Hi! New to Ball Pythons!

Hello everyone.

My young son is about the be the proud new owner of a ball python. We own a veritable zoo, and so the first thing I do is join a forum on whatever it is we are keeping. So, I am going to be his liaison to forum help. He is calling his new buddy Noodles. We’ve been working on the set up for a few weeks now, and are excited to head to Repticon tomorrow to fill the enclosure. We are looking forward being part of the community and learning. Thanks for having us!

Kat

:welcome: Awesome- we're glad to have you join us, & we look forward to meeting "Noodles" too. :snake:

i vish to see ze Noodles

So, I do art to stuff and I seriously considered creating a custom hide that looked like a Ramen Noodle package. It was all too fitting.

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

So, I do art to stuff and I seriously considered creating a custom hide that looked like a Ramen Noodle package. It was all too fitting.

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Yeah, that would be very cute! :D

Well, noodles happened. Kiddo fell in love with this fellow. [IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...E1-BDEF920.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...BBBB2-AF05.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...-E6726-F37.jpg[/IMG]

Very nice choice! And I assume you know not to handle a new snake until he has "settled in" & preferably has taken food preferably 3 times at normal (weekly) intervals without refusals (unless in shed, then refusing food is normal)? This is very hard even for adults, but miserable for most kids. But handling can put them off eating, & that's the most important thing- their health & the functioning of their immune system. And there's nothing so frustrating as a snake that won't eat...trust me.

Looks like you've fixed up a nice home already too- :gj: -the only issue is that it's a better idea to avoid all the fancy substrate & hides & just use white paper towels on the floor for the first month or so & ONLY plastic hides, just IN CASE he brought snake mites home with him- otherwise, they can hide everywhere. I'm hoping that doesn't happen (but sadly it does all too often, since things get passed around at expos, even if the seller you bought from had no such issues), & at least mites should show up pretty well on this guy, except on his head. But do keep a watch anyway- mite eggs are tiny & part of the problem too- & snake mites can kill snakes, especially young & smaller ones, & they can multiply faster than you'd think- exponentially. They also carry diseases. So do stay vigilant.

I hope you remembered to ask the source/breeder/seller exactly what this snake is eating reliably? (as in mice or rats, live or f/t, & size) And the hatch date is good to know also. ;)

And sorry if all this is already well-understood by you- but since you're new around here, I don't want things to go unmentioned, because above all, we want you to have SUCCESS with your new snake- so don't take what I've said to be a buzz-kill, ok? It's not intended that way at all- we just aim to help.

First, thank you so much for the response. That takes time to type out, and it’s why I love forums so much. People on them are here for the love and passion of the subject. So, thank you so much for the detailed response. I’ll go ahead and give a rundown below:

So, we are a homeschool family and have spent the last month doing a unit in Ball Pythons and their care. Obviously, we are novices. My kid (8) just gave a Facebook presentation on why they make good pets. I digress.

setup: regarding mites, I looked super close at him, but at this point I guess we just hope he is ok. I didn’t see anything crawling around on his white part. I made the hides out of plastic bowls from dollar tree, so I can always chunk them and make more. They were only like six bucks.

20 gallon with sliding lid (tank was given and will be used for the next year. We would like a pvc upgrade)
heat pad with thermostat set to about 88-90. We are tweaking heat some. The lid has foil tape for humidity control and heat retention. Humidity is 60% on the cooler side, but the warm side is tough because of the overhead heat. We may add a humid hide.

ceramic heat emitter on warm side— ambient temp of about 87. Cool side is around 78-80. The heat rock is non functioning and only decor. We didn’t trust it and chopped the cable just to use it for a little basking place.

he takes frozen food and is on rat fuzzies, which we picked up at repticon. The seller said he’s taken about 14 meals so far. I sent an email about an hour ago for some clarifying questions on actual hatch day.

I let the kiddo handle him for a few minutes before we got him into his setup because I knew we couldn’t hang onto him at first. We are going to offer him a meal after about a week of just not doing anything with him, and from there just gradually allow him to get used to our hands being around the tank but not on him.

im sure I’m forgetting something. But, it gives you an idea of kind of where we are. Commentary is most welcome and appreciated.

Kat

Sounds to me like you all did a good job on your "homework"- :gj: The plastic hides are just fine- normally there's nowhere for mites or their eggs to hide & they're easy to wash. I couldn't tell from the photos what all you might have in the tank- with mites, you need to worry about the organic stuff as far as them hiding or stowing eggs away- those tree-bark tunnels, natural branches, moss, & all substrates other than white paper towels, which are disposable anyway. Or anything with texture (hiding places) like the old heat rock- though that could be soaked anyway, since it's non-functioning.

