Questions From a New BP Owner

Hi everyone! I've been wanting a snake for almost a year now and last week I was finally able to get one. :) I have a question or two about her tank and food that I was hoping you guys could answer.

I bought her a 30x12x12 tank, the temp on her warm side stays about 82. She has two hides and store bought tree limbs for her to climb on along with a water dish that seems about the right size for her. I don't know exactly how old she is, but she seems a healthy size and she's about 16 inches long. I know bright light is bothersome to them, I was curious about keeping them on a day/night cycle. I have two lights, a bluish one for 'day' that is brighter and a low light, reddish, one for night. Generally the only light that is on in that room is their lamp. Will the bright light during the day be stressful to her or is this setup alright, alternating between a bright and dim light for day and night? Also, is it a problem if the humidity isn't consistent throughout the tank? Her cooler side has 50-60% while her warm side generally is 30-40% as a result of her light. Also, she seems (that I have noticed, I don't watch her a whole lot during the day) to spend most of her time during the day in her cooler hide and at night, she'll curl up on the branch/ground right under the lamp or over the under tank heater (she doesn't just curl up there, she explores and climbs around the rest of her cage too). The temperatures, for as far as I can tell, stay the same within a 1-2 degree difference. Does this mean her tank is either too hot or to cold or is this behavior normal?

Also, I got her just over a week ago, just after she'd eaten, and today is feeding day. I haven't fed her yet, but I was looking at the frozen mice I bought for her. They are fuzzies and the lady at the store says she eats 2-3 at a feeding. They seem kind of small for her, honestly, and from what I've read people only talk about feeding ball python's 1-2 mice a feeding. What size food should she be on? And if I make a guess as to size, for her food, and it's too big will she hurt herself eating it or would it just be a case of she refuses to eat (and of course I'd have something smaller to offer her after if this was what would happen)? I will be feeding her the mice I have this week, but I didn't know if I should maybe buy bigger for next week.

Sorry for the long post and excessive detail, but I've never owned a snake before and I'd really like to make sure her new tank and everything is good for her.

Edit: Also, as a note, her under tank heater and heat lamp are on the same side of the tank, which I assume is correct? If I'm wrong, please let me know.

First off you need a hot and a cold side. Not just an average temperature in the tank. The hot side should be about 90-92, and the cold side should be about 80-82, and the humidity in the 60's. Also feed prey items about the same size of the widest part of the snakes body. It might look like there is no way the snake would be able to swallow it but they will. Also try to get it onto Rats if it's not already. You need a thermostat to regulate the UTH's temperature. The Zilla 11939 Temperature Controller is a great thermostat and it's pretty cheap. You can find it on amazon. I got mine for 21$ shipped. Also how are you measuring the temperatures? Wal-Mart carries an AcuRite Indoor / Outdoor Thermometer. It measures 2 temperatures and humidity. Costs about 12$. You place the probe on the hot spot and the actual unit on the opposite side of the tank to get the cold side. It's a must you fix your temps because snakes need to be able to regulate their body temperature. Without the right heat the snake will not be able to digest it's meal correctly.

I am a bit confused about that, because most care sheets (including the one here) says low 80s as opposed to 90 for the warm side? I'm just using the Zilla Humidity and Temperature Gauge but digital would probably be better, I'm going to walmarts soon so I'll pick one up. I'll look into getting her on a rat that seems the right size soon instead of multiple mice, then, that does seem to be the recommendation on most sites I'm looking at. I'll look into getting a thermostat for my heating pad soon. Thank you for the help! :D

Also I just saw where you saw the 80 degree thing. That's the ambient temperature. That's the temperature basically all inside your enclosure. The 90 degree thing is the basking spot where your snake will spend the majority of its time. Snakes need that belly heat. The care sheet on here is just fine, you just read it wrong.

Hot side is for sure 88-92 degrees. The cool side is 80-82 degrees. You really need to buy a thermostat to to control the temperature of the heat pad. The Zilla one I mentioned is just fine and is pretty cheap. You plug the heat pad into the Zilla thermostat and you set it to a temperature. It basically turns the heat pad on and off by itself to keep the heat pad at the temperature you want. So you use that along with the thermometer I mentioned to get the temperatures just right.

Check out this site. Will help a whole bunch.

