304.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...a109fd4d27.jpg
http://a109.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...2a4d8e00bc.jpg
http://a228.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...9701c7a183.jpg
http://a962.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...6c4a9a0101.jpg
http://a70.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/...ce61b7d205.jpg
http://a21.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/...95804726ec.jpg

and Casca, one of my bengals finally found out about Sammy :)

http://a6.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...d93a613a05.jpg

Great pics, welcome to the community!

thanks for the welcomes :)

just a question - I got her a rat tonight, and she's acting not so interested in it. Everytime she puts her face near the rat the rat kind of puts his paws up at the snakes face, and the snake gets head shy and backs up and veers away. It's almost like she's scared of the rat.

She just finished her shed a few days, and hadn't eaten for a couple weeks before that per the old owner, so I would assume she's hungry by now.. or maybe I'm just doing someting wrong? It's her night cycle right now on the lights. Any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by soshanna

thanks for the welcomes :)

just a question - I got her a rat tonight, and she's acting not so interested in it. Everytime she puts her face near the rat the rat kind of puts his paws up at the snakes face, and the snake gets head shy and backs up and veers away. It's almost like she's scared of the rat.

She just finished her shed a few days, and hadn't eaten for a couple weeks before that per the old owner, so I would assume she's hungry by now.. or maybe I'm just doing someting wrong? It's her night cycle right now on the lights. Any suggestions?

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It seems the bigger and older girls take longer to get comfy in new environment. Our 2004 girl, Osiris, took 2 weeks before eating anything and the owner we bought her from said she had not eaten in 2 weeks before that. Our 2005 girl, Egeria, still has not eaten since we got her, but she has been majorly stressed as she had an RI when she got her and she had to get injections every day for 8 days and before that we spent 4 days trying to get her to take the medicine orally. If she does not eat by the end of next week we are going to try an African Soft Fur treat to see if that can spur her into action. From what I understand African Soft Fur rats are like chocolate to women! :D

I don't like chocolate :( Maybe she's weird like me! lol

Hmm how do I help her get comfy? Just time? Don't handle her?

Now I have to figure out what to do with this rat lol

Great looking snake!

I'd leave her alone for about a week, and don't offer any food in that time. Also, you should probably cover the sides and back of that tank. BPs like to feel claustrophobic, and clear glass doesn't help with that.