List off the biggest mistakes new ball python owners make?

I'd like to avoid making too many mistakes, any advice is welcome!

Well as a new owner ( 6 months in now- first snake) here were the things I wish I had known.

test your heat before you get your snake! I had an under tank but my cold site wouldn’t keep warm enough, had to do an overhead CHE to help and that while having a snake in there was stressful for both of us.

best places to get a good variety of frozen thawed prey- my snake wouldn’t eat artic mice brand, and I drove to a bunch of pet stores looking for that right size

worriying about his size- goodness I weighed and weighed- did he poop was he gaining too much or too little. Over the last six months he will grow like crazy one month and then only gain 10 g the next- haven’t figured it all out yet, but stressing about it didn’t change anything.

Overall he’s been a great addition, my son loves him and I’m quite fond of him as well!

I think this is number one- set up & fully test your set-up for a week at least before the new snake moves in, so you have time to make changes & get other equipment if it's needed, without stressing the snake.

Similarly, reading up on ball pythons to better understand their needs & personality. Don't expect a shy nocturnal ambush predator to be an active "social butterfly" by day. And understanding the importance of their prey being the right temperature: that BPs rely on their heat-sensing pits to recognize prey- and that your warm, wiggling hands may confuse them.

Bites are very easy to avoid, for the most part, when you learn a snake's body language, & think about how you're being perceived by the snake. #1 They don't really recognize you visually- they need other cues (touch, scent).

Thank you for the advice! I recently got a hatchling BP 2 weeks ago after doing 6 years of research on them.
I find ball pythons fascinating but I'm so afraid I'll mess up.
I'm always looking to learn more, update me on anymore advice you can think of!

I don't know my BP exact age, all of know is that she's young (less than a year old)
Is a scale necessary to monitor her growth/weight?
I've just been watching how sloped her spine is; if that makes sense.
Should I order one as soon as possible?

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Originally Posted by Ruby

Thank you for the advice! I recently got a hatchling BP 2 weeks ago after doing 6 years of research on them.
I find ball pythons fascinating but I'm so afraid I'll mess up.
I'm always looking to learn more, update me on anymore advice you can think of!

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Of COURSE you'll mess up. We all do, that's how we learn. ;) But we're here to help you avoid making the really BIG mistakes. :D

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Originally Posted by Ruby

I don't know my BP exact age, all of know is that she's young (less than a year old)
Is a scale necessary to monitor her growth/weight?
I've just been watching how sloped her spine is; if that makes sense.
Should I order one as soon as possible?

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If you have spare money lying around & don't need to save it for essentials, a digital scale may help put your mind at ease, especially since you seem to be worried. It can also help to weigh the prey if you're not sure what size is appropriate for your snake.

But it's not absolutely necessary. I have a scale & rarely ever use it. I don't routinely weigh any of my snakes & never have- I've been keeping many snakes for decades. My scale is only in case of illness, to calculate a dose of medication- that sort of thing. I use it most often to calculate postage on things I'm mailing...:D

Also, if you post pics here we can help you assess your snake's weight. One downside of using a scale to keep weighing your snake, especially a new snake, is that the process is rather stressful for the snake, & tends to add to your worries. I can't tell you how many people think their snake is (gasp!) "losing weight" when actually all they did was just take a dump. :rofl: A snake's weight doesn't have to perfectly conform to a chart- the main thing is that they look & act healthy. It's mostly common sense. Now, if your snake goes on an extended fast, that would be a good time to keep track of their weight. Otherwise, relax...;) Not all snakes grow at the same rate, any more than humans do. A snake that is slightly underfed is better off (healthier) than one which is over-fed.

I definitely think one of the most damaging things people do as new owners is immediately start impulse-acquiring a huge collection, buying a dozen or so random morphs with an eye towards making big bucks with breeding before they know how morphs are even inherited / which ones have issues etc. I've seen people buying more and more snakes on loans/credit because they've already calculated in their head how much they're going to sell this or that baby for every year, and counting their profits before they've hatched.
Not that I think you're likely to do that, but it can be really tempting to go "oh I don't have this morph, oh this one's cool too, oh I'll just get all of these, oh someone on craigslist is dropping their entire collection for cheap!" and the bottom seems to be falling out of the ball python "bubble" at least somewhat right now so people are having more and more issues paying for feeders, heat, etc for all these snakes. They're becoming more costly to care for, so keeping an eye on that and making sure we do our best for the animals we have I think is the best we can do.

Ah, I see. I'll get a scale later down the line, I don't want to stress her out too much.
Not sure how to post pictures on here, but I've updated my profile to a picture of her.

Currently I'm feeding her rat pups; I feed her prey that's either the same size as the widest part of her body OR something slightly larger.

Is this a good way to decide prey size without a scale? Thank you all for answering my questions! :)

Also, would it be a good idea to give her more variety; chicks, quails, baby rabbits etc.

Obviously rats would be her main diet but I don't want her to have a deficiency in certain nutrients and or too much of another one.

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Originally Posted by Ruby

...
Not sure how to post pictures on here, but I've updated my profile to a picture of her...

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In the sub-forum "BP Pictures" you'll find this "sticky" (ie. permanent for reference) thread:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures

The more you explore in "Forum" (upper left, dark blue), the easier it is to find things here. Lot's more here than you might have realized. ;)

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Originally Posted by Ruby

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Currently I'm feeding her rat pups; I feed her prey that's either the same size as the widest part of her body OR something slightly larger.

Is this a good way to decide prey size without a scale? Thank you all for answering my questions! :)

Also, would it be a good idea to give her more variety; chicks, quails, baby rabbits etc.

Obviously rats would be her main diet but I don't want her to have a deficiency in certain nutrients and or too much of another one.

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I'd suggest feeding nothing wider than her mid-body- no need to push food, & sometimes when BPs are fed larger items than they need, they seem MORE likely to go on fasts, which is a pain.

Some snakes accept a wide variety of prey easily, but BPs are not known for that- they tend to be picky eaters, sometimes even to the point of wanting the same color rodent, so personally I'd stick with what works. If she's eating rats, stick with rats, & don't worry about it. Or, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"! ;)

If you feed something else now, she may then decide to refuse rats & insist on the new food. BPs can be quite finicky, perhaps because these are not their normal prey in the wild but rather domestic animals more readily available fed in substitution.

If you want to feed her natural diet, that would probably be ASFs (African soft-furred rodents) but they're harder to come by because they're harder to breed & therefore more expensive. Think carefully before you switch, & do some research- depending on where you live, they may not even be legal to buy. Check prices with online sources- & consider what you'd do if they went out of business or stopped shipping to your location for any reason. Personally, I'd stick with rats.

Thanks!

First, mice and then rats are fine. I wouldn't feed ASF as BP's can imprint on those and they can be hard to get, as mentioned.

Don't feed too big a meal as explained. Try to get your snake on F/T for your sake, and more importantly, your BP's.

Mistakes people make:

1. Wrong temps or humidity. NOT getting a thermostat - which is a must. Also not properly checking temps. IR temp gun for ground temps is a must IMO.

2. Handling too much. Let your snake settle in. Get a few meals in. Then start gentle handling sessions - short ones. A few minutes every few days to start.

3. Anthropomorphizing. Your BP is a snake, not a human. Learn what makes snakes tick, not what you think your snake wants.

4. Not enough or proper sized hides.

5. Getting too many snakes too fast.

6. Not properly quarantining new additions. This must be done ALWAYS and for any new addition after your first.

7. Going for tank setups that humans think look cool, but are not best for your snake.

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Originally Posted by Ruby

Ah, I see. I'll get a scale later down the line, I don't want to stress her out too much.
Not sure how to post pictures on here, but I've updated my profile to a picture of her.

Currently I'm feeding her rat pups; I feed her prey that's either the same size as the widest part of her body OR something slightly larger.

Is this a good way to decide prey size without a scale? Thank you all for answering my questions! :)

Also, would it be a good idea to give her more variety; chicks, quails, baby rabbits etc.

Obviously rats would be her main diet but I don't want her to have a deficiency in certain nutrients and or too much of another one.