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/py...us/care-sheet/

Personally if you have the receipt I'd take the tank and the lamp back. Tanks are hard to control temperature and humidity. You can save yourself a ton of money by just buying a Rubbermaid Or Sterilite tub from Wal-Mart or Target. The majority of people use these over tanks. Yes they are not as pretty but they work so much better and are great at controlling temperature and humidity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vayra

I am a bit confused about that, because most care sheets (including the one here) says low 80s as opposed to 90 for the warm side? I'm just using the Zilla Humidity and Temperature Gauge but digital would probably be better, I'm going to walmarts soon so I'll pick one up. I'll look into getting her on a rat that seems the right size soon instead of multiple mice, then, that does seem to be the recommendation on most sites I'm looking at. I'll look into getting a thermostat for my heating pad soon. Thank you for the help! :D

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Actually the care sheet here states warm side 88-94. Not sure where you were reading.
If you can't get a thermostat soon Home Depot sells light dimmers for $11 I'd get one of those til you can get the thermostat.
Agreed on the bigger meal
Enjoy your new buddy! :)

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Okay, and here I thought his 'cool' side being at 80 was too cool and I was worried. XD Okay, I feel a bit better. I don't have the receipt anymore since I got the tank a little over two weeks ago, getting ready to get her. I think I'd prefer a tank anyway, even if they are a little more hassle. I have a digital thermometer now, so I'm going to go see if I can't rearrange her tank a bit and get this thing set up to get a better idea of what I need to do next with the temp/humidity in my tank. I will order a thermostat as soon as I can, but I might get a dimmer anyway since they're cheap. Thanks! :)

http://www.amazon.com/Zilla-11939-Te.../dp/B002CZ0J3E

Only 21$ right now. It's well worth it over the dimmer. Ships fast too. But yeah. What you can do is cover the majority of the screen lid with anything from a damp towel to plexiglass. It will help keep the humidity in. Also cypress bedding is great at keeping humidity up. Not sure what substrate you are using but if you are having issues try the cypress.

My girl is in a tank... it's not that hard... the humidity can get finicky but there's things ya can do. I keep part of her screen covered with a towel... my infrared lamp is above the water dish and I occasionally have to mist.
The dimmer is good til you can a t stat... but I wouldn't use it as a permanent fix

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Okay! Update, with the more accurate thermometer, placing the sensor under her warm hide, it is 94 (well within range, I believe), while the temp everywhere else is 82. So I believe I'm good in that respect? Still getting the thermostat, I'll be ordering it tonight or tomorrow, just to be on the safe side. I normally keep the cage covered with a towel, but while I was shifting things around, I'm sure the humidity went down. I'm going to cover it again and wait a few minutes, see if the humidity improves, but at the moment it is reading at 40%. I will also be moving her water dish closer to her light source, so that should help with the humidity as well. If her temps are staying consistent without the lamp, do I need it?

Edit: Also, my substrate is aspen. If I see humidity becoming a problem, I'll try the cypress. :)

Here are some threads that you should read if you haven't already:

BP Caresheet: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

How to setup a Glass Tank:http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

Cage Heating: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

94 is a little warm for my tastes, I would shoot for 90 F hot side, 80 F cool side. As long as you are within 88-92 and 78-82 you are fine.

Nope you will not. If everything is fine without the lamp you do not need it. All they need is belly heat. So if temps and humidity are just right remove the lamp. Also get a surge protection power strip for anything you use for your tank. Just watch those temps until the thermostat comes in. Some balls might burrow and I'm sure its pretty damn hot on the glass above the UTH and it could burn the snake. Also if you are having humidity issues you can try cypress mulch bedding. Very good for humidity.

Alright, I'll turn her UTH off for a while and watch it. So, I am going to order the thermostat tonight. When I get it, I'll have to be setting it to a temperature, right? What should I set it to? And should my thermometer sensor be on the glass, in the bedding...?

Thanks for all the help, I did a lot of reading before hand but I still feel a little clueless. XD

If I were you, I would keep that lamp stashed somewhere until winter. I use both a UTH and a lamp and I live in the desert where temps hit 100 degrees daily. As for humidity, this is easily maintained with a bit of reading and effort... Again, desert and mine sits at 60%. <ok, it stressed me the hell out and I swear, Aaron is the only reason I have hair left.>

IMO, unless you are planning a collection, tanks are nicer and perfectly fine/ easy once you get them set up. They are also a LOT more visually appealing.

I only use the lamp when I need to pull up the ambient temps. I'm assuming once I turn on my heat for winter and its a more constant temp in my place I won't need it... it cools down at night.
Another option for substrate is eco earth... I just switched to that and love it for humidity

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vayra

Alright, I'll turn her UTH off for a while and watch it. So, I am going to order the thermostat tonight. When I get it, I'll have to be setting it to a temperature, right? What should I set it to? And should my thermometer sensor be on the glass, in the bedding...?

