New Snake Owner Advice.

Well I'm a new snake owner. And I just got my ball python two days ago. She's about 18 inches long (possible longer, I'm just guessing) and see seem's to be in good health. She's active and loves her new place. She's also just an absolute sweet heart.
Anyways, just because I am a new snake owner, I don't know everything. I've done a lot of research but I couldn't find anything to help with my question.
I've noticed that when my snake goes to the bathroom, it comes out wet and clear with some yellow in it. But when it dries, it seems to dry white. Is that normal?

I keep her tank at around 80 to 85 (which I have read is ideal) and a humidity anywhere from 60% to 70%. It drops down to around 75 at night, but she has her undertank heater which her hide is over, so I don't think it drops that much inside her hide at night. She also does have constant access to water.

But like I was saying, I don't know much on snake feces, and I couldn't really find much on it, and I was just wondering if it's normal. I plan on taking her to a vet my next pay period as I have no money right now, it all went into her. But she was fed Wednesday and she ate fine and when I brought her home yesterday she explored her cage with great ease and very alert. I think she might be going into shed, her eyes where a little cloudy yesterday, but they seemed to of cleared up, so I don't know if she is or isn't, but I'm keeping the cage moist anyways.

If anyone can help me know exactly if her feces is normal or what that would be great. And throwing in advice about signs of shedding, and if she possible is going into shed that wouldn't be rejected either.
Thank you.

Also, the snake was purchased from a personally breeder, not Petco or anything. They also say that their snake is seen by the vet regularly. Which I believe because she and all the other reptiles look nice and healthy. So I wasn't rushed to bring her to the vet the day I got her, which is why I'm bringing her my next pay period just so I can have piece of mind. I get paranoid like that. Thank's again.

It's called urate. Essentially, pee. It usually follows with poop, with some liquid and then the white. In other words, completely normal.

Second, is your hot spot 80-85? Or is that ambient? Ambient is fine at 80, but for a hot spot that's rather low. Second, what temp is the cool spot?

no need to answer your first question since the previous poster was bang on with that one. about the fact that you thought it was in shed but not any more. that's normal. when they are going into blue (shed) their bellies will start to turn pink or even redish. at this time you might start to notice that their skin is a little bit drier then normal. soon after that their eyes will cloud over ( this is where the term "blue" really starts to make sense. by this time you should have already bumped the humidity up to 80%. it's common for them to soak in their water bowl during this period. some do, some don't.
usually a day or two before they drop their outer skin they will clear up. to the point that they don't appear in blue anymore.
sometimes it's clear when they are in blue. sometimes its not.
i check on my snakes daily. and still get the odd surprise shed every once in a blue moon. keep in mind they don't all shed at the same rate. nor does the same snake shed at the same rate every time.
another thing i might add is that when their eyes are clouded over they are pretty much blind ( as if their eye site wasn't bad enough as it is lol.)
you will find that they can be pretty grumpy when they are in blue as it can be very uncomfortable for them. keep your handling to a minimal during this period as it can stress them out quite a bit.
i hope this description helps and welcome to the wonderful world of royals. careful as its very addictive.
john

Here's some advice:

1) Don't worry too much, though I know it's easy for new pet owners to do. It sounds like your baby is healthy and well loved.

2) Vet checkup visits are great but not necessary for a snake that is healthy. Don't feel 'guilty' about 'putting off' a vet visit for an apparently healthy animal.

3) a hiding, eating, pooping, shedding ball python is a healthy ball python.

Like everyone said, the white/yellow stuff is urates. Poo looks like poo - it's brown and log shaped. They will quite often pass these separately.

Wouldn't hurt to take your snake to a vet if you can afford it. My first python looked healthy, ate well. Took him to the vet and it turned out he had internal parasites. All my other snakes turned out to be perfectly healthy but fecals are a cheap procedure and give peace of mind.

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Originally Posted by A.VinczeBPs

Second, is your hot spot 80-85? Or is that ambient? Ambient is fine at 80, but for a hot spot that's rather low. Second, what temp is the cool spot?

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It's an ambient of 80. I honestly don't know exactly what the cool spot temperature is. My guess would be a little under or around 80. I'm going to get another thermostat once I have the cash (I currently only have enough to feed her for the next two weeks). I have her basking light near her hide, which she would be able to crawl on top of. I have a 75w basking light for a 20 gallon tank. After she has her 12 hours of light I switch her to her black light (which is also 75w) for the night. I leave that on for about 5 hours before turning it off. Then her tank drops down to about 75 possibly lower (like it did last night because it snowed. O_o ) But she still had her undertank heater. I made her a little water hid in the cool spot. I got a plastic container and cut a hole in the lid. I just put it in today, but it's better then what was in there. She can at least soak now. Should I get a lower watt day light to put on her cool side, or should I just possible up the watt of her current day light? Or is the 75w fine for her right now? I still have to get her another hid for the cool side, along with a few branches she can climb on. I had enough to get her and a basic set up, which I'm sure is fine for her right now. I wont get cash for at least two weeks, but the cash comes thursday of the second week. Should I be overly concerned or is what she has fine for now? Because when I do switch off her day light, and put on the night one, she comes right out and is all active like you would expect. So I don't think she's stressed or anything. Sorry this is so long, I just wanna make sure I cover everything and give as much detail as possible.

