New to Ball Pythons

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Originally Posted by Johnny Hive X

I'll give the Aspen a try then! Thanks for the recommendation. Is it true that the thickness should be no higher than to the first joint of you index finger?

I'm going to get two identical hides off of the website provided earlier. They are a standard black and are inexpensive. Do you keep one of the hides at the warm end of the tank and one of them at the cooler end of the tank?

I'm going to feed the snake in it's home tank. I'm not going to transfer back and forth. I plan on handling it as much as possible (reasonably) so it shouldn't confuse me for food.

I plan on insulating the tank with probably cork board and foil tape on the sides and then foil and duct tape on the lid.


Does anyone have recommendations on how to secure the lid? I want to keep it as closed to locked as possible. I've seen a terrarium that has a slide in place lid and two holes align to fit a lock or nail through. Is there another method of securing a lid other than that or just putting a weight on it?

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You want to keep the depth of the substrate low because you are using a form of belly heat and the heat needs to find a way to get through the substrate. Please remember to monitor the hot and cool side temps on the glass under the substrate!! Very important!!

Argentra will need to address closing the lids, but I seem to recall others using those office supply clips...?

Oh yeah, the hides: keep one on the cool side and one on the warm side.

Lastly, remember that it takes over a week to get the tank stabilized once you have everything hooked up.

Ooops, you never mention a THERMOSTAT. Do you have one?? You need one.

:) There are a few options for keeping a loose screen lid closed, but the one that has worked best is called ESU 'Tough-Top' Screen clips. They are solid metal clips with an angled 'L' shape that hold onto the edges of the screen top and clamp it down to the top edge of the tank. They are relatively cheap and quite strong (my year old female BP hasn't managed to budge them yet). :)

Here, here Argentra! :gj:

The office clips would work for a while on the tubs, but won't work on screen lids and tanks. You need to get the metal clips that sort of snap on.

With aspen, your thermostat and thermometer probes need to be under the bedding and on the glass so that even IF he burrows, he won't get burned. When I had a heat lamp on the top of Flurry's 10g tank, the thermostat probe was inside the hide.

I'm getting confused as to all the different measurement tools I need for monitoring things. So far I've heard a few different kinds and could someone please clear up what they all are for and how/where to put them?

- thermostat
- hygrometer
- rheostat
- thermometer

If someone could please explain the need/use for those and where to place them for proper monitoring/measurements, that would be great.

Thermostat-
This is hooked up to the heat pad under your cage to keep the belly heat at a constant temp, preferably 88-94. Heat pads without a thermostat normally run up to 115, and this will burn your snake, the thermostat keeps it steady by either restricting electricity to the pad when needed, or turning it on and off for desired temps, just like in a house. This measures temps with a probe that you can run into the cage, most tape it down to the glass so it doesn't move and mess up the temps.

Thermometer:
This is to measure your temps, You need a digital with a probe, or a temperature Gun, The probe is cheaper, but i love the guns. With this you need to place the probe in the cave, with the probe pressed tightly against the ground, this will give you the surface temperature of the spot, so you can adjust the thermostat to give the right temps. A probe can be left inside 24?7 constantly telling the temps at a glance. These range from $5-20, Tempguns are instant, you point and click and get it, very accurate, and range from $20+, You may also want another thermometer, this may be a digital without a probe if you want to measure ambient temperatures to make sure the air temp is not too cold, You can get one with a hydrometer build in as a two in one. Non digital meters of any type are very innacurate, and misrepresent the temps, which may be bad for the snake.

Hydrometer:
This measures humidity in the cage, Though opinions on this can vary, you want between 40-60% humidity, and whent he snake is shedding you can bump it up to 70%. A digital hydrometer is supperior to the non-digital as the non-digital can be very innacturate.

Rheostat-
This is basically a dimmer switch that you plug into a electrical device. If your house or apartment has a steady tempurature that does not fluctuate, you can use this and just dimm down the heat pad to the right level. If it does fluctuate, you have to get a thermostat. In any case a thermostat is safer, but these can work in some cases. They work great when using additional heat like a Ceramic Heat emitter to dimm it to the right level.

As for getting them, Heres some examples:
Thermometer with probe:
http://www.reptilesupply.com/product...roducts_id=392

Tempgun:
http://www.tempgun.com/order.html#pe1

Thermostat:
http://reptilebasics.com/Ranco-ETC-1...d-p-16172.html

Hydrometer/Ambient thermomiter:
http://www.reptilesupply.com/product...roducts_id=655

With the tempgun/probe, get one or the other, I use both, but its not needed.

Breeders:
My snakes from RCreptiles, he is super friendly, for a ball python he eats great, is nice looking, and healthy. All you can really ask for. Plus very professional and friendly, and great packaging, Ron gets a thumbs up all around IMO.

Other breeders listed are very reputatuble too, (I have not used them).