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Slide the probe for the t-stat between the UTH and the bottom of the tank - you may need to tape the UTH back up after inserting the probe. I set mine to 92*F at the probe, which should make the glass 90-91*F and on top of the substrate 88-90*F unless you've put in a really deep layer of aspen.

If you already stuck the UTH to the tank you will need to peel it off and place the probe from the thermostat on the center of the UTH. So basically its in this order... UTH / Probe / Glass. If your UTH wont stick right get some Foil tape and tape the UTH back to the glass tank. Don't tape the whole UTH just tape along the sides of it. After that set the thermostat to lets say 92 degrees. Place your thermometer probe in the substrate under the hide and place the unit itself on the opposite side of the tank. Give it some time and check the thermometer and see what the temps are. If it's to high or to low adjust the thermostat accordingly. The more bedding you have in your tank the higher you are going to have to set your thermostat.

Sorry, I asked a question when it was just answered.

Thermostat ordered and I think everything will hold until I can get that. I'll just keep a close eye on the temperatures until I can get the thermostat hooked up.

Do I have to buy Foil tape or will clear duct tape work? That is just what I have, so that's why I ask.

Hmm. I wouldn't use it. Not saying it wouldn't work but it's messy. It would most likely work to good. If you ever had to replace anything the bottom of your tank would be stuck with duct tape glue and your UTH would look like hell after peeling the duct tape off. I'm sure you can find foil tape pretty cheap at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Alrighty, foil tape it is.

Heading to bed. I'll keep an eye on this thread in case you have any more questions. Good luck, everything will work out just fine once you get all your equipment.

Hey, sooo more questions, haha. I just fed her and she took to her food really well, I had no trouble getting her to eat even in a new home. So, that's good. But she seemed to have to really stretch her mouth around fuzzies. I don't know if I'm just not used to seeing snakes eat mice or if maybe this is the biggest she can eat right now.

If I offer her something too big for her, will she just refuse or would she try to eat it anyway/would she injure herself doing so? Above all, I wouldn't want her getting hurt.

Also (and for the life of me I can't figure out how to edit my previous post), I'm getting an infrared heat lamp for my cage that can be left on all the time and a dimmer (cause I tried without the light for a while and the temp just got much too low and my current 'black light lamp' isn't high enough wattage to keep the desired temperature), esp since it is having trouble and it's still practically summer here I'd hate to see what happens when it starts getting cold. Since my thermostat won't come in till like Monday, would you guys suggest I maybe try to keep it on the warmer end of the ambient air temperatures from the caresheet (83-84) to try to compensate? I won't be leaving the UTH on unattended anymore till I get the thermostat (she wasn't using the hot hide anyway cause it was too hot), so I don't want her getting too cold with her having just eaten. Sorry I'm a bundle of questions. XD

If the food item is the same size as the widest part of her girth she's fine... they stretch wide to get it down!!! I would leave the uth off completely until the t stat arrives and use the infrared as the hot spot

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If it's a mouse fuzzie it's way to small. You might think the snakes mouth is stretched a lot but you have no idea how far they really do stretch. Feed a prey item the same size as the widest part of the snakes body. Don't worry about the size of the snakes head. Also if you can get a digital scale to weigh your snake it would help a lot for determining the size of prey. Here's a website that has a pretty good list of prey items to feed depending on the snakes weight.

http://www.ballpythonz.net/feeding.html

Yeah just keep the ambient temperature up for now I guess. I know UTH's come with those rubber pegs to raise your tank off of whatever surface you have it on. If you still have those pegs put them on and if you have a thick layer of substrate I'd keep the UTH on.

The UTH instructions said to stick it on the bottom of the tank, so that's what I did, but I could try peeling it off and messing with it. I'll be home all afternoon and she's in my bedroom, so I can keep a close watch on her hotspot to make sure it never gets too hot for her.

I don't have anything that will accurately weigh her, I only have a human scale (pounds with no decimal places). But I'll move her up to rats for sure. I'll see if she'll hold still sometime this weekend to maybe measure her belly to compare to a rat size.

I think once I get my thermostat, I'll be fine. I have my tank now very similar to the 'how to set up a 20 gallon tank' tutorial, save the foil on the top (which I'll see if I need as today goes on, I have the stuff I need to do it but I won't if my air temp and humidity are staying okay) and the thermostat, which is ordered. Sooo I kinda wish I had found that before hand. XD But I think I have everything under control now.

Thank you guys so much for the help. :D