And thank you everyone who replied. I'm more at ease now. I was so concerned when I saw it. But knowing that it's nothing to worry about really relaxes me. Thanks again.

You should use a infered light bulb and it can be left on all the time. Snakes can't see red light. Also with a new snake you should leave it alone completely for a week and then feed. No handling until it eats. They need to settle in. I know this is off topic but alot of new owners don't know this!

I would use a inferred light, if I had one, and if i had money for one. So using the black light is the only choice I have right now. Once I have the cash, I'm going to get a ceramic bulb for her.

[QUOTE=sorakitty;1314770]Anyways, just because I am a new snake owner, I don't know everything. [QUOTE]

Even "old timers" don't know everything. ;) Worrying about stuff like pee and poo is just part of the learnin process. You're a brand new snake keeper. Just fish around the forums, there's a wealth of knowledge and data on here. Plus you have a huge panel of breeders and keepers on here. Use these, and you can't go wrong. And give yourslef a break too. :)

Have you checked out the care-sheet on this site? http://ball-pythons.net/modules/Sect...warticle&id=59

If you haven't yet, I would recommend reading it all the way through.

Sounds like you do need to tweak your setup a bit. It sounds like at some times you have too much heat and not enough at other times. You should keep the tank at the same temperature all year round.

Since you don't really seem to know your temps I assume you don't really have good thermometers. I would suggest going to the home depot, lowes, or walmart (if you are in the US) and picking up the accurite weather station. It is in the outdoor section usually. It is an indoor outdoor thermometer that measures your hot spot (right over the UTH on the glass under the substrate) with a wired probe, and ambient temp and humidity on the cool side. Just put the probe where the UTH is and the rest of the unit goes on the cool side.

You don't need a lamp and a UTH on the hot side. Ball pythons don't really "bask" in the traditional sense of laying out on top of a rock. They will spend nearly ALL of their time hiding so they naturally get heat from below. I would ditch the lamp all together unless you need it to keep your ambient temps above 75*. If you need the lamp, just use the "black light" one 24/7 on the cool side.

Chances are you are not regulating your UTH with a reptile thermostat (not the same as a thermometer). A lot of new owners really have no clue that you need a thermostat. A thermostat keeps your UTH from getting too hot. if left unregulated, they can reach temps of 120* which is more then enough to cause burns. I would use your next paycheck to get a reptile thermostat. The cheapest model is the reptitemp 500r which is widely available online for about $25. This piece of equipment will make your life much easier.

Hide spots are extremely important for ball pythons since they are such shy secretive snakes. Make sure you have two tight fitting hides. Those half log hides are too open for ball pythons. I like to use plastic bowls from the dollar store. I just cut a little entrance in the front and tada! cheap hides that are easy to clean.

The water hide just screams unsafe to me. I just don't trust my snakes to be in a confined space with water. I have heard too many stories of snakes drowning in shallow water in enclosed spaces. Ball python honestly do not soak as much as you may hear. They might take the occasional dip, but they are not commonly found soaking unless something is wrong. I would just remove the water hide thing and replace it with a cool side hide.

Hope this helps! :gj:

My advice to all new BP owners: Get ready to spend a lot of time on this website. It's invaluable.

As for the vet visit call and ask if they will just do a "fecal" exam. That's where they check the poo for internal parasites. One vet wanted to charge me for an office visit ($65), but I found one the will do just do the test for $15.

@Kaorte: I currently have a thermostat on the side where her uth hide is. With just the white like in the middle, that is about 80 to 85 degrees on that thermostat. Depends on how warm or cold my room is. I do plan on getting another thermostat for the cooler side, and I do want to get one with the wire to place under her hide with the uth. I'll switch out her water dish to a open on, thanks for letting me know about that. And I already planned to get a hide for the cool side. So for sure once i get the cash, I'll get as much for her as possible. I like to use the white light, so if i was to place it more in the middle, I assume that would be fine. My room does get rather cold for right now, (even thought it's april) and I've read they need 12 hours of day light, which doesn't enter my room very well. So after the 12 hours of white light, I switch to the black light for about 5 hours till I go to bed. Also, I live in maine. Not in a very populated area. I live in the sticks you could say. ^^;;; hehe. So during winter I do loose power, but we have a generator. That gets turned on the moment we do lose the power. If I was to run an extension cord into my room, and plug in the uth, would that be fine for her until I was to get power back? That would be for a short period of time. If it turn out to be to a long amount of time, then I could plug in the black light to. Or should I just plug both in if that was to happen? Now another thing, I do live with my parents, who do work, there have been times where we've came home to no power. With out knowing how long we've been out. I know snakes can't produce their own heat, so if something like this was to happen, would she be okay? I wont have to worry about this until winter, just due to durning the summer we don't lose power to often. So does anyone who lives in a less populated area that does lose power have any advice on this? Or anything that could be out there to help keep her warm if I wasn't home and I lost power?
Thank you for all the information you gave me. I just want to clear up as much as possible so I know exactly what to do, and what works best for her.

