My new setup, how does she look?

I have kept my ball python in a 10g tank up until about a week ago when i was able to get a new one for cheap. I am very happy with it. The 10 gallon wassent cutting it, it was too hard to keep everything a snake should have in such a small space - 2 hides, waterbowl on the cool side while remaining the cage at a decent Temp ect...

Anyways This is my new 50 Gallon tank i got for only $40, from the only guy i trust with my snakes, he breeds BP's now so he uses slide outs instead of aquariums.

Anyways im looking for comments or feedback or stuff i may be doing wrong.

Check it out and tell me what you think.

BTW my BP is about 2 and a half feet long and hes a male, hopefully he will reach 3.5 feet (i want a larger bp) Also if you can tell me how he looks and how much more he may grow id appreciate it. He only sheds every couple months so i fear hes reaching his maximum size and hes a bit small, anyways i love him and couldn't ask for a better snake.

BTW the humidity is 60% and the overall temp of the cage is 75-80Degrees, most likely 75 - 80 on the cool side. I also have an undertank heater right under his hide, his hide (Warm one) stays about 95-98 degrees, he likes to spend most of his day in there, even tho there is a hide thats a bit cooler.

anyways check it out.http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08646.jpg
http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08645.jpg[IMG][IMG][IMG]http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...DSC08639-1.jpg[/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]
http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08648.jpg

http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/a...t/DSC08642.jpg

I'd do away with the half log hide.

Ya, im thinking of just sealing it up real good with a couple pieces of wood, to make him feel more secure. That should work, i think. I mean he still has a fully covered hide on the hot side (the grey one) its completely closes on all sides besides a little hole for him to get in and out of.

What do you think of the size of the snake? Is he nearly fully grown for a male? I know its hard to say but any guesstimates?

He's definitely too big for a 10 gallon right?

Nice BP.. I'm sure he will get bigger. I have a pastel thats about the same size and he is younger.. dont worry they will grow. I have a Normal BP whos about 3 1/2 or so and he is around 5-6 lbs give or take an about 4ft long. it's hard to get a good lenght mesurement.


the tank is HUGE... he'll have lots of space to move.. I'm sure others will tell you it's too big for him.. I say add some plants fake or real ( make sure the real ones are ok for BP's ) and make it homly for him..

anywho nice tank and nice :snake: good luck..


Cheers:gj:

Ya i plan to add some more stuff once i get the money... But for a little log like you see in his tank (not the half hide) was $20 for that little frickin piece of wood, unbelievable.

I'm curious due to the fact that I don't see a rheostat or digital thermometer...how is it you know that your UTH stays at the temps you said? Most run much hotter and need to be controlled manually with the rheostat. Being that I don't see a digital thermometer, I'm assuming that you're assuming that the temps are staying at the same temp constantly is that correct?

As for the plants, I wouldn't have moved him over until you had them. With all that open space, your snake may get stressed out a bit. I know this because I had that issue with having too much space. Bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to BP tanks.

well i have a humidity gauge and a temperature gauge, as you may be able to see in the photos, they arent digital however, but i don't see the difference as long as its a good thermometer.

the 2 small circle looking things in the middle of the cage are for temp, and the other one measures humidity.

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Originally Posted by vantranist

well i have a humidity gauge and a temperature gauge, as you may be able to see in the photos, they arent digital however, but i don't see the difference as long as its a good thermometer.

the 2 small circle looking things in the middle of the cage are for temp, and the other one measures humidity.

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Those are garbage and can be up to 15F off. You need to know the surface temp of the ground your snake comes in contact with. Those dial stick ons only read the air/glass temp. you need to get a digital one and a thermostat or a dimmer to control everything.

The price you paid for the dial stick ons you can get a acurite digital thermometer that will read your cool side, warm side and humidity all in one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vantranist

well i have a humidity gauge and a temperature gauge, as you may be able to see in the photos, they arent digital however, but i don't see the difference as long as its a good thermometer.

the 2 small circle looking things in the middle of the cage are for temp, and the other one measures humidity.

