New to Ball pythons trying to make the perfect home before he/she comes home :)

I have some great information for you. I have a Ball Python that continuously tried to escape from his cage every night. He ended up bruising the scales under his chin. I took him to Michael Kiedrowski (a herp vet) and he told me that the snake was trying to get out to search for a better environment. He had me get 2 plastic butter containers and potting soil. I cut a hole in each container and put about an inch of soil in each one. Then I moistened the soil and put one on the cold side and one over the heated side. I change the soil every week. The snake loves these. He goes back and forth between the two and has never tried to escape again. You can use any kind of plastic container as long as it has a lid. I also found some great containers at Lowes and Home Depot in the paint department. Lowes are better because they are plain white and look better in the tank. Trust me, if you want your snake comfortable, do this.

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Originally Posted by OtterGoRun

Covering some of the top of the tank with something that doesn't breathe will not only help lock in humidity, but will act as an insulator too. My air temps definitely stay way more consistent ever since I started using tin foil.

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As an alternative you can check out what I'm doing (toward the end of the thread)
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-really-needed. Working really good so far to hold in heat/humidity can't say it will stand the test of time, so there is that caveat, but we'll see how it goes.

dont get a half log hide, get a circular one, with one way in and one way out, and a small one at that, so they feel reaaaaally secure.

I was thinking of doing the same thing with the top using plexiglass only question I have on it is there any way to measure airflow? could you use a small pc fan or something to increase it?and as for the hides right now im using 1/2 logs but after T-day some butter or sour-cream containers should not be hard to obtain :P what size should I use for a 12'' BP?

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Originally Posted by Vivid

I was thinking of doing the same thing with the top using plexiglass only question I have on it is there any way to measure airflow? could you use a small pc fan or something to increase it?

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My plan is to do as suggested in the thread I mentioned and smell the air. If it smells musty I'll increase air flow. This is really shooting humidity up now. My issue may be too much now! In which case I'll increase air flow. The sheet for plexiglass I got from Lowes was enough to make 2 tops. So I'm going to drill another one with even more holes. Then swap them out as needed.