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The general rule of thumb for BPs is to not feed them something bigger than the widest part of their body, so you're doing great with that, unfortunately we cant tell how big she is off of her pic on your profile, you should be good with rat pups following the general rule of thumb like you already stated. Most breeders try to stick to just rats, but BPs can be picky eaters. Personally i have a few that went off food and i tried a whole bunch of different things but in the end they just wanted something else to eat besides rats. I started to feed them Mice and they instantly went for it. This isnt always the case when they go off of food but a good tip. As far as switching it up on your own, i think it would be a decent idea just to try and give them something else to eat vs constantly eating the same thing for their whole life, But just an FYI if they do take the new prey they can go off food if you tried to switch back to rats after so keep that in mind that once you give them something else they can become stuck on that new prey and wont go back to the previous. Out of my 3 that i had to switch to mice, ive only been able to get one of them so far back onto rats and the other two wont even look in the rats direction when i try to feed them even though theyve eaten rats the whole time ive had them up until that point they went off food.

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Originally Posted by Lawrencegmfu

The general rule of thumb for BPs is to not feed them something bigger than the widest part of their body, so you're doing great with that, unfortunately we cant tell how big she is off of her pic on your profile, you should be good with rat pups following the general rule of thumb like you already stated. Most breeders try to stick to just rats, but BPs can be picky eaters. Personally i have a few that went off food and i tried a whole bunch of different things but in the end they just wanted something else to eat besides rats. I started to feed them Mice and they instantly went for it. This isnt always the case when they go off of food but a good tip. As far as switching it up on your own, i think it would be a decent idea just to try and give them something else to eat vs constantly eating the same thing for their whole life, But just an FYI if they do take the new prey they can go off food if you tried to switch back to rats after so keep that in mind that once you give them something else they can become stuck on that new prey and wont go back to the previous. Out of my 3 that i had to switch to mice, ive only been able to get one of them so far back onto rats and the other two wont even look in the rats direction when i try to feed them even though theyve eaten rats the whole time ive had them up until that point they went off food.

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#Lawrencegmfu. Good point on the how big the food should be. BP's can be picky, but the vast majority will switch to rats and for that matter, F/T food, given some time and patience. Some will stick with mice, but in general I think BP's get a bad reputation that isn't necessarily deserved.

Further, I wouldn't be switching food items because they can be picky. If/when you get your BP on rats, just stick with them. That's pretty much all BP's eat in the wild. Remember, snakes eat the entire rat. So they get fur, bones, muscle, organs, etc. This is a full diet. Rats are also good regarding fat content, etc. Could a BP eat other food sources, yes, but they aren't natural to them, could get them to stop eating food items you want them to eat, like rats, and there is no need.

Studies have been done on the nutritional content of different food items for snakes. In general, rats are awesome in terms of fat content, protein, size, etc.

I know a few people who supplement with vitamins, but I am old school and have snakes who live long and healthy lives on rats. What matters more is the source and health of the rats and what they have been fed. This is true for live especially, but also F/T.

Put loads of branches, bark pieces , hides and fake foliage in the viv / rub / tank

They love climbing in evenings plus they detest wide open spaces

Sure the negative is it’s slightly harder to do a clean up but you can rearrange everything then and that keeps life interesting for them ..


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Originally Posted by dakski

... What matters more is the source and health of the rats and what they have been fed. This is true for live especially, but also F/T.

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That right there. You want to buy from reputable sources that feed their rodents properly- not on "junk food". The old saying "you are what you eat" applies to animals too.

And there are plenty of people that argue for one or the other (rats or mice) as being the "best nutrition", but they're very close in nutritional values when scientific studies have been done, so don't lose sleep over that.

The REAL reason rats are preferred for BPs is that when your snake gets larger, the appropriate "meal" size would be one small rat* or 2 adult mice, so which one do you think is more efficient & easier to provide? The single item (rat of correct size) of course! (Note: some snakes will only eat one item per meal, no matter what size it is. They instinctively get stressed & feel the need to hide after eating, as they would in the wild, where other predators are after them too & they're "exposed" when busy swallowing a meal.)

*A very large adult female BP might take up to a medium rat, but don't go above that size- & keep in mind that male BPs don't get as large as females, & if overfed, tend to go on fasts, which is a real pain (you'll keep wasting food, offering when they won't eat).

Make sure you buy a food eater / feeder !!


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Make sure you buy a food eater / feeder !!


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Huh? :confusd:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Huh? :confusd:

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Make sure you buy a GOOD feeder / eater

:)

Predictive text glitch


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Excellent wealth of info throughout this post!