Husbandry checkup please

Acquired a ball python yesterday, I've read a fair bit, but I'd really appreciate some opinions on her current setup.

This info from the vet who rescued her and gave her to me:
Born: October 2011
Acquired by vet: April 30th, 2012
5.1.12 shed
5.3.12 ate live fuzzy
5.4.12 ate live fuzzy
5.11.12 ate live fuzzy
5.18.12 ate live fuzzy
5.27.12 shed
5.31.12 ate killed fuzzy
6.7.12 ate thawed fuzzy

Weight on 6.12.12 88g.

She is currently in a 20x10x12 Zilla glass vivarium, which the vet gave me, it has clips to hold the mesh lid secure.

Bottom of viv is lined with paper towels, with this over the top, which fits the bottom snugly, just because I had it already, happy to switch it out.

She has this on it's side as a hide, again just because I already had it and it was an improvement on the cottage-cheese tub she had at the animal hospital which she wasn't keen on.

She has a small saucer-sized plastic tub, about 1 1/2 inches high, filled with 3/4 inch of water as a dish and bath.

At the moment we are using the lights that we were given with the vivarium kit that came with her, which are a day white light spot during the day, sat on the mesh over her hide, and a night black heat bulb next to it, which we cycle alternately for 12 hours. Although we only got her yesterday afternoon, so she just had the daylight bulb for a few hours, then the night bulb overnight, and the daylight bulb again today.

Last night temperatures on the Zilla disc thermometer on the viv floor were staying around 72-74F on the ground, and with the digital probe on the basking area at the top of her hide was 87-89F, the daylight bulb seems to keep similar temperatures, around a degree or two warmer on average.

The humidity on the Zilla disc is measuring a fairly steady 55%, the probe at the top of the hide/basking area is usually around 40%.

The vet said not to try feeding her for a week to give her time to settle in, and the caresheet he gave me says not to try handling for 2 days for the same reason. I'd like to order some food for her today, but I also don't want to disturb her to figure out how big her food should be compared to her body! So what do you think for an 8 month old female? I'm assuming smallish fuzzy rats...

Here are a few pictures from yesterday as soon as we got her home, they are pretty rubbish because I didn't want to freak her out too much! I still haven't handled her at all. She curled up in a ball on one side of the viv until about 8pm, then she started exploring carefully. This morning she was tucked up carefully in the hide and barely visible.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...34770386_o.jpg
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http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...20961424_o.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...87819099_o.jpg

Seems alright but get rid of the disc thermometers. Get an accurite or a tempgun, it will make your life easier and read the temps accurately.

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Originally Posted by apple2

Seems alright but get rid of the disc thermometers. Get an accurite or a tempgun, it will make your life easier and read the temps accurately.

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They are pretty useless aren't they! It came with the setup we were given, so I chucked it in there, but I rely on the digital with the probe, rather than the disc. Where would you recommend having probes? At the moment I have one on top of the hide to check how hot it is there, I have another that I'm going to put at the cooler end, do I need to check the temperature in the hide itself?

You want to get your cool side up to about 80ish degrees.
She looks small for her age, I wounder if she was a slow start or problem feeder?
Dont over do her too quick, give her time to settle in.

Maybe it's just me, but 88g seems low after an entire year. Mine actually looks smaller than yours and he is pushing 250g. What did you weigh him with?

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

You want to get your cool side up to about 80ish degrees.
She looks small for her age, I wounder if she was a slow start or problem feeder?
Dont over do her too quick, give her time to settle in.

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I put a bit more detail in the Intro forum, she is a rescue, so her age is a guess, but I don't know how much information that was based on. The disc is deceptive for size, it's one of the larger ones, so is 3 inches in diameter. I keep reminding myself that these are supposed to be beginner snakes and I need to chill out a bit, but I feel so responsible for all my animals! More than my children, least they can tell me what's going on! And are more tolerant of big variations in temperature and humidity, usually...

So when you say don't over do her too quick, do you mean not to feed her for a week, as the vet recommended? Haven't handled her yet, giving her time to settle in. Wasn't planning to try until Friday at the earliest, unless that is too soon?

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Originally Posted by mackynz

Maybe it's just me, but 88g seems low after an entire year. Mine actually looks smaller than yours and he is pushing 250g. What did you weigh him with?

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She's 8 months old, and is a rescue. My vet weighed her before he gave her to me yesterday. She was brought in by a concerned teacher, who took her from one of his special-needs students. She was malnourished and dehydrated, but the vet cared for her for a month before giving her to me. I rescued a chameleon a couple of months ago (yes, I'm too soft, but never taking on another rescue who isn't healthy) and she ended up needing to be put to sleep, and he felt sorry for how soft-hearted I was and how heartbroken I was that I didn't manage to save her, so he gave me the ball python because he wasn't able to look after her along with his personal herps, and knew she would have a good home here.

I'm an epic n008, readily admit it...

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Originally Posted by Trillian

So when you say don't over do her too quick, do you mean not to feed her for a week, as the vet recommended? Haven't handled her yet, giving her time to settle in. Wasn't planning to try until Friday at the earliest, unless that is too soon?

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yes and then work your way slowly

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Originally Posted by Trillian

So when you say don't over do her too quick, do you mean not to feed her for a week, as the vet recommended? Haven't handled her yet, giving her time to settle in. Wasn't planning to try until Friday at the earliest, unless that is too soon?

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I'm a newbie too :)

That sounds like a good idea, I waited a week to feed and handle so mine could settle in and not feel so stressed. I'm sure someone with more expirience than me will be along shortly to either confirm this or offer better advice.

