New to ball pythons

I have a few things I am curious about!!

1. Are ball pythons generally curious?

I know they tend to stay in their hide, but do they inspect their surroundings?

2. Are there some things that could stress a ball python out that I should know about?

3. What are proper heat and humidity ranges?

Mine are at 78-80 ambient, 83- 84 on the warm end and 75-77 on the warm end. And humidity is 60.

Great questions and kudos to you for asking them! Here's the best answers I can give you from my personal experience. Remember, all animals are different and all ball pythons can vary in personality.

1. Mine are, unless they find a really warm spot such as around the back of my neck. When in their cages, mine don't wander around much if at all. However, I also keep them in a rack system.

2. Don't handle super often for prolonged periods of time, and after feeding don't hold until about two days after they have eaten. Don't keep two ball pythons together, don't assist feed unless it is a complete and total last resort. They don't like baths unless they want to be in their own water dish, and if you ever have a mite problem, the treatment can stress them out sometimes.

3. Your humidity is perfect, your ambient should be about 80-80, and the hot spot should be 88-92. The cool side seems about right.

Another thing, too!! He is a rescue and I feel like (from looking at other pictures) he's underweight or thin? http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...d553c172cc.jpg. He is eating, a medium rat every 1- 1 and 1/2 weeks.

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Originally Posted by Sammiebob

Great questions and kudos to you for asking them! Here's the best answers I can give you from my personal experience. Remember, all animals are different and all ball pythons can vary in personality.

1. Mine are, unless they find a really warm spot such as around the back of my neck. When in their cages, mine don't wander around much if at all. However, I also keep them in a rack system.

2. Don't handle super often for prolonged periods of time, and after feeding don't hold until about two days after they have eaten. Don't keep two ball pythons together, don't assist feed unless it is a complete and total last resort. They don't like baths unless they want to be in their own water dish, and if you ever have a mite problem, the treatment can stress them out sometimes.

3. Your humidity is perfect, your ambient should be about 80-80, and the hot spot should be 88-92. The cool side seems about right.

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How do I warm up the warm side? That's just where the temp was when I checked earlier. When I checked the temp it said humidity was 99! Then I figured out my boyfriend splashed the water dish when cleaning it. Its usually 60s.

On the hot side you should have a heating pad regulated by a thermostat. If you only have one snake I would suggest the hydrofarm tstat on amazon. Its $33 shipped I believe and from what I hear works pretty well. I plan on getting a couple pretty soon. But you should NEVER have a great pad that is not regulated. Set the tstat to about 90 and place the probe UNDER the tank between the heat pad and the bottom of the cage.

He looks pretty small at the moment, I would suggest one small rat every 6-8 days

He's 4 years old, 48 inches long and 1139 grams before last feeding?

I saw on a exotic vet TV show (I know, not the best source of info) that heating pads can burn a ball python?

a thermostat will prevent this. You can do a search on this site for how to properly set up your thermostat to your heat pad

Okay. Thank you!!!

I tried small rats and he stayed in feed mode way longer. The people before me fed him two mice every two weeks.

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Originally Posted by Pillzee

I have a few things I am curious about!!

1. Are ball pythons generally curious?

I know they tend to stay in their hide, but do they inspect their surroundings?

2. Are there some things that could stress a ball python out that I should know about?

3. What are proper heat and humidity ranges?

Mine are at 78-80 ambient, 83- 84 on the warm end and 75-77 on the warm end. And humidity is 60.

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1. In their tubs? No not really. They like to hide. Mainly When they want to eat or breed they'll move around in the tubs and you'll see them though.

2. Yes, but most of it is common sense. You can handle them and stuff, just don't mess with them too much. Make sure their cage or tub has a dark place for them to hide and make sure the temps are good for them.

3. I give mine a hot spot of 88 degrees. Ambient room temps are mid 70s. I don't track humidity, it's not necessary to for me, really. When they start going into shed I just move their water dish over the hot spot and overfill it. That's all. I keep mine in racks tho.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

1. In their tubs? No not really. They like to hide. Mainly When they want to eat or breed they'll move around in the tubs and you'll see them though.

