ball python newb and I have a couple questions about my tank

Hello.. i just got me a ball python last Saturday in the Dixie reptile show and I have a question about my tank setup. Right now the humidty is at 60% (the larger gauge) and the tempurature is 80F(to the right of the humidty gauge) and I have another gauage sitting on top of the log and it reads 88F. Is the tempurature and the humidity good for him? Usually when I come home he will be laying right under the lamp, he used to always be laying on top of the pillars directly under the lamp(because he was cold?) but I got him one of those under the tank heating pads so now he is usually cuddled under the log or around the pillars. The heating mat is under the log to the right a bit. The substrate is reptibark. Also, is there anything I should add/remove from the tank? I havent fed him yet but I have him some frozen mice already. My brother feeds his snakes (kingsnake and western hognose) in separate cages, should I do the same also?
Here are a couple pictures of the tank, and my snake it wrapped around the pillars.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...snