Sons first bp came home tonight

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My six year old who loves snakes just brought home is first today! It was his birthday present. We got him from BHB, they were amazing to work with. We live an hour away and were able to visit in person. Brian is a great guy who took soooooo much time with my six year old and three year old. His staff was equally amazing. They spent a ton of time getting out hundreds of snakes for the kids to hold? Can't even tell how excited my kid is right now!
I assume in the picture in his tank that Mario a ghost ball is trying to get warm by the che since he was in a box for an hour and a half. He is no longer up there. Just exploring a bit. My hot side reads 92.5 and cool side 82. Here is another pic at BHB. Of my two little ones with snakes
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That's awesome, Brian is a great guy to deal with.

That is really cool! Are you into reptiles, or was this just for your son?

Honestly I was scared to death of snakes until we visited BHB. But my son has always been interested in them. Since a baby he always wanted books about snakes (and sharks.) I never want to discourage any passion of his and this has been three years plus he wanted a snake. Every night we read and re read his snake books. So finally we gave in and I'm glad we did. So this is our first reptile!


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Looks like a wonderful birthday for him and I'm glad you had such a good experience. Snakes make wonderful pets for kids despite what many people think. :)

Notice the nervous laugh
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Hi,

Welcome to the hobby. :D

You might want to re-think those dial thermometers though - even if they were reliable they are reading the temps in the wrong places.

Try and get one of he digital thermometers with a probe - you can place the main unit in the cool side of the enclosure and put the probe inside the hot hide - that's where the snake will be so that is where you really want to check. :)


dr del

Thanks dr del,
I actually have two digital thermometers with probes in my tank, one cool one hot. Can't see in the pic because the snake is on top of it lol. That's the cool side, the probe is about an inch above the substrate. The hot side is on top of the glass below the substrate and hide. It reads around 92-93. My issue now is humidity only around 25%. Any tips?


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If you look close in the first pic you can see the wire for the probe to the left of then dial thermometer


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I love the pics of the kids! My parents were not very fond of snakes either, but eventually gave in. Good job!

Congrats, your son sounds like my daughter who brought me back into the hobby! She wanted books about snakes and asked me to read it over and over and all the while asking for a pet snake :) I hope you and your family have a great experience!

Very cool pics! And I'm super jealous that you are that close to BHB!

As far as humidity, since you are using a tank you can try covering a portion of the screen lid with cling wrap/saran wrap type material.

Another possibility would be to have a piece of plexiglass cut (I think Home Depot will cut it for you?) to fit the inner lip of the tank top. Then using a soldering iron melt your ventilation holes in the plexi. You'd still have to use the screen lid for security, but it would look a little cleaner than the cling wrap.

Thanks for all the replies. We are very lucky to be so close to Bhb they are great. Ill mess with the humidity a bit. I have some tin foil covering a part of the top. I put a humidifier I'm my sons room I hope that helps. It is just so dry in our house during the winter. Anyway we feed Friday and then can handle a day or so later. It's was nice at Bhb because my son got to handle the snake a bunch before we got him home. Cool that he picked and affordable snake to fall in love with! He really likes the grey/black look.
ill post more pics in a few days when he can be handled again.

+1 on the plexi glass, one of the best things i done to my tank, NEVER had issued with humidity after doing it.

At nearly 40 years old I just got into the hobby myself and with two boys (8 & 10), I understand how it goes! I did a lot of research and wished I was as close as you were to BHB as I watch Snakebytes.tv on YouTube every chance I get and they have always had great information. The main thing is that they truly care for these animals and this industry. Huge fan...

As far as humidity, I also live in the Northern Midwest (MN just recently moved to SD for a career move) and I have the same humidity issues. With two balls (1-normal 1-spider) and two separate enclosures, it is a challenge keeping humidity up. I also use the plexi trick. Both my enclosures have a day and a night overhead lamp; day over the warm area and night lamp over the cool area. Lamps are notorious for zapping humidity, but they really help keeping the enclosures to temperature.