2. Yes, but most of it is common sense. You can handle them and stuff, just don't mess with them too much. Make sure their cage or tub has a dark place for them to hide and make sure the temps are good for them.

3. I give mine a hot spot of 88 degrees. Ambient room temps are mid 70s. I don't track humidity, it's not necessary to for me, really. When they start going into shed I just move their water dish over the hot spot and overfill it. That's all. I keep mine in racks tho.

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I just have the one so he is in a tank.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

1. In their tubs? No not really. They like to hide. Mainly When they want to eat or breed they'll move around in the tubs and you'll see them though.

2. Yes, but most of it is common sense. You can handle them and stuff, just don't mess with them too much. Make sure their cage or tub has a dark place for them to hide and make sure the temps are good for them.

3. I give mine a hot spot of 88 degrees. Ambient room temps are mid 70s. I don't track humidity, it's not necessary to for me, really. When they start going into shed I just move their water dish over the hot spot and overfill it. That's all. I keep mine in racks tho.

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What about taking them for car rides? Like to the pet store to get his food? (F/t). I took him in the car once before, and he was more curious than anything. Our pet store is usually pretty empty.

I don't take mine for car rides just for fun. Pet stores are a good place to pick up mites haha. [emoji14]

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Originally Posted by Pillzee

I took him in the car once before, and he was more curious than anything.

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It may have seemed like he wanted to check things out, but honestly he was probably stressed and trying to look for a good place to jam himself into four a nice tight hiding spot.

Why did you change your name from Montyandmelissa to Pillzee ??

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Originally Posted by mohawk

Why did you change your name from Montyandmelissa to Pillzee ??

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Somebody hacked into it.

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Originally Posted by mohawk

Why did you change your name from Montyandmelissa to Pillzee ??

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I tried logging in the other day, and after about 7 failed password attempts I gave up and started a new one.

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Originally Posted by Pillzee

I tried logging in the other day, and after about 7 failed password attempts I gave up and started a new one.

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You mean after yesterday, just before 3 PM?

Do you tell the moderators that your account had been hacked?

See, they can run an IP check and confirm that...would you like them to do that?

This was a quote under your other ghostie:

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Originally Posted by MontyandMelissa

So, I FINALLY (after 7 months) got montyto eat f/t. Success!! My only concern is that when they thaw, they become wet, and substrate sticks to them. I know a small amount of substrate is no buggy, but the rat I fed today (100g) was completely covered in substrate (even after drying it off), perhaps the substrate was wet itself? Any suggestions?

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and under another thread, under your brand new ghostie, you stated:

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Originally Posted by Pillzee

This is my male (?) Ball python (48 inches long and 1150-1200g). Just wanted to show off some pictures of him

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..and the title of that thread was "Unnamed Still"

AND:

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Originally Posted by MontyandMelissa

Monty is feeling better!!!

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:confusd:

Would it not have been a whole heck of a lot easier to let people know who you were instead of the subterfuge? FWIW, the mods are real good about sniffing out ghoasts around here.

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

This was a quote under your other ghostie:



and under another thread, under your brand new ghostie, you stated:



..and the title of that thread was "Unnamed Still"

AND:



:confusd:

Would it not have been a whole heck of a lot easier to let people know who you were instead of the subterfuge? FWIW, the mods are real good about sniffing out ghoasts around here.

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I'm not a ghost and I didn't put those on my page. I have been off thise forum for a while. I was going to name the snake Monty (hense monty and melissa) but I believe he is a she. I can't access my old account. And I don't know how to get it removed.

About curiosity, my Marshall is very explorative! Especially when I am handling him. He's also pretty adventurous in his cage as well, normally late at night and early morning. His little "adventures" only last about 10 min, 20 at the most. All through the day he is hiding though, unless he is thirsty or switching hides. I think it depends on the snake, my guy is very brave!

As for car rides, I have heard of people taking their big boas on car rides. Actually one person had a boa who actually liked putting its head out the window like a dog.