As for astro-turf, It works ok, and I liked it, my snake liked it, and it looks clean, but You do need 2 peices if you use it, so you can take the dirty peice out, Clean it off, let it dry, and you can swap. I now use Repti-bark and I love it, but yet to have a mess to clean up in it, so that will be the test. It does hold humidity great though without getting wet/moist, and looks good, and is pretty soft, and clean looking.

I hated aspen after a few days, I found it dusty and messy, It got all over and was a pain to feed on. But many do like it, Just find what you like.

Luckily substrates are not that expensive so you can experiment a tad.

Everything else has basically been covered, My advice now is this, Read as many caresheets as possible, for each breeder you see, read there caresheet. Find the methods of care, and reason behind each, and then see if these theories make sense. Find out the similarities between all the caresheets, what overlaps is probably a safe place to start as far as care.

Good luck,
Ben

Ben- Most people who keep snakes do not use astro-turf and keeper urge against the use of it. It breeds disease.

For a temp gun, may keepers use this one from Reptile Basics: http://www.reptilebasics.com/412L-No...e-p-16288.html It's important to not have to keep buying the same item over and over and just go with what works from the start.

Many many people prefer Helix and Herpstat thermostats over any other brand. They are both amazing and do the job for you so you don't need to worry about your snake. Reptile Basics sells Helix, but if you're closer to the west coast then you might want to just order directly from the company: http://helixcontrols.com/

You can order a Herpstat from their website http://spyderrobotics.com/

For a thermometer, many people use the Acurite and you can it find it many places including Lowes, walmart, etc.

If choosing aspen as a substrate, just get quality aspen and you wont have the dust issues. I get triple milled from Harlan-Teklan.

As you can see, there are differences of opinion everywhere. There are also some bottom lines: Astro turf is bad for snakes. You need a thermostat, you need a device to measure ground temps, air temps and humidity. You need 2 enclosed hides that will seem small to you but fine for the snake. You need a source of heat (UTH, flex watt, or radiant heat panel).

Keep reading. Keep asking questions. Keep taking notes. There are 2 awesome books; one written by Kevin McCurley and the other by Dave and Tracy Barker and I recommend them both. Here's Kev's book http://www.newenglandreptile.com/book.html and here's the Barker's book http://www.vpi.com/pythons_of_the_world_vol_2_0

Keep asking. :gj:

McKinsey, newspapers ARE printed with vegetable-based inks.. I've been keeping my snakes on newspaper since 04 and no deaths. There are breeders who have been using newspaper for 20-30 years and their snakes are fine.

Glad to hear that snakes are fine but not all papers are printed in vegie inks. Take mine for instance...please....!

You couldn't have come to a better place to get all the help you want on your new BP! The members here are absolutely wonderful and oh so helpful! If it wasn't for the help I received when we first got our BP, there is no telling what kind of condition Foster would be in today. But, because of all the help I received, she is a healthy, thriving youngin'.

I also wanted to toss in my two cents....about feeding. I'm sure some will disagree with me but it's what works for us. Foster belongs to my 13 yo son. He takes care of all the cleaning, feeding, handling, etc. I keep a close eye on temps/humidity.

We feed in a seperate 10gal glass enclosure because my son is more comfortable doing so. He heard that they can be more aggressive when feeding in their everyday enclosure and even though I've told him it's a myth he still is more confortable feeding in a feeding tank. And also, because there is paper in the feeding tank, we don't have to worry about her eating any substrate while taking the prey down.

Also, something else that I don't recall being mentioned, is to make sure you have a good mite prevention method, like PAM! That other stuff that is sold in the petstores is not nearly good enough, IMO! This last bag of substrate we got was loaded with mites. There were more dead mites in her water in one soak than the combined number of mites we've seen since owning her. (I don't think I'll get Exo-Terra substrate again!)

Good luck with your new BP!

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Originally Posted by TanyaL

You couldn't have come to a better place to get all the help you want on your new BP! The members here are absolutely wonderful and oh so helpful! If it wasn't for the help I received when we first got our BP, there is no telling what kind of condition Foster would be in today. But, because of all the help I received, she is a healthy, thriving youngin'.

I also wanted to toss in my two cents....about feeding. I'm sure some will disagree with me but it's what works for us. Foster belongs to my 13 yo son. He takes care of all the cleaning, feeding, handling, etc. I keep a close eye on temps/humidity.

We feed in a seperate 10gal glass enclosure because my son is more comfortable doing so. He heard that they can be more aggressive when feeding in their everyday enclosure and even though I've told him it's a myth he still is more confortable feeding in a feeding tank. And also, because there is paper in the feeding tank, we don't have to worry about her eating any substrate while taking the prey down.

Also, something else that I don't recall being mentioned, is to make sure you have a good mite prevention method, like PAM! That other stuff that is sold in the petstores is not nearly good enough, IMO! This last bag of substrate we got was loaded with mites. There were more dead mites in her water in one soak than the combined number of mites we've seen since owning her. (I don't think I'll get Exo-Terra substrate again!)

Good luck with your new BP!

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What do you do with the Pam? Just use it when you notice the mites?