@Nuzum: Yeah. I'll collect one when I bring her. There's only really one local reptile vet around me. Other wise I'd have to drive about 45 minutes to the other. But I'll bring one anyways, despite the price.

Just to clarify, thermostats are different than thermometers. Thermometers measure temp, whereas thermostats measure temps and adjust the power flow accordingly. You need a thermometer to measure the cool side and warm side, and a thermostat to control your UTH to keep it from getting too hot.



The power thing is a little tricky. I would just leave your lamp on all night, especially if the power might go out. That way at least the whole enclosure was pretty warm before there was no power.

Most people will reocmmned using those instant hand warmers in case of a power outage. Obviously if you aren't around when the power goes out, you can't use these, but at least you can use them when you get home.

Your best bet in this kind of situation would be to get a small tub that the snake would fit into, tape the hand warmer to the inside top of the lid, put the snake in a snake bag or pillowcase, and put the snake in the tub. That way, the snake can't get into direct contact with the hand warmer.

If you suspect your power might go out, refrain from feeding your snake. They need heat the most when they are digesting food so it would be better to just skip a feeding rather then letting the food rot in the snakes stomach.

Sorry. I ment to say I have a thermometer. There's no electric going to it, so it can't control the temp. It only tells me what the temp is inside her cage along with her humidity(Show's how inexperienced I am). I'll look into getting a dimmer switch for the uth. Along with another thermometer for keep a eye on her cool side, and the heat coming off the uth. Thanks for the tips about the power outage. I'll keep her tank light on all night if I am to suspect the power will go out, and I'll pick up a few hand warmers to just keep around my room. I'm going to go make her a quick cool hide right now. I have a few small cardboard boxes that I think will be great for her right now. There nothing permeant, just temporary until I can pick something up for her.

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Originally Posted by sorakitty

Sorry. I ment to say I have a thermometer. There's no electric going to it, so it can't control the temp. It only tells me what the temp is inside her cage along with her humidity(Show's how inexperienced I am). I'll look into getting a dimmer switch for the uth. Along with another thermometer for keep a eye on her cool side, and the heat coming off the uth. Thanks for the tips about the power outage. I'll keep her tank light on all night if I am to suspect the power will go out, and I'll pick up a few hand warmers to just keep around my room. I'm going to go make her a quick cool hide right now. I have a few small cardboard boxes that I think will be great for her right now. There nothing permeant, just temporary until I can pick something up for her.

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Sounds like a plan :gj: !

Thanks a lot for all the info and advice! I was concerned about what I would so if I lost power but now I'm at ease. And I'm sure I'll have the lighting thing right once I have all the proper tools. Thanks again! :)

How can I tell if her hide is to small? Part of her body is currently hanging out. Would that mean it's to small? I know it's their active time, so I'm sure she might not want to exactly hang out in her hide, but I'm just wondering how to tell if it is to small.

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Originally Posted by sorakitty

How can I tell if her hide is to small? Part of her body is currently hanging out. Would that mean it's to small? I know it's their active time, so I'm sure she might not want to exactly hang out in her hide, but I'm just wondering how to tell if it is to small.

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Its too small when they stop using it :P

Most of my snakes barely fit into their hides and often have pieces of them laying out. I would say once the snake can obviously not hide any of itself in the hide anymore, its time to upgrade.

Okay. Well I just feel bad, because then the next thing I have for her is to big. I'll find something for her cool side that can be improvised for now still though. Thanks again. I feel like such a pest to everyone.

Edit// Okay, so it turns out she can fit. XD She was just putting me to work, and making me worry. hehe. But I'm glad to know the hides I have in now are good for her, and better fitting then what I had.

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Originally Posted by sorakitty

Okay. Well I just feel bad, because then the next thing I have for her is to big. I'll find something for her cool side that can be improvised for now still though. Thanks again. I feel like such a pest to everyone.

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Don't feel bad :( As long as they are hiding and eating, its not a big deal.

Don't feel like a pest! We are all willingly here to help! :D

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Originally Posted by zantedeschia

. Poo looks like poo - it's brown and log shaped..

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lol