Real or fake plants have all sorts of hiding places too, though fake plants could be treated in a container full of soapy water & then rinsed after a very long soak- one that's long enough to fully drown* parasites. (* And IF it comes to that, a bit of soap- like dish soap- is essential just to break the surface tension of the water, which allows mites to swim or float & survive- but with no surface tension, they do drown. Real plants would have soil too, presumably, so here's to HOPING there's no snake mites- the plants look lovely. But as you can tell, we're all about health & safety first for our pets. Snake mites are just a nightmare we hope everyone will avoid, because if they're so numerous that they require pesticide to eradicate, that's also a risk for the snake.

Mites are tiny enough to hide under a snake's scales- & they're quite sneaky- hiding around the edges of their eyes, in or near nostrils or cloaca, under their chin...all the places that are hard to look. ;) About the size of the point of a pin- they can be black, brown or red, with the color coming from their blood meal. So keep looking closely for any "moving specs" & also watch the water bowl too- sometimes they fall off in there.

Wonderful that he's had so many meals already- & is already on f/t. (which is our shorthand for frozen-thawed) You're off to a great start, I'd say, & Noodles is a lucky snake.

I’ll watch for the mites. Hopefully we dodged them. Our hens had scaly leg mites once and they are AWFUL to get rid of. I don’t like any mites in any form. Ever. The only thing in the tank that would maybe be an issue would be the real tree branch. We baked it prior to going in the tank. Would the same treatment also destroy mites, if they rear their ugly heads?

We noticed Noodles had the tiniest bit of stuck shed on his tail tip
on the way home. I told my kid “and THAT is why you find a community.” We used you guys on the drive home to figure out how to get it off before he went into his enclosure. So thanks for everything y’all do. Y’all make our lives easier.

Yes, that's why we're here- no such thing as a dumb question- we've all asked them in the past, lol.

Branches- re-baking it IF mites show up, might work if long enough, & you want a low temp. oven so it's not on fire- you can get it wet first too, that helps. But safer just to toss & replace- that's what most would do if mites are found. Hopefully you won't need to decide that.

I'm already very proud of you for noticing his tail tip- that's a good habit to get into, checking his tail tip & also "eye-caps" after every shed to make sure all the old skin was removed.

Ah I didn’t know about the eye caps. We will read up on that.

Not much for me to add but a friendly welcome. :)

Chicken keeping homeschooler here, too, BTW.

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Originally Posted by Malum Argenteum

Not much for me to add but a friendly welcome. :)

Chicken keeping homeschooler here, too, BTW.

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ah, my people! Thanks for the welcome.

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

Well, noodles happened. Kiddo fell in love with this fellow. [IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...E1-BDEF920.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...BBBB2-AF05.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...-E6726-F37.jpg[/IMG]

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did not disappoint - he looks super sharp - v handsome

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...E1-BDEF920.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...BBBB2-AF05.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...-E6726-F37.jpg

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Great pics of a beautiful snake in a pro set up! Kudos all round.

Congratulations on your new critter! That’s a gorgeous pied BP!!

Thank you everyone. We have had him about a week and he took his first meal of f/t rat like a CHAMP.

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

Thank you everyone. We have had him about a week and he took his first meal of f/t rat like a CHAMP.

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:gj: You're off to a great start.

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

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Are you certain they're snake mites? Could you post a close up photo of them, or a detailed description (color, where they're located, etc)?

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

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:( Let's make sure first...as already noted in previous post.

Here's a thread covering most of the options for eradicating snake mites- https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=1#post2771656

Here's a more recent method mentioned in that post- not one I've ever had to try & it wouldn't be my first choice, but we all have our own ideas for what's best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwCAuhSVRV4

The first thing I'd personally do is clean enclosure- throw out all decor & substrate that's made of wood or any porous materials (because that's where mites & their eggs hide)- use plastic hides only, a plastic or glass water bowl, & white paper towels on the "floor".

Then I'd do a daily closely supervised "soak" in tepid/cool water with a drop or 2 (only!) of Ivory or Dawn dish soap- for about 20-30 minutes. The bit of soap is to break the surface tension so mites drown, rather than swim & live. DO NOT hold snake's head under water- accept the fact that some mites will survive there, which is why you still need another method to eradicate all the mites. But doing this is HARMLESS & fairly effective at reducing their number & thus the danger as quickly as possible.

