new member with first ball :)

My name is Andrea. I'm 19 from Houston, Texas.

Not my first reptile. I have a panther chameleon, carpet chameleon, and a bunch of crested geckos. Also, I work at a lil' mom and pop petshop. I work with puppies and the reptiles. (only 8 people work there so I'm in charge of the herps lol) I've raised plenty of snakes up there, but this is MY first actual snake. It's about 14 -15 inches I think.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...not/tank-1.jpg

What do you think of it's tank? Any tips or suggestions?

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...ot/profile.jpg

It has a pretty striped formation on its neck and tail. Pretty sure it's just a normal. I've never probed for sex, despite how long i've worked with these guys, i'm scared to.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...ornot/tail.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...ot/basking.jpg

Thanks for looking :) Hoping to learn a lot here.

-Andrea


:edit: forgot to mention.. I've got a 60w daylight blue bulb in the lamp and a UTH on a dimmer on the hot side. Cage carpet on the bottom and less than an inch of aspen. The little one is used to being on display :( It doesn't seem bothered by the 3 open sides. The hot side is about 92 in the hide. Probably a little bit higher on the "basking" wood. The cool side is between 75-82.

Have to say the viv is lovely... and so is the snake. :)

Definitely a normal, but what nice flames and coloration on her/him! Gorgeous animal.

I use tubs so I am not a pro on how to maintain a tank. Ideally you just need to watch your temps and humidity. 90 on the hot end and 80 on the cool end. And a humidity of 60%. The trouble spots will be your overheard light, and your open mesh lid... those will suck your humidity.

And watch the aspen it can mould quickly.

Welcome to BPs and welcome to the site. :)

Bruce

EDIT: the best gauge will be the snake. If he is eating, shedding, and being a BP... then you are doing something right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce Whitehead

Have to say the viv is lovely... and so is the snake. :)

Definitely a normal, but what nice flames and coloration on her/him! Gorgeous animal.

I use tubs so I am not a pro on how to maintain a tank. Ideally you just need to watch your temps and humidity. 90 on the hot end and 80 on the cool end. And a humidity of 60%. The trouble spots will be your overheard light, and your open mesh lid... those will suck your humidity.

And watch the aspen it can mould quickly.

Welcome to BPs and welcome to the site. :)

Bruce

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Thank you! :D I love it already :)

I'm good with humidity and screens. I have a panther chameleon ;)

I've never used aspen before, but I like it so far. I use newspaper at work and it works great, but I wanted it to be more cozy for it. There is moss in the cool hide. I will keep an eye out for mold. I have a planted viv for my cresties and am pretty good at misting juuuuuuust right, if you know what I mean. But i'm prepared to change it if I need to.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Very nice setup! If you get more you may want to switch to tubs. Save yourSelf a bunch of cash buy really nice setup for it! Just pop it, come on it's a fast process! lol good luck!

:gj::gj::gj::gj::gj::gj:

Thanks :D

I'm going to be breeding my cresties here in the spring so I havn't got much room for more atm. This being my first baby I had to splurge, and spoil it rotten. =P

I'm drooling over all of your lovely snakes though! I have horrible ECS: empty cage syndrome (the ridiculous need to occupy every empty tank you own XD)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vindicatedornot

Thanks :D

I'm going to be breeding my cresties here in the spring so I havn't got much room for more atm. This being my first baby I had to splurge, and spoil it rotten. =P

I'm drooling over all of your lovely snakes though! I have horrible ECS: empty cage syndrome (the ridiculous need to occupy every empty tank you own XD)

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Make sure you check out the rach section on the site, lots of our members are species-hoppers. :)

I am resisting thus far... but i suspect it will be futile in the long run.

Bruce

The only thing I can see wrong is that there is only one hide. You should get another hide just the same as you got. One hide in the warm side and one in the cool side! Good luck with your new pet!

There are 2 hides. One is by the water bowl. It has some moss in it. My baby has just been in his hot hide all day though. I'm letting him acclimate before I bother him.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

Sorry for the double post but My baby took its first meal at home, and I wanted to share.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...DSC_0070-1.jpg

Here's a nice size reference. BTW my hands are huge.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...t/DSC_0071.jpg

I fed him a baby from work that was in between a hopper and a fuzzy.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...DSC_0075-2.jpg

nice size lump??

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...DSC_0077-1.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...t/DSC_0080.jpg

afterwards he retreated back to his hide. I'm happy it ate well. It's only its second night here..
I knew it probably would though. We got them from a great local breeder and they ate the first night up at the shop too.

Thanks for looking! Comments suggestions, please leave some feedback

Beautiful setup!! Beautiful snake!! Congrats and welcome to the obssesion!! Hey if you have any trouble with humidity...try putting some foil over the mesh side.....it worked great for me!!

Humidity is ok for now, but I imagine through winter the heater might affect it. Sounds like a good plan, Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vindicatedornot

Humidity is ok for now, but I imagine through winter the heater might affect it. Sounds like a good plan, Thanks!

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During the winter, I cover my tank with foam board to lock in heat and humidity! It works well for me! Thats a happy snake if he ate already! Good job!

Nice to know that the snakes are coming from breeders to your store.

:gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce Whitehead

Nice to know that the snakes are coming from breeders to your store.

:gj:

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We do our best :)

Sorry to double post again, but I've got a few questions.

BTW It's name is Ringo Star. Hahaha
I remembered about my scale and decided to weigh him. He's at 99 grams. Is this too small to probe for sex? It will be my first time, and I'm really scared to try haha. I could just take it to the vet to find out...

Also.. up at work I hardly ever have just 1 snake in a tank so it's hard to take record of this, but how long do they usually take to digest food at this size? I usually see some within 3 days at work (most of our snakes are babies, very few get close to adult size before being sold. Unless of course people dump there animals on us, but adults usually sell within a week) Can anyone tell me what is normal?

Not sure about probing...I prefer popping myself. Food will generally digest in 48 hours or so but you may or may not see any poop for awhile.

Thanks, but I'm just a nervous to try that :( It doesn't matter to me right now, maybe I'll just take it to the vet soon.

I'd be more nervous to probe...just something about a thin metal stick near the genitals that makes me say meep. A good vet would be best.

Well thanks for the advice, I decided to try popping and it was pretty easy. I feel dumb. lol. Anyhoo... Ringo is a female :)

It may be time for a new name! Don't want the snake to have any personal issues with being named after a guy! LOL!

You may be right. Ugh, it took me forever to come up with Ringo.

Her new name is Ruca btw :)

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=106127