I am not experienced so don't take my word on this.


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A thread was started by Montyandmelissa yesterday evening, and you replied to it as Pillzee, but didn't say anything in the post about
your account being hacked ..................

Huh. I thought you were two separate ppl until I read this.

@gameonpython
I'd say that's the normal behaviour of most ball pythons lol. They are nocturnal so exploring at nighttime is very common as its their up time and daytime is sleep mode.
Also while handling people say its actually better if the snake just "chills" on you as opposed to being active and crawling around as its a sign of it trying to escape or find shelter to hide in (even if its in the crevices of your body), which indicates its afraid and not so relaxed. Even worse if it stays in a ball, then its scared. This is for Bp's though, I know for boa's its a different story, very adventurous snakes.

Yes I sent them an email already

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Originally Posted by Pillzee

I'm not a ghost and I didn't put those on my page. I have been off thise forum for a while. I was going to name the snake Monty (hense monty and melissa) but I believe he is a she. I can't access my old account. And I don't know how to get it removed.

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Can you hear me down that hole you are digging?

Good.

So we are to believe that someone has been posting on MontyandMelissa for "a while"?

All of that stuff posted over the last week, maybe even longer was this person who "hacked" your account?

Again, the mods can tell whether this is true or not. Imagine the humility and the embarrassment if they find you are lying...

Look, people make mistakes. People sometime post things they shouldn't. They lose their tempers, they pretend to have knowledge that they don't really have, and they sometimes give out bad advice. The funny thing is that while every post we make is recorded and there for everyone to read, we can also see the maturation and progression of people...and we understand and are tolerant of that process.

In other words, if you are lying, or if you have lied in the recent past...come clean and admit it. Once you admit it and move on, you will find that people usually are pretty understanding and forgive.

However, if the mods find out that MontyandMelissa and Pillzee are the same person and are posting from the same IP address or using a mask, then you are probably done here. No one will ever believe a word you say again.

So, owner of Monty/Unnamed Snake, here's your chance...has someone really hacked your account and has been posting some stupid stuff, or are you just ashamed to admit to your past posts?

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Originally Posted by mohawk

A thread was started by Montyandmelissa yesterday evening, and you replied to it as Pillzee, but didn't say anything in the post about
your account being hacked ..................

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Hey there Mo:

If you read the posts by both users (neither has a long history), the picture becomes pretty clear.

My ball python LOVES to wander around inside and outside of his enclosure. He's very curious but shy around a whole bunch of people.

Mine is about 5, I've heard (I adopted him from family who starved him), he looked just like yours too!
I thickened him up quickly by starting with mice fuzzies, small mice, small rats, and finally medium sized rats.
We still have a long way to go but we made progress and he looks (as a nearby petstore said when they saw him) 200% better than before. :)

As far as being curious, mine will slither around and 'explore' when I hold her until she gets her head wedged between my arm and sleeve. Once she's convinced she's somewhere dark and closed-in she stops moving. I'm pretty sure she went to sleep like that once.

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Originally Posted by Borgpython

@gameonpython
I'd say that's the normal behaviour of most ball pythons lol. They are nocturnal so exploring at nighttime is very common as its their up time and daytime is sleep mode.
Also while handling people say its actually better if the snake just "chills" on you as opposed to being active and crawling around as its a sign of it trying to escape or find shelter to hide in (even if its in the crevices of your body), which indicates its afraid and not so relaxed. Even worse if it stays in a ball, then its scared. This is for Bp's though, I know for boa's its a different story, very adventurous snakes.

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Hehe yes I know it's normal, but from the sounds of it some peoples bps are basically immobile.

I may have not made my self clear about his "exploring ".
He is very chill actually, but his head and his tongue are always moving it seems. He licks everything! To my knowledge that's good right? He definitely doesn't try to get away, in fact if I put him on the ground he will come back to me, so I guess he sees me as a non threat and great heat source:) never balls up for me anymore, first few handling sessions he did though.


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