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Those gauges can say 90, but your UTH can be up to 115 and you wouldn't know. What you need is to have a probe sitting on the glass where your UTH is to pull temps right there. You also need to put out some money for a rheostat (You can make them yourself for about $7) so you can manually control the temps of the UTH.

And ya, he's too big for a 10 gallon but he's too small for a 50. You really need to do a good job of making him feel secure my adding proper hides and some greenery. Leaving it wide open like that can end up causing stress and then you could end up with a holy bunch of various issues.

Nice setup. A bit big but nice. Just take the advice to heart of the other keepers here concerning the setup and you'll have a happy BP.

What I would do is maybe keep that log hide and stick it somewhere in the middle as an extra place of security for him. Then, get another hide identical to the one on the hot side and put that one over on the cool side. That way, he won't choose security over comfort or vice versa since both hot and cool hides will be exactly the same. The log hide can just be in there to take up some space and give him something else to crawl through. Add some more branches or plants to give him some more stuff to crawl through. Whatever you can do so it's not so open in there. Just my opinion. Awesome looking snake btw! ;)

A good thing to do would be to cover the back and sides of the tank with dark paper.

If you don't have digital thermometers and hygrometers, then you don't know what the temps and humidity are. If you don't have a digital thermometer with a probe placed directly on the glass where the UTH is, then you don't know how hot it is actually getting. If you let a UTH run on full blast, it will burn a ball python. This is a pretty common mistake and many people come onto this forum with burned or dead snakes wondering what happened.

Take initiative now and get a digital thermometer with a probe (home depot has a $12 accurite weather station that measures two temps and humidity) and a rheostat (home depot has a lutron light dimmer for about $10).

It is money that you need to spend before spending it on useless pieces of wood.[

I personally wouldn't keep a snake on shavings and as everyone said, cover one side of the log. Anyhoo, I have a male who's 36" atm. Males are normally 3-4' and females 4-5', so I'd say he's going to grow more. When he starts really thickening up, that when he isn't going to be getting much longer.

Why are wood shavings no good?

Also, about the log, i bought it months ago for my 10g along with the water bowl you see in there, it didn't fit so i saved it till i got a bigger tank.

The only thing i purchased new was the tank itself, the wood shavings, and the stick thermometer stuff, and the half log hide all for about $100.

I plan on getting more on the next trip to get a mouse, which should be tomorrow.

How is the humidity gauge inaccurate? well i don't think humidity will be a problem anyways since i live in Tampa, but i guess if it comes with the digi thermometer thing i might as well use it.

So what, does it come with a probe or something i stick on the ground level where the UTH is? All the way down to the glass or just where the substrate starts?

Also i keep my snake in a closet with the doors closed, will that suffice for putting paper on the glass to give him comfort?

So, can anyone give me a list of the things i still need? I know i need to fill the tank up with some more structure but besides that? I dunno how to work these things either but ill prob figure it out if its not too difficult.

Please spare me the snake lingo most of you speak in, i am not familiar with some of these terms.

Thank you, all.

hell, might as well put paper up anyways, its only paper after all.

An indoor/outdoor thermometer has a probe that measures the outdoor temp. That probe goes inbetween the glass and the uth or on top of the glass under the substrate. The unit goes on the wall at the the other end of the tank and that will give you the indoor(cool side) temp and the humidity! You will need a dimmer or thermostat on the uth so you can control temps. The warm side should be 90-94 and the cool side should be 80-84. The air temp should be at least 75!

Snake lingo? How would you like people to dumb down the names of equipment? Use google if you don't know what these pieces are.

1) Digital thermometer (If you can get one that also measures humidity then all the better) Try to find one that has two probes to measure temps as you can then also check ambient temps to see if you need any additional equipment for heating.

2) Rheostat (Dimmer Switch)

3) Not sure what you are using for bedding, but pick up some aspen and switch it out. Or even go with just newspaper

So, to itemize what people have already said into one handy list,

1) Those stick on thermometers are wildly inaccurate. Get an Accurite digital thermometer/hygrometer from Wal-Mart or Home Depot for about 15 bucks, and put the probe right on the glass on the hot side.