What I did was cut a piece of plexi and that covers half the screen top. During the day, the night lamp sits on top of the plexi (turned off) and my day lamp sits right on the screen (turned on). At night, I turn off the day lamp and move the plexi to the other half, set my day lamp on top of the plexi (turned off), turn on my night lamp and let the night lamp sit directly on the screen. The night lamp helps to evaporate the water in the dish to boost humidity (still enough in there for the snake though). With just this set up I can achieve around 40%-50% humidity this winter but sometimes dipping to 20%-30%. When it gets that low, I mist the substrate with bottled (filtered) water and it will rise to around 60%-70% for a few hours. I usually mist morning before I go to work, dinner time when I get home, and before I go to bed. Careful to not keep things so saturated everything is dripping as that can lead to scale rot on your snake. I do have moss in both enclosures and usually lightly mist my substrate then mist the moss a little heavier as the moss retains the moisture for a little longer period of time. Summers are normally much more humid and misting is on an as-needed basis only. (I use cypress substrate as it seems to retain moisture better and evaporates slower and have added an under the tank heater on each warm side).

With this setup I can maintain a warm side of 80-85 with a basking spot of 90, my cool side maintains 75-78. Night temps are around 75-79. Humidity averages 50%-60% and have two perfectly happy, healthy ball pythons.

***Double posted for some reason. Removed ***

Thanks for the tips. My humidity is around 25-30% right now. Ill try some more misting. I did put a humidifier in my sons room and that has helped a bit. Im using a CHE and I think that has a lot to do with drying out the enclosure. Ill keep looking for ways to keep it up.
Sure is a lot of fun learning all these new things and getting to share them with our kids.
By the way BHB is amazing. So cool its amazing to me how much Brian and the staff truly love those animals and take care of them as if they were all thier own pets and not breeding so much.

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Originally Posted by Seanjackmc

Notice the nervous laugh
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Did you happen to catch the name of the snake, is that sunshine??

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Originally Posted by Rob

Did you happen to catch the name of the snake, is that sunshine??

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Yeah thats her. She is a sweetheart. let my kids touch her and try to pick her up, very cool snake. They actually just sat on the floor while she cruised around them it was neat.

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Originally Posted by Seanjackmc

Yeah thats her. She is a sweetheart. let my kids touch her and try to pick her up, very cool snake. They actually just sat on the floor while she cruised around them it was neat.

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That's awesome, I'm sure a lot of people on here myself included are jealous you got to check out BHB like that.

You know great people, when they have 50000 snakes and are worth millions of dollars, but still take the time to show some children a good time!
BHB are excellent people!

Super jealous right now But im also in Michigan & have contacted them & plan on scheduling a tour of the facility hopefully this spring. Cant wait.

You said that is a Ghost? Is it a true Ghost? A Hypo Axanthic?

Yea pretty jealous you got to tour the facility there. Just got my first ball python but not from BHB. But I have got 4 colubrids from there (cali kings and corns) and Brian and his crew are great to work with. Also their Snakebytes TV is what got me into snakes years back. Very cool that you got to hand pick a snake with your son :gj:

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Originally Posted by jedidiah578

Super jealous right now But im also in Michigan & have contacted them & plan on scheduling a tour of the facility hopefully this spring. Cant wait.

You said that is a Ghost? Is it a true Ghost? A Hypo Axanthic?

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I don't know, off his website it was well started male ghost ball.

No it's what most people refer to as an Orange Ghost I believe.

BHB has some kickazz snakes. I really wish they shipped to Canada.
They seem to be genuine hobbyists that made their hobby into a business. IMHO the best combination possible when you can make it work.

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Originally Posted by Griffith

No it's what most people refer to as an Orange Ghost I believe.

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I'm not really sure, not very concerned either. Once my boy found out he could get a snake we would look at bhbs website. He went back and forth between a couple but finally decided on the ghost. I do know there are variations of the ghost so I'm not sure what Mario is exactly. I'm saving my coin for a super Lori ball. Coolest snake ever. Almost has a purple hue to it. But not cheap. Anyway can't stress enough how great Bhb was. I felt like I has hanging with old friends. Never felt stupid asking questions. They love to share their knowledge. Totally amazing with the kids. My six year old would point to tub after tub and Brian would take each one out (although a few he said "that one is a bit sketchy, lets find a new one.") if you are ever looking for a new snake I recommend BHB!