Bear in mind this is a true battle that can take time (a month or potentially more) & will be a physical set-back to your young snake because most likely they'll not want to eat while being treated (due to stress from handling etc), but mites can & do kill snakes, especially young or smaller ones, because mites multiply exponentially- so getting your snake free of ALL mites & their eggs is "job one". Follow all directions carefully because the treatments can also harm or kill a snake if done wrong. I was really hoping :please: you'd avoid this... but it seems that snake mites are widely-shared these days.

Very sure these are mites. I can’t get a picture because he just ate for me, so I don’t want to disturb him. But they are small shiny tear dropped shaped bugs. A couple crawled on his back, and there was one underneath his scales.

I will start treatment in a couple days once he has digested and begin breaking down his cage.

did we determine the styrofoam background has to go?

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

Very sure these are mites. I can’t get a picture because he just ate for me, so I don’t want to disturb him. But they are small shiny tear dropped shaped bugs. A couple crawled on his back, and there was one underneath his scales.

I will start treatment in a couple days once he has digested and begin breaking down his cage.

did we determine the styrofoam background has to go?

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Personally, I'd wait only a day & a half for his digestion- then do the daily soak I described above- keeping him as calm as possible. Meanwhile, manually remove any mites you see anytime, & decide what your treatment option will be- read more on here- ask questions- & order the product if not locally available. Sooner is better.

The best way to handle this is to fix him up in a temporary "tub" with the bare necessities as described- make sure the temps are good, etc. This is to minimize the # of mites that get back ON him from where they're hiding or hatching in the "decor" he currently has.

Let's get more opinions on your styro-background- it "might" be possible to treat that but I'm not positive (there's an awful lot of crevices, right?); it's been [happily] a long time since I had to deal with any mites & I never used such backgrounds, nor any of the chemicals currently available. I'm not sure how well some products might work on that, & in any case, you'd likely need to leave it empty for a good 2 months (life cycle of snake mites is about a month, as I recall?) to be on the safe side? But yes, the safest & easiest option would be to dump the background- bear in mind that I have no idea how much $ you invested in that.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Personally, I'd wait only a day & a half for his digestion- then do the daily soak I described above- keeping him as calm as possible. Meanwhile, manually remove any mites you see anytime, & decide what your treatment option will be- read more on here- ask questions- & order the product if not locally available. Sooner is better.

The best way to handle this is to fix him up in a temporary "tub" with the bare necessities as described- make sure the temps are good, etc. This is to minimize the # of mites that get back ON him from where they're hiding or hatching in the "decor" he currently has.

Let's get more opinions on your styro-background- it "might" be possible to treat that but I'm not positive (there's an awful lot of crevices, right?); it's been [happily] a long time since I had to deal with any mites & I never used such backgrounds, nor any of the chemicals currently available. I'm not sure how well some products might work on that, & in any case, you'd likely need to leave it empty for a good 2 months (life cycle of snake mites is about a month, as I recall?) to be on the safe side? But yes, the safest & easiest option would be to dump the background- bear in mind that I have no idea how much $ you invested in that.

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so, in terms of additional heating that can transfer to a plastic bin, I don’t really have that. Can I break down and disinfect his current tank, using it with two plastic hides and paper towel substrate?

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Originally Posted by GuardianHunter

so, in terms of additional heating that can transfer to a plastic bin, I don’t really have that. Can I break down and disinfect his current tank, using it with two plastic hides and paper towel substrate?

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It's a glass tank, right? Sure thing- strip it, clean it good & use only the items where mites can't hide. White paper towels help so they show up...mites are such nasty things!

As far as the background, I think if you can safely remove it (without breaking it?) you could probably soak it for a while (days?) in soapy water, etc. No idea how sturdy they are though?

BTW, there have been multiple posts from various keepers that use "backgrounds" (assuming similar to what you have) & their snake ends up getting stuck behind them. I personally don't favor such things because they are hard to clean (hide fecal material & germs, along w/ mites) & I only use 'scenery' on the outside of the glass. Just because they sell these things, doesn't mean they're a "good (or practical) idea". ;)

Ok. Thursday morning is a day and a half. We will get him squared away asap.

Side note: yes. Agreed. Just cause it’s sold doesn’t mean it’s best. This is so well demonstrated when a person goes to buy a betta.