New Ball Python Owner

First of all, I don't know anything about Bed-A-Beast but I'm going to guess it's like ground cypress, which should be fine.

Get rid of that log hide. Those are extremely useless to ball pythons. Balls also don't need large water bowls because they don't need to soak, anything the size of a deli cup (2 in wide) is fine. They just need it to drink.

Ball pythons do not bask, they hide constantly. They need there proper temperatures where they hide. Get two identical one opening hides (make sure they are snug, you want all sides of the hide to touch him at all times!) and put one on the warm side and one on the cool side.
100F is burning temperature!! You never want any area to exceed 95F under the substrate. Remove any basking light you have immediately, because it sucks humidity and they would not use it anyway. You have a UTH? What are you using to control it? If nothing, get a dimmer temporarily from a hardware store (they go for 50c or so a piece) and look into investing for a nice thermostat to control your UTH.
Do you have digital thermometers with probes? Digital hygrometer for humidity? You can get the probe thermometers at a petstore or online (you should have two, one for warm one for cool, and the probes should be put under the substrate above the UTH) and a digital hygrometer/thermometer set at Walmart or Home Depot in the gardening section, this will tell you your ambient temp which should stay at about 80-85F.
If you have any dial (non-digital) thermometers or hygrometers, trash them. They are extremely inaccurate and useless.

Feed him in his enclosure, taking him out of the cage will only stress him out more.

I am surprised to hear about the small bowls. We have large bowls for ours- every one of them soaks occasionally.

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

First of all, I don't know anything about Bed-A-Beast but I'm going to guess it's like ground cypress, which should be fine.

Get rid of that log hide. Those are extremely useless to ball pythons. Balls also don't need large water bowls because they don't need to soak, anything the size of a deli cup (2 in wide) is fine. They just need it to drink.

Ball pythons do not bask, they hide constantly. They need there proper temperatures where they hide. Get two identical one opening hides (make sure they are snug, you want all sides of the hide to touch him at all times!) and put one on the warm side and one on the cool side.
100F is burning temperature!! You never want any area to exceed 95F under the substrate. Remove any basking light you have immediately, because it sucks humidity and they would not use it anyway. You have a UTH? What are you using to control it? If nothing, get a dimmer temporarily from a hardware store (they go for 50c or so a piece) and look into investing for a nice thermostat to control your UTH.
Do you have digital thermometers with probes? Digital hygrometer for humidity? You can get the probe thermometers at a petstore or online (you should have two, one for warm one for cool, and the probes should be put under the substrate above the UTH) and a digital hygrometer/thermometer set at Walmart or Home Depot in the gardening section, this will tell you your ambient temp which should stay at about 80-85F.
If you have any dial (non-digital) thermometers or hygrometers, trash them. They are extremely inaccurate and useless.

Feed him in his enclosure, taking him out of the cage will only stress him out more.

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Bed-a-beast is ground coconut husk. My local herp shop uses only this for their snakes because you can keep one side dry and one side moist for humidity variability.

Actually, my ball tends to climb up on top of his log hide (which is what I intended it for) and bask in the leaves under his heat lamp. He also spends a fair amount of time climbing up in the leaves and vines wrapped around his driftwood logs. My herp shop recommended a basking point between 95 and 105 degrees that he can climb up to if he so desires. This is the ambient temp in that area, not a surface temp.

I do not use the UTH that I have because my herp specialists told me not to. All of my temps are achieved via overhead heat lamps. These do not dry out my tank too much because I'm using bed-a-beast and have a large water bowl to help maintain humidity.

My ambient temp on the floor of the enclosure is 85-95 on the warm side and 70-80 on the cool side. I do not use probes for under substrate temps because I do not use under tank heaters.

I have thermometers and hygrometers on both ends of the tank laying right on the surface of the substrate. They are not digital. At some point I will upgrade to digital, but like I said, I already spent $150 getting his enclosure to this point and can't afford anything else for a while as I'm about to enter an internship that costs $10,000. Besides, the dial therm/hygrometers that I currently have are reading at least somewhat accurately currently because if I swap them out, they quickly adjust to the new area and read what the previous gauge read in that spot.

Also, my herp shop specialists recommended the feeding bin to actually minimize stress because he will be in complete darkness and will have more privacy in an opaque bin than in his enclosure. Besides, I don't want him swallowing substrate accidentally.

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Originally Posted by TheOtherLeadingBrand

I am surprised to hear about the small bowls. We have large bowls for ours- every one of them soaks occasionally.

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Soaking pre-shed will actually cause the shed to be much worse and can be avoided. Bigger bowls are hunky and more of a hassle that isn't really needed. :gj:

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Originally Posted by bella

Bed-a-beast is ground coconut husk. My local herp shop uses only this for their snakes because you can keep one side dry and one side moist for humidity variability.

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That's a fine substrate then, as long as it doesn't mold easily.

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Actually, my ball tends to climb up on top of his log hide (which is what I intended it for) and bask in the leaves under his heat lamp. He also spends a fair amount of time climbing up in the leaves and vines wrapped around his driftwood logs. My herp shop recommended a basking point between 95 and 105 degrees that he can climb up to if he so desires. This is the ambient temp in that area, not a surface temp.

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I hate to say this, but your herp shop has some dangerous information. Anything above 95 degrees is a dangerous zone for ball pythons. Basking heat is not needed for bps because they need proper belly heat to digest their food. If he is active and climbing, that is a sign of stress, and bps can hurt themselves because they are ground snakes and are not very good at climbing. If he is on top of the log hide, it sounds like he is sacrificing his hiding desires for his heat desires, which means you need a better thermoregulation set-up with identical hides (so he doesn't have to choose and sacrifice).

