New ball python owner...

Hi everyone...I just found this forum....The informatiion I have read so far is great...I have a baby ball python who is 6 months old named Jackson. I have had him for two weeks now and he is adjusting to his new home wonderfully. He has eaten twice for me... I finally got to hold him for about 10 minutes eariler this evening. He is a very inquisitive fellow!!!! He crawled all over me exploring and flicking his tongue!!! He is currently in a 20 gallon critter tank. For Christmas my husband is buying me a new home for jackson. It is one he can live his entire life in. It will be 48 long by 24 wide by 15 tall. I plan on putting LOTS of hides in it for him with some greenery and 2 water bowls. Hopefully he will feel secure with lots of hiding places!!! I am looking forward to learning more about these wonderful snakes. I also have a baby mexican rosy boa and a baby okeetee corn snake. They each live in their own seperate critter cages. Have a wonderful holiday season. connie the snake loving grannie!!!!

Welcome! A ball python really doesn't need a cage that large. 3' long by 1' wide is plenty even for a big female! Such a large tank can stress out a baby very easily.. you really will need a lot of hides.. and make sure your temperatures are right, it's much easier for a baby to thermoregulate in a small enclosure.

hey! glad to have you! do you have any pictures of your snakes?

Thanks for the reply. This is really all new to me..I was thinking the bigger the cage the better. I don't want to stress him....I will check into the cage that measures 36 inches. Thanks again. connie

I would actually wait on a new cage until he's bigger. The tank he's in now is more than big enough. He'd be fine in a 10 gallon. Give him a year before you move to a 3' cage.. that's what I would do.

I will get some pictures posted soon. Thanks for the welcome! :-)

The reason I wanted to get him a new cage is I am having trouble regulating the heat and humidity in the glass aquarium. It has a screened top ...I have most of the top covered, but humidity is still low. Maybe I will go with a different cage, just a smaller one. My husband would like that anyways as it would be cheaper!!!!

Well, what I would recommend is go to target or walmart or.. whatever and buy a sterilite/rubbermaid/iris plastic bin. Get something equivalent to a 10 gallon tank or therabouts. You can secure the lid with binder clips which you can get at an office supply store. Air holes can either be drilled or melted with a soldering gun.

Welcome to the forums! Great name for your snake too, would love to see pictures of him when you get a chance!

Thanks Robin,,,,I named him after my great grandfather. When I was very young my grandpa Jackson would go with me to the garden and help me catch garter snakes, frogs and horned toads. The ball python is kinda built like my grandpa Jackson. :-) He would think it was great that I named a snake after him!!!!

snakes less than a year old do alright in tight spaces, the only kicker is that its hard to heat a small cage, especially a 10 gal, especially when its not in a climate-controlled room. Its like you either overheat them or they aren't warm enough.

I know that I read once, in a post made by Kara at NERD, that they kept young ball pythons in a room that was 85 degrees.

Welcome to the site Connie. What a lovely reason to name your snake Jackson and a wonderful tribute to your grandfather who obviously instilled in you a love for all things snakey.

Since Jackson is still growing, I too would suggest going the Sterlite/Rubbermaid route. You could either consider this as a interim, cost effective enclosure or use them (in different sizes) as a life long caging choice.

We have all 6 of our ball pythons ranging from the smallest male at 200 grams to our largest female at 2,000 grams (as of last night) in Sterlite's and I have to say they are the easiest things in the world to regulate heat & humidity and keep clean as well as very cost effective. You can add fake greenery, etc. if you like. A small appropriate sterlite will likely cost you less than $10.00. The large ones we use for our big females which are 39 x 19 x 6.5 are only $11.99 at WalMart LOL. Other than the tub, a soldering wand is handy for putting in the ventilation holes.

Just to give you an idea here's a pic to Brannagh our biggest female in her Sterlite enclosure. I go the plain route with my caging but the snakes seem to not mind at all, all of ours are thriving in their Sterlites.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...nnaghinTub.jpg


~~Jo~~

Thanks for the advice. For some reason I can't see the pictures. All I have on my screen is a little white box with a red x in it. When I click on it to show picture..it won't..Also on the positing rules it says my html code is off. Not sure what to do to change it. I would love to be able to see the pictures. connie

Welcome to the site Connie!! :D Sometimes just refreshing the page will clear things up, if not if may have something to do with your security settings. Of course I am a computer doofus (actually I'm just an all around doofus but that's another thread ;) ), so I am not too much help. I just know I had the same problems when I first started and it ended up being partly a ZoneAlarm issue. (of course I still can't see some peoples pictures, and I still haven't figured that out!! But I just see nothing. No x, no box, not a thing. WAH!) I hope that helps a bit. :imslow:

Sometimes I get that if my temp internet files are full up. Not sure though if it's a security issues like Christie said. If you go to the Members List then click on F and then frankykeno, then frankykeno's gallery that same pic is there (hopefully you can access it that way). I'm no good at this computer stuff much either, so hopefully one of our resident computer geniuses can chime in here with suggestions.


~~Jo~~