2) After doing this you'll probably find that your hot side is way too hot. Get a simple lamp dimmer from Home Depot for about 7 bucks and plug the UTH into it.

3) Those half log hides do not make the snake feel secure. Get another hide identical to the one on the hot side, or make two new ones out of margerine tubs or whatevs.

4) Clutter up the tank a bit. You could even pick up branches and things from outside, so long as you clean them and pop them in the oven to kill parasites.

Once you take care of that, you should have a happy, healthy snake. Any changes you make after that are gravy.

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Originally Posted by vantranist

Please spare me the snake lingo most of you speak in, i am not familiar with some of these terms.

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I think that you could have worded this a little different. Maybe try ASKING what the "snake lingo" means instead of being rude about it. You are, after all, on a SNAKE forum, asking for help with *shocker here* a SNAKE! Snake lingo is, after all, the default way to talk about things around here. When you get your glass box with metal mesh lid set up for your snake, you will want to get a very big pair of tweezers to feed it a rodent with. Also, you will want to get a temperature monitor and don't forget a temperature control thingy for your under the tank heater. Wow. That was harder than I thought it would be! BTW: this is all in good humor, but these people didn't HAVE to respond to your post and help you. They chose to bc they care about you and the animal you're caring for! Good luck with your snake and learning "snake lingo"!

Well said. I would've said something along the same lines, but I'm too new and don't want to give the wrong impression to the people who I actually enjoy talking to.

First off...nice looking ball. It seems like you are tryin to make the tank look nice as well as functional judging by the rock water bowl ect.
I would suggest the following:
Appearance:
1. Put a nice jungle looking background on 3 sides of the tank.
2. Cypress mulch as a bedding to keep your humidity up. Glass tanks lose humidity due to the open top.
3. 2 exact hides on hot and cool side.
4. Some greenery and fake plastic plants.
5. Cover 85 percent of your tank lid with plexi glass. You can use foil or whatever but the plexi is less noticeable.

Set the tank up in your room or whatever. If you have the snkae in a closet with the door shut he cant get a natural light cycle.

Temps:
1. Get a digital heat guage. Accu-Rite can be found at Walmart in the outdoor thermometer section and it will tell you hot side,room and humidity.
2. You need a dimmer on the Under tank heater (UTH) or if you wanna spend a bit more you can go with a reptile specific thermostat but not necessary.
Place the thermostat probe on the glass above the UTH. This will give you an accurate temp. Also place the temp. probe above the UTH.

Food:
That snakes looks big enough to take small rats. I think I read you are feeding it mice. That should help put some size on it for you

Your setup aint bad just needs a little work. The snake loooks healthy so obviously you have done something right in the time you had it. Good luck with everything

Snake lingo:
BP: Ball Python
UTH: Under Tank Heater

Those are the only acronyms I could find.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by seeya205

An indoor/outdoor thermometer has a probe that measures the outdoor temp. That probe goes inbetween the glass and the uth or on top of the glass under the substrate. The unit goes on the wall at the the other end of the tank and that will give you the indoor(cool side) temp and the humidity! You will need a dimmer or thermostat on the uth so you can control temps. The warm side should be 90-94 and the cool side should be 80-84. The air temp should be at least 75!

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The probe does not go in between the UTH and the tank, that is where the THERMOSTAT probe goes.

The probe that comes with the thermometer (the accurite weather station) goes under the substrate right on the glass where the UTH is. You need to get a measurement of the hottest point the snake can get too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by justinsane82

Well said. I would've said something along the same lines, but I'm too new and don't want to give the wrong impression to the people who I actually enjoy talking to.

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First of all i wassent being rude... you're just way to sensitive... calm down, jesus.

Its like half the people on here have a stick up their butt, man up would you?

You sound like the rude one to me.

To everyone who's trying to help me and not over sensitive, thanks for your reply's.

lol what i said wassen't in the wrong tone.