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I do not use the UTH that I have because my herp specialists told me not to. All of my temps are achieved via overhead heat lamps. These do not dry out my tank too much because I'm using bed-a-beast and have a large water bowl to help maintain humidity.

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A very very large percentage of the members on here (most of which have healthy, eating, and breeding snakes) use UTHs ONLY. The large water bowl is not a proper way to achieve humidity, as you can see, it creates a humidity gradient on one side whereas the other side is not the proper humidity. Be careful wetting the bed-a-beast. If the substrate is damp consistently it can lead to mold or scale rot problems, as well as RIs, which are expensive vet bills.

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My ambient temp on the floor of the enclosure is 85-95 on the warm side and 70-80 on the cool side. I do not use probes for under substrate temps because I do not use under tank heaters.

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Your temperatures should not be a 10 degree variable. And it should never get below 78F (IMO) on the cool side. 70F is dangerously low temperatures as well.

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I have thermometers and hygrometers on both ends of the tank laying right on the surface of the substrate. They are not digital. At some point I will upgrade to digital, but like I said, I already spent $150 getting his enclosure to this point and can't afford anything else for a while as I'm about to enter an internship that costs $10,000. Besides, the dial therm/hygrometers that I currently have are reading at least somewhat accurately currently because if I swap them out, they quickly adjust to the new area and read what the previous gauge read in that spot.

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You can get a digital hygrometer/thermometer combo at Walmart for less than $10. You only need one because you should not have that much variability in ambient temps and humidity.

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Also, my herp shop specialists recommended the feeding bin to actually minimize stress because he will be in complete darkness and will have more privacy in an opaque bin than in his enclosure. Besides, I don't want him swallowing substrate accidentally.

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I don't know how specialized your herp shop specialists are, but I feed all 14 of my snakes in their cages, and they pound rats like there is no tomorrow. There is also no association between hands and feeding (that is a myth) and substrate ingestion is rarely an issue as they digest bones and hair very easily. Plus handling is generally a stressful thing, so when you handle previous to an attempted feed and put them in a brand new place and shove a rat in their face, man, I would be stressed too!
He should be at 100% privacy in his enclosure, that is our goal here. ;)

I drew a picture of a well done set-up. It's very simple and has worked wonders. This is a set-up for a tank, if you wanted to try to temporarily switch to a tub (as a home) to see if that helps him eat, that's an even more simple set-up.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g?t=1243974193

Edit: P.S. You sound like you don't have a ton of money to spend on this bp. They are expensive animals (as you will quickly find through feeding them) and that should be considered prior to getting a bp.
However, if you would be willing to consider a tub set-up, it's much less stressful but is also much less expensive and easier to heat and keep humidity.

Okay well if you would like some actual advice (no offense) please take it into consideration. I am not trying to put you down or tell you you are not caring for your new BP correctly. I would like to help as much as possible if I may :)

First off, those half log hides are not really ideal for ball pythons because they don't give them much security. The rock cave types are much better but make sure the snake fits snugly inside. The tighter the fit, the better secure the snake feels. The hides should be identical and there should be one on the cool side and one on the warm side, water bowl in the middle.

Okay now to address your temps. They are pretty off mostly because you are using lamps. I find belly heat to be much more efficient and accurate than lamps. The herp store was right though, you do need to run a UTH (and a lamp for that matter) with a thermostat. It doesn't really have to be fancy and expensive as he suggested though. The reptitemp 500r is the most basic and runs abour $25. They are more widely available online though.

Okay, so your hotside temp should be around 93*F and cool side should be around 83*F. 100* anywhere in the enclosure is more than enough to cause burns or even cook your snake. You can still use a lamp, but you really should use a dimmer with it (at least). You can find a piggy back dimmer at the home depot for about $10.

That should help you get started with your temps. But another important part is how you are getting temps. If you are using those dial gague thermometers, ditch them. They can be up to 10* off and that is not so good. Invest in some digital thermometers that have external probes so you can get an accurate temp reading on the surfaces where the snake is.

I've got to run to work, but I'll be back with LOTS more questions for you soon!

I've been checking a few things out on websites so be prepared for questions about the quality of certain items.

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by bella

I've got to run to work, but I'll be back with LOTS more questions for you soon!

I've been checking a few things out on websites so be prepared for questions about the quality of certain items.

Thanks!

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No problem, ask questions! That's what we're here for.

Just remember, we're not all experts but we are very experianced in setting up these guys, so advice from our members on here is a good thing to listen to! :gj:

Oh, and I feed ALL my animals in their enclosures, and I don't touch them without necessity for 48 hours after they eat. I have 13 snakes, soon 14, and have had snakes for twenty years, since I was eight. I have never been bitten as a result of feeding my snakes in their tanks. Just my experience :)

Yea, I don't remember why my herp shop recommended feedig in feeding bins...but it wasn't because of potential aggression...I just know I was all about it because it gives me a few uninterrupted hours to thoroughly clean out his enclosure LOL

Okay, back in a few hours with more questions about heating and such...

Thanks all!

I don't know what others do but all mine but two I can just put on my neck/shoulders while I clean their tank, or I hand them to my husband. If I have to, I can put them in a spare tank or a snake bag. I only go extreme and soak/bleach the entire tank occasionally. Normally wipe out and change substrate, while he holds the snake or other way around :)