Help With New Ball Python ASAP PLEASE

So I have a juvenile ball python I got from a reputable breeder that I trust. She was born this year, and is about a foot or so. Her name is Delilah. She is friendly when she wants to be, and I've had her 4 weeks now, so a month, and she is having some issues. :(

For one, she has yet to poop or urate. I have been checking the bedding constantly. I've given her 4 meals now, and no poop or urates. She doesn't appear swollen or anything, and I've given her 3 baths now with no success. She doesn't act uncomfortable. She also just had her first shed, sort of. She is flaking in pieces and after her baths I've used Repti Shedding Aid from Zoo Med and a qtip to get pieces of the skin off but shes all flaky and she won't sit still long enough for me to get the shed off. It's all flaked around her eyes and nose. She's been flaky for 4 days now. She's a great eater, on fuzzies as of right now. Any ideas?


Her setup is a 40 gallon with cypress mulch bedding, hides, sticks, and a large water dish that she can totally soak in but hasn't. She has a 60 watt bulb that we leave on with a night setting, and 2 heat matts, one is 17 watts and the other is 3 watts. Her temps and humidity are fine.

She's a normal morph and a female.

What should I do?:snake:

What bedding are you using? What are her temps and humidity at? You say that they are fine but if she isn't shedding, that's more than likely a humidity issue. Also, are you using a thermoSTAT (not to be confused with a thermometer) to control your heat matts?

Stop giving her baths and stop trying to remove the flaky pieces- that is just going to stress her out. It's typically not recommended to handle a new snake until they have successfully eaten 3-4 consecutive meals.

I'm using cypress mulch bedding. Her basking spot temp is 90F with 82F ambient. The humidty is 70%. Yes I have a thermostat on the heat matts

Thanks for such a quick reply!

If you don't mind me asking, what type of gauge are you using for checking your humidity? Sometimes the ones sold at pet stores aren't very reliable unfortunately. I use a digital AcuRite for mine.

You could also make a humid hide with some damp sphagnum moss and see if that helps. Thanks for answering my questions!

I'm just using a temperature/humidity combo from Petsmart, but I have a Zoo Med thermometer as well, should I get a specific humidity checker on its own?

I will try the spagnum moss hide idea, I have some moss left over from my frog's bioactive.

Should I be concerned about the no pooping or urates thing, or am I just overthinking?

Those temp/humidity gauges from Petsmart are notorious for being inaccurate so I HIGHLY recommend that you switch those out for a digital Acurite- it will tell you both the temp and humidity. You can get one on amazon for 8-12 bucks or so. You humidity might be much lower than you think due to the Petsmart combo. For now you can lightly mist the enclosure with water and prepare a humid hide.

She might be "saving" it up for her shed. I've had my female bp since for over 3 years and almost every single time she sheds, its full of poop and urates.

Lastly, I recommend weighing your bp and following this feeding guide :

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ing-Guidelines

If youre talking fuzzy mice they are WAY too small.

If that's the case, your snake isn't peeing or pooping because 100% of the food is being used to sustain growth. So, there's nothing left to get rid of.

I agree to stop with the baths as well, they're likely causing more stress than good.
And unfortunately, that shed ease stuff is useless. A good shed starts with proper husbandry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curledallup

I'm just using a temperature/humidity combo from Petsmart, but I have a Zoo Med thermometer as well, should I get a specific humidity checker on its own?

I will try the spagnum moss hide idea, I have some moss left over from my frog's bioactive.

Should I be concerned about the no pooping or urates thing, or am I just overthinking?

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One of these ??https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0a809a0889.jpg


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One of these thermometer hydro combos
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...36DhA&usqp=CAU

I weighed her and she is 4oz, or 113ish grams. According to the chart this means i should be feeding her small mice right? If so, I will get some right away. :)

I'm going shopping tomorrow and will pick up the mice, some more sphagnum moss, and a hydrometer. Is there anything else I should pick up?

I fed her on Saturday with a fuzzie, but since this was (as i now know), too small of a meal, should I offer the small mouse now or this coming Saturday? Or can I feed her another fuzzie to hold her over? Basically what I mean is should I feed the larger meal right away, or wait until her normal feed day?

I once heard a rule that the prey size should be about the size of the snakes head, and the fuzzies are her head size, which is why I assumed they were the right size meal for her. Is this rule true? If so, won't a small mouse be too big for her to swallow?:confusd:

Sorry for all this confusion, and thank you so much to everyone for all this help, this is great community and I am thankful for all the answers!:snake:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curledallup

I weighed her and she is 4oz, or 113ish grams. According to the chart this means i should be feeding her small mice right? If so, I will get some right away. :)

I'm going shopping tomorrow and will pick up the mice, some more sphagnum moss, and a hydrometer. Is there anything else I should pick up?

I fed her on Saturday with a fuzzie, but since this was (as i now know), too small of a meal, should I offer the small mouse now or this coming Saturday? Or can I feed her another fuzzie to hold her over? Basically what I mean is should I feed the larger meal right away, or wait until her normal feed day?

I once heard a rule that the prey size should be about the size of the snakes head, and the fuzzies are her head size, which is why I assumed they were the right size meal for her. Is this rule true? If so, won't a small mouse be too big for her to swallow?:confusd:

Sorry for all this confusion, and thank you so much to everyone for all this help, this is great community and I am thankful for all the answers!:snake:

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Yes, a small mouse would be perfect! If you ever aren't sure what size of prey to feed your ball python, a good rule of them is 10-15% of their body weight. Since your snake is approx 113 grams her prey items should be about 11 to 17 grams, which is pretty spot on to the feeding chart that I linked you to.

If you don't have hides (not those half log hides) on both sides on the enclosure, I'd recommend grabbing some. It does sound like you do have at least one hide but I'm just making sure that you have at least two- one on the warm side and one on the cool side. Have to cover all of my bases :)

No, that's not a good rule to go by. Think about the size of an adult ball python's head, it's probably much smaller than a small rat right? We would be starving our snakes if we based their meals on their head size. It's definitely best to go by the weight of your snake and the weight of the prey item.

Don't feel bad about asking questions! There is a reason why this forum exists. Let us know if you have any more questions and please keep us updated on your ball python's progress!

Yeah, the size of the head rule of thumb pertains to colubrids, not BPs. With BPs it's their widest part. Your snake will have NO problem eating a small mouse.

The 10-15% rule is also a good one to follow. Just keep in mind that's only true until the snake is sub adult or adult, but you've got some time for that.

Since she was fed on Saturday, should I wait until then to feed her the small mouse? Or should I just feed it to her right away tomorrow?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curledallup

Since she was fed on Saturday, should I wait until then to feed her the small mouse? Or should I just feed it to her right away tomorrow?

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It can't hurt to offer. If she refuses wait until at least Saturday to offer again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curledallup

One of these thermometer hydro combos
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...36DhA&usqp=CAU

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It looks like the same principle as all the other cheap , plastic stick on ones ..

I’d suggest it was as good as useless I’m afraid :(

At best it will give you a very , very approximate ‘ambient’ temperature reading but even that could be up to 20F out of the correct temp ( in my experience) .. the same goes for the hygrometer .

Ideally you should get a digital temp gun for around ten dollars or so .

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b918ce21b3.jpg

You really need a digital thermometer with a wired probe which is then laid over the surface area you want a temp reading for ( eg under the warm hide) . You can get one of these for a few dollars off eBay - you can choose C/F .

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8353fe94a.jpeg




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