Ball python losing weight

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Originally Posted by Alx

Humidity reads at 70% atm and the temp on the hot side reads 80. I'm gonna head to the store in a few to get a digital thermometer/hydrometer with a probe as the current plastic one seems worthless. It will read 80 but my thermostat which is set to 89 will turn the heat off while the plastic thermometer still reads 80.

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Where is your t-stat probe?

Tried frozen thawed he didn't take it. Have the live mouse in the enclosure but he isn't taking it either. It might be because he is shedding i can see the old skin coming off. Just hoping he hangs in there and eats. After his she's is done

The t stay probe is right by his hide on his warm side

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Originally Posted by Alx

The t stay probe is right by his hide on his warm side

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It needs to be between the UTH and the bottom of the tank, or taped to the bottom of the UTH. If it's in the tank your ball python can move it off the heat, or he can pee on it, which will cool it off and cause everything to run too hot.

At this point I think he was dehydrated. I was relying on the plastic therm/hydrometer that came with the tank setup and that was my mistake it always read lower so there I was trying to up the heat basically cooking my poor snake. Finally got an indoor out door thermometer that also reads in door humidity. I use the outside probe and placed to under the hide where the heat pad lies. And sure enough without the ceramic heat emmiter even on the hide was alrdy @90 degrees. The cold mornings always put me on edge and there I was again trying to raise the temperature. But now I can accurately read the temperatures and have given the snake 2 soaks and hoping he recovers back to normal. As a first time snake owner I'm a little mad at myself for being a bit uninformed and unprepared. But I wanna thank everyone here and LLLreptiles for reaching out to me and giving me all the feed back and advice! I'll see how he does in the morning. And I'll be placing the thermostat probe to the under tank heater someone had mentioned that to me earlier. Thank you!

Cool, glad you were able to get the temperatures sorted out!

Please do add more moisture to the cage - like I said, soak that moss you have in there in water to help with humidity, mist the cage, and you can even put some of the moss inside the hides. Moist bedding that evaporates up into the air of the cage is the biggest help to keeping humidity up; it'll also help the snake get the skin off.

:) Share pics once the shed is all off and he eats for you! Those vanilla pastels were gorgeous, you scored a great looking snake.

-Jen

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Originally Posted by jaded

There is a big difference between animals in the nature and our pet snakes. I hope everybody understands that.

There is no reason to feed live. No reason to put snake at risk. You wouldn't strangle your snake to death, no reason to do it to the prey either.
But maybe this is not the place for this discussion.

Maybe OP's snake has been on f/t all his life. Maybe the previous owner just neclegted his care. Nobody knows. It's plain stupid to start with live when it may very well take f/t. If it simply wont accept f/t, then by all means give it a live one.

To give you a little perspective, here is Hope's story: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...nourished-ball
I got tons of good advice with Hope, maybe there is something useful for you too :)

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Part of this is true............. our snakes are usually FAT compared to a wild snake. Other than that you evidently have no clue what good a live hopper mouse can do for a hatchlings feeding response. I personally have probably close to 10,000 live feedings with no problems and there are other members/breeders here that make mine look small. Most of the live accidents are keepers faults. Monitoring is the key and if the rodent has not been taken in 10 or so minutes then its time to remove it.
Its a too each his own thing but have some knowledge of YOUR opinions before you post them.

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Thank you again for reaching out and giving me advice. I have been soaking the moss and spraying the enclosure. Ill def post pics when he has fed! Still trying to get the temperatures and humidity just right!

Didn't know how else to reach out to you on here just wanted to say thank you again! My snake is doing 100% better and has eaten twice. I posted some updated pics in the pics forums.

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Originally Posted by FireStorm

Looking at your other thread, I'm more and more convinced that dehydration is part, if not most, of your problem. If you are using that stick on dial to measure temps, and that is reading 90F, your tank is probably too hot, especially given that you have two lamps and a UTH running. The dial is a few inches above the substrate, not on the substrate where the snake actually is. So, I would recommend getting either a thermometer with a probe or a temp gun ASAP. I would also suggest a soak in lukewarm (80-85F) water. I'd put water in a shoebox tub so that it comes about halfway up the snake's side (you don't want him to have to swim). Put him in the shoebox, and leave him for about 15-20min.

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Reading through this thread and the ops follow up thread yesterday ...
I'd say you should be congratulated for saving the snakes life !

Good work !!