Ball Python Newbie

Hi everyone and nice to see so many enthusiasts at the same place.

I will get my first ball python on sunday and I want to know if what I went shopping for is the right stuff to get me going. It is a 5 year old and I dont know the gender yet.

Here is what I use:

Terrarium:

100x45x50 equals 225 Liters or 59,4 US gallons.

I use a 28 Watts heatpad 28x42 cm

I use a Thermostat that has two settings. One for daytime and one for night-time.

I have a 40 Watts heating lightbulb. I will set the daytime to be 12 hours.

I have a cage for it
I have drinking bowl for it.

I use cork bark.

I have a branch in there.

I have a thermometer/hydrometer installed on the hotspot.

Am I good to go?

Any other advice? It is going to be moved 1 hour by car. Is there anything I should know about a snake that has recently been moved from one owner to another?

It is used to eating live mice. I want to train it to eat frozen. Live is such a hazle.

Any advice on that subject?

WELCOME! And they will answer your questions! I'm new also!

Here is a good care sheet that you should read. Once you read it, you might want to change a few things. Welcome to the forum!

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

Welcome and congrats, looks like Don has got you pointed in the right direction. :)

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

Sounds good, but you won't need the heat lamp and it will dry your tank out. Thermostat is a must, good call on that one (most new owners won't buy one initially)! What is the climate like where you live and where are you from? UK, maybe? If so humidity shouldn't be an issue so long as you mist down the substrate a couple of times a week of fashion a cover for the tank aside from just a screen top.

A 55 gallon will be a little big but won't be bad so long as it is full of good hiding places.

As for the snake being new, I would take it once it has been received, look it over to make sure that it is healthy and free of mites, and then put it into the enclosure and leave it be for a week or more. At that point (at least a week later) I would attempt to feed it, and if it eats I'd wait two days before handling it. If you handle it before it is settled and eating it may be harder to get it eating, so wait to handle until it has eaten at least once.

Switching to frozen - some take frozed right away, some never will. I would be more worried about switching to rats than F/T (frozen/thawed) and then switch to F/T after the switch to rats.

Welcome to the forum and welcom the addiction of ball pythons! I look forward to pictures fo your new one and also to sharing with you on the forum!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

Here is a good care sheet that you should read. Once you read it, you might want to change a few things. Welcome to the forum!

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

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Hello there, and thank you for the link. I am not certain what changes you refer to. Can you be more specific?

Welcome! I would highly recommend that you use the search box at the top right of the forum. There is a very good chance that any specific question you can think of has been asked and discusses at length at some point or another. I guarantee you'll find some great stuff on how to treat your new snake, the proper new enclosure setup and some excellent tips on converting it to Frozen Thawed.

If you have additional questions or can't find something. Most people here would be extremely happy to help. And again, welcome. The people here are great.

Wow, THREE people beat me to it. LOL At least what I wrote is to your situation in particular, so maybe it will be of help in addition to the care sheet that Don linked.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Python_Regalis

Hello there, and thank you for the link. I am not certain what changes you refer to. Can you be more specific?

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I'd add a couple of hides (one for the cool side and one for the warm side) and follow gsarchie's advice on the heat. The thermostat is the most important piece of equipment IMHO and what you describe sounds like an on/off switch rather than a thermostat. If you have any questions after reading the care sheet, let me know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gsarchie

Sounds good, but you won't need the heat lamp and it will dry your tank out. Thermostat is a must, good call on that one (most new owners won't buy one initially)! What is the climate like where you live and where are you from? UK, maybe? If so humidity shouldn't be an issue so long as you mist down the substrate a couple of times a week of fashion a cover for the tank aside from just a screen top.

A 55 gallon will be a little big but won't be bad so long as it is full of good hiding places.

As for the snake being new, I would take it once it has been received, look it over to make sure that it is healthy and free of mites, and then put it into the enclosure and leave it be for a week or more. At that point (at least a week later) I would attempt to feed it, and if it eats I'd wait two days before handling it. If you handle it before it is settled and eating it may be harder to get it eating, so wait to handle until it has eaten at least once.

Switching to frozen - some take frozed right away, some never will. I would be more worried about switching to rats than F/T (frozen/thawed) and then switch to F/T after the switch to rats.

Welcome to the forum and welcom the addiction of ball pythons! I look forward to pictures fo your new one and also to sharing with you on the forum!

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Thank you for the nice responce. I also thought that I wouldn´t need the extra light but I was told to keep it. I will try to monitor the heat without it. I am also planning to make it look a bit like a jungle. I know its usually not its natural habitat but it looks cool and it gives it loads of hiding places.

Thank you for the advice on how to handle it the first week, after it arrived. Your answer confirms what my intuition told me.

I would like to know. I am planning to go away a week for holiday. Is it absolutely nescecary that I get a babysitter for it or can it stay on its own? I am thinking mostly of the water supply.

I am from Denmark by the way and as far as I understand the humidity here is just fine for ball pythons. Not different from UK anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

I'd add a couple of hides (one for the cool side and one for the warm side) and follow gsarchie's advice on the heat. The thermostat is the most important piece of equipment IMHO and what you describe sounds like an on/off switch rather than a thermostat. If you have any questions after reading the care sheet, let me know.

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Hello and thank you for the responce. I definitly will add more hides.

It really is a thermostat that changes setting when night falls. That means it can change from maximum daytemperature to maximum night-temperature. I think its a cool piece of equipment.

Awesome about the humidity being fine, and congrats on being one of the very few users here from Europe and maybe the only one from Denmark. I know an infantry officer in the Army from Denmark and he's a great dude, so if you are anything like him then I'm sure that you are as well!

As for the vacation for a week, you should be fine. As long as the water dish holds at least half a liter of water and isn't over the heat source it won't dry up and your snake will actually probably enjoy a week without being messed with. :)

Thank you. I really want to do what is right for my snake.

But its really nice to know I can go on holiday.

I will make youtubes on how to handle it in danish. Looking forward to it. I will subtitle it and add it on this forum :-)

I find different answers to the question of nightdropping in temperature. Which is the right one?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Python_Regalis

I find different answers to the question of nightdropping in temperature. Which is the right one?

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You do not need to drop night temp for a single ball python that is a pet. In fact, I would recommend against it. The fluctuations in temperatures could cause a respiratory problem.

Thank you :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Python_Regalis

I would like to know. I am planning to go away a week for holiday. Is it absolutely nescecary that I get a babysitter for it or can it stay on its own? I am thinking mostly of the water supply.

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Usually, what I do when I go out of town for a few days is, I will feed them about 4 days before I leave. That gives them time to digest, and if any poop, I can clean it up before I leave, and on the off chance that one of them regurgitates, I can clean that up as well. A regurgitated rat is not something that you want laying around for a week. As for water, I just put in an extra bowl of water for each snake. If I am going to be gone longer than a week, then I will have a friend come over and check on them and change water. If you choose to have someone check on them, make sure that you show them exactly how to open, close, and secure the cage. You don't want to come home and find that your snake has escaped because the cage wasn't properly closed.

And :welcome: to BP.net...

That was awsome info. Thank you.

Here is the first picture of my Ball python

http://i46.tinypic.com/34rw2tx.jpg