New Ball Need Help

So I recently came into possession of a new Ball, my little noodle is not in the best shape, he was in the middle of a horrible shed and they said they've been feeding him fuzzies once a week but I'm not so sure. I know they only had him at 20/30 humidity and his water dish was tiny! The only ball I owned was a handsome lad who came to me in wonderful shape from a breeder so I was wondering if there was any advice. Also I'm having a little trouble keeping humidity above 60 and can only get the hot side to 80 despite having an under tank heater and a heat lamp so any advice? I only got him Monday when should I look at first feeding him? I'll attach some pics.

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Try this. It worked great for me.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...asy+humid+hide

I would recommend switching to a tub and heat pad kind of setup. In my experience, ball pythons do much better in tubs because they are more humid. You would also need a thermostat to control the temperature.

Coming from someone with a tank/screen top, cover nearly all of the top with aluminum foil. Leave an inch or so on the sides and cut holes for two lights. Leave your black light on 24/7 on the cold side; they can't see the light, so it doesn't bother them and it keeps the cold side around 80. Get another light for the warm side, which should work with the UTH to keep the warm side around 90. Covering with foil will help with heat and humidity, tank/screen tops have so much trouble because all that heat and moisture just float right out of the top. You may need to mist once or twice a day to keep humidity set regardless. I'm relatively new to caring for a BP, but I'm already looking into a new setup because those are notoriously difficult to maintain for your noodle.

Only other suggestion is that I'm not sure if those two things are hides or not, but you should get hot and cold side hides, preferably the same style.

Also, congrats on the noodle!

What are you regulating the heat with? What are you using to measure the temperature? I see the analog devices on the walls of the tank. You'll get much better results if you look into some Accurite digital thermometers and hygrometers. they are about $10 at Walmart/Lowes/Home Depot, etc...

Your heat source should be regulated and have a temp probe. If it doesn't now, you need to remove the heat source until you get something that does. Do a google search on raising humidity in a snake tank, there are several ways you can do it. As others have said, moving to a plastic tub is the cheapest and easiest way.

Is the snake always up on that branch, or is that just a random thing? If the snake is out of it's hide during the day and up on a branch, it COULD be a good indicator that the bottom of the tank is too hot, and it's trying to stay away from the heat. If it stays up there during the day, I'd be looking into why. It could be it's thing... but MOST bp's are happily hid somewhere during the daylight hours, if not all the time.

Feeding - were they feeding fuzzy mice or fuzzy rats? Fuzzy mice are too small, even for all but about 1% of newly hatched bp's. If it's fuzzy rats, that's okay... but you want to feed about 10-15% of their body weight. If you don't have a scale, find a feeder that is just about the same thickness as the snake at the snakes thickest part of it's body.

Checked the bottom of the cage on the cool side, and it is cool to the touch the warm side is warm. I've noticed chilling on branches and the edges of things just seems to be his thing, normally behind the foliage. I tried to get him to soak and he just climbed up to chill on the edge of the container but when I damped a washcloth with the same water he was all curled up in it and happy with it, some rubbing on my fingers got a lot of the remaining shed off. He's got some stubborn bits around his head and I don't want to risk hurting him by picking at them so hopefully a little more rubbing in his enclosure will get it. I offered him a hopper, which is the recommended size of the biggest part of his belly and he didn't take it. Should I try again later or wait a few days? It is a frozen to thawed, but that's what he's been being fed, any advice to make it more tempting to him?

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and it is cool to the touch the warm side is warm

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Not how you measure temps, you measure temp with a thermometer preferably temp gun or a digital one with a probe measuring the temp at the surface on each side. And of course you MUST have a thermostat to regulate those temps.

You can ditch the dial devices in his enclosure both those are very inaccurate.

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I tried to get him to soak

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BP do not tend to soak and I don't advise to make him or bath him. You just need to work on humidity in your tank and there are several threads about this.

Food wise there is definitely a need for an increase as the animal was being underfed by feeding fuzzy, even hatchlings out of the eggs get started on hoppers.

Any recommendations that are reasonably inexpensive?

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Originally Posted by TheTeachWithaSnake

Any recommendations that are reasonably inexpensive?

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I use this one. https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Itc-3...ird+thermostat

It works pretty well. I def plan on getting a Herpstat in the near future though..

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Originally Posted by TheTeachWithaSnake

Any recommendations that are reasonably inexpensive?

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Depends how you look at it I can tell you that I have bought way back in the days (Before keeping BP) bought cheap t-stat ($30) that only lasted a year or two and that failed wide open when they did, since I use Herpstat you need to count $120 but I can tell you that I have several of those and they have been working for 10 years.

I know I can't drop 120 right now, I can save but I need an inexpensive solution for right now that will keep my noodle happy till I can get something more spensive.

He ate a hopper tonight! Much joy! He seemed to be looking for more though? Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by TheTeachWithaSnake

He ate a hopper tonight! Much joy! He seemed to be looking for more though? Thoughts?

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My guy looks to be about the same size and he eats weaned rats (about twice the size of a hopper) and just recently he seems to be more hungry than one of those. Reiterating what someone else said, you can go by 10-15% of the body weight or size of the thickest part of the snake. I'm guessing going by either a hopper isn't enough for him.

My humble suggestion would be to offer another hopper and get a larger food source for the next feeding. Or even just get a larger rat and feed that sooner than 7 days.

I use 2 different thermostats, one is a zoomed thermostat and it was about 40 dollars at petco, the other is a 99 dollar herpstat proportional which i like better, but for the money the zoomed works fine, the first one i bought is 3 years old and is still working well. I would also go to a hardware or auto parts store and pick up a infa-red temp gun, they are very accurate for checking temps. Then if humidity is really a problem you can try covering the screen, then add a reptifogger which is what i use on a timer,they go off 4 times a day, and both my bps love comming out in the fog. i like using the front door display tanks, and realize i need to put in more effert to give my guys a perfect enviornment. Good luk, hes really pretty.