EDIT: Spoke too soon, PitOnTheProwl is already here haha

Just checked the temperatures, warmer end with the hide is 32.5C (90.5F), cooler end where the water dish is is 25.4C (77.72F). The heat is solely from the lightbulbs at the moment. So to get it up a few more degrees, what are the opinions on ceramic fixtures over under-viv heating? Would it be better to use one or other over lightbulbs, or use whatever combination provides the right heat gradient?

Is the humidity okay?

Sorry to ask such well-covered questions, just need reassurance and constructive criticism!

Have you read the caresheet yet? It'll help answer a lot of the questions you have.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet

Now that would assume common sense, which isn't one of my strengths... thank you!

It's not a problem! I think it needs to be stickied in this forum as well, but it's easy to link to. Also at the top of this page is a link to how to set up a tank for your BP. You can read that over as well. At lot of your questions can be answered in those two threads alone. Instead of waiting for one of us to reply to your questions, you can just read those and get on with your day! :cool:

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Originally Posted by Inarikins

It's not a problem! I think it needs to be stickied in this forum as well, but it's easy to link to.

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It is silly :P

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Originally Posted by mackynz

It is silly :P

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adksl;fasmdfa pfffffft I am silly whoops. Ahaha.

Get on with my day... that implies I haven't spent most of my day laying on my belly staring at her hide all morning! Thank you for your pointers and your patience!

Laying on our bellies staring at our snakes all day is all we do, doncha know?! :P

And you're welcome. (:

So why do we get nocturnal ones who disappear all day?! My Dragon is getting pretty fed up with getting all my attention just because he's the only one awake when I'm bored. The tortoises are sleeping today because of the rain.

Judging by her thinness, and weight, I would say she's probably eating fuzzy rats now, but will probably move up to crawler rats quickly, and her weight is probably going to be over 200 grams once she's plumped out. So, I would get enough fuzzies to last her her a month and a half, and then start crawlers/pups from there.

Feeding her every 5 days should get her plumped up and start her growing. :)

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

Judging by her thinness, and weight, I would say she's probably eating fuzzy rats now, but will probably move up to crawler rats quickly, and her weight is probably going to be over 200 grams once she's plumped out. So, I would get enough fuzzies to last her her a month and a half, and then start crawlers/pups from there.

Feeding her every 5 days should get her plumped up and start her growing. :)

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Thank you for the help! So would you still recommend waiting a week before offering her food?

I'm ashamed to say that I'm only likely to be able to give her f/t rodents, I'm not desperately squeamish about feeders, although I adore rodents and had them as pets for a long time. My husband is incredibly allergic to furry animals, so much as I would love an excuse, there isn't much chance of getting live feeders. I'm hoping that as she's already taken one f/t fuzzy, there's a chance she'll take more.

So is 200g more average for an 8 month old female? Off to comb the feeder threads now, to find a supplier...

I've just placed an order for 25 fuzzy rats (the minimum) from Big Cheese Rodents, because they were listed highly on the feeder thread, and I found them a few months ago when I was researching corn snakes. They should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.

I'm hoping that feeding her these every 5 days should fill her out.

I've never used rodent feeders before, but I got used to invertebrate feeders quickly enough, and they are pretty cute little beasts at times too, so hopefully this will be the same.

Also you should ditch the white bulb and only use the night one. BPs don't require a photoperiod like most lizards do and the white light drains humidity like nothing else.

So just leave the night one on all the time? Just looking at thermostats, got UTH but daren't risk using it without.

Handled her a little today, here are some pics:
http://img.tapatalk.com/4a65cafb-45a5-42cd.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/4a65cafb-45f2-6dcd.jpg

Yeah, leave the night one on unless the temp gets too high. Be sure to buy a thermostat to use with the UTH or else it will burn the snake.

Couldn't find a thermostat in stores, so ordered one, should be here next week. Been unplugging the UTH every couple of hours as the heat goes up! Hoping that temp dips aren't a huge problem as she hasn't eaten for a couple of weeks. Think the UTH is a hit, she's very active this evening! I'll turn it off when I go to bed though.

Until your thermostat gets here, pick up a lamp dimmer. It's what I used for about a month and a half until I got my Herpstat. You have to watch it closely because it won't keep the UTH at a consistent temp and fluctuations in the ambient temp of the room/tank will make the temp of the UTH go up and down. If you have consistent ambients then a dimmer will only require adjusting once every couple of weeks or less. I bought mine for $12 or $15 at Lowe's. Though if your 'stat's on the way, you might not even want to bother.

Active isn't necessarily a good thing if she's doing it during the day! Exploring is good at night, because they're nocturnal, but roaming during the day is an indicator of stress.

It's night!

She scarfed down a fuzzy with no faff on the 21st, last night I had to grab a f/t fuzzy by its scruff with forceps and have it prance about before she struck, I jumped a mile and dropped the fuzzy, then had to do it again and try not to jump. She took longer eating, but the previous one was after a few weeks without food being offered. So the second one was 6 days after the first. Hopefully I can keep offering every 5-6 days and we can get her up to a healthy weight.

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Originally Posted by mackynz

Maybe it's just me, but 88g seems low after an entire year. Mine actually looks smaller than yours and he is pushing 250g. What did you weigh him with?

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That snake weight more than 88g

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Originally Posted by AdamF

That snake weight more than 88g

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Really? I haven't weighed her yet, figured the vet knew what he was doing when he weighed her. She is still quite small, not sure what info he based the hatch date on.
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