just got a baby ball python, did i do something wrong......

Haha, wearing his hide like a hat.

Yeah, throw some more clutter in there if he's acting defensive/shy--that's a lot of open space. You can take it out again after he's gotten over it and adjusted, because extra cage furniture does mean more stuff to clean in the long run.

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Originally Posted by mommanessy247

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/k...sy247/nyx2.jpg

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LOL I love how he's wearing his hide! How cute..nice setup :)

my bp is a female...but yeah she likes doin' that.
eventually i'll have to tell her she's not a snurtle...
but for now i'll just :rofl: every time i see her like that.
one time i found her curled up inside an upside down hide box that was flipped over inside the water dish on the right side. i wanted to correct it so bad but decided to let her realize on her own that she wasnt hidden. took a couple hours before she finally moved to the warm side.
she's such a hoot, never a dull moment with her.

That's typical, just give him another seven days to settle in a little better. Make sure you have your husbandry as close to perfect as possible. You want his hot-spot belly heat in between 89-94F, and his ambient temps around 80F. You also want to make sure your humidity stays as close to or above 50%. If you meet all of these requirements, he should be slugging down mice like a champ in a couple weeks.
Chances are, he was a little shaken on your last feeding attempt, and wasn't exactly in the mood to eat. It isn't uncommon for your BP to strike at something and not mean to do any real damage, just using their strikes as a scare tactic. His yawn afterwords was just him resetting his little jaws after having them jumbled around flying through the air a few times at the mouse. Nothing to worry about though!
You can feed around every five days until he gets a little bigger, but try not to feed him at closer intervals than that! Good luck!

Just to add to everyone's comments about the UTH - I definitely recommend a thermostat, even a cheap one, over a dimmer. As ambient temps change, you have to repeatedly adjust a rheostat (dimmer) for the proper temp output. Dial thermostats take a little while to get right, but then you should be able to leave it year-round. If you do use a dimmer, set it closer to 89deg so you don't risk the hot spot getting too hot as the weather warms up.

I got a piece of plexiglass sheeting cut to size (with my dremel) to cover the screen top before I moved my Balls to tubs. That helped enormously with humidity. I just cut a corner out for where I had the ceramic heater. My house only stays ~68deg in the winter, so I needed that to keep it warm enough during the cold months.

Oh yeah, and the ambient (air) temps need to be between 76-80 degrees. Any lower, and you take the risk of respiratory disease.

Good luck, and keep reading! This site has been invaluable in my learning curve! :)

i revamped my setup today, changed the day sun glo 75w bulb, bought a new dome lamp that houses 100w bulbs, and bought a 100w infrared bulb, definetley can tell its alot hotter in there, and the cheap temp strip read between 90-95 as supposed to before that only read 80-82, also bought a dimmer for the UTH. After a few hours i decided to take a look (the tank is in my closet) and FINALLY caught my python come out of his cave! Half his body was out and it looked like he was going towards the water thats on the other side of the tank, but once he saw me i tried to stay still but i guess he realized i was there and he crawled right back into the cave. But atleast im making progress, guess he is getting more confortable, will wait until next friday before i feed him...

Also ordered the Pro Exotic Infrared themometer PE2, and also a acu-rite digital thermo/humidity, but i they wont arrive until next week...

It has a probe so all you have to do is set that in the Tank. I do like the ceramic heat emitters in the winter time. I live in Colorado and have pikes peak mountain as my back yard and winter time as well as springs this high up, over 10,000 feet,it gets cold. I still have snow on the ground and it snowed here 2 days ago. make sure when using the ceramic heat emitters that you get the right canister for it, It needs to have a ceramic socket. I have a heat emitter hat I have used for a few years. I will say they are expensive, but they last along time (as long as you don't drop it)

Ches are great if your house gets super cold. Keep in mind that they will zap the humidity right out of the tank though.

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Yeah I have seen that one and have heard good things. Here's another though just in case:
http://tempgun.com/

I'd be completely useless if I didn't have it, I live by my PE-2 seriously.

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Yes...I believe you...I think I read that on here about 10 times a day!

glad i chose the PE2 over the one on home depot, the home depot was -4 accurate while the PE2 is i believe 1.8 accurate, the only reason i considered the home depot one was because i can pick it up right away and not wait, but i decided to get the PE2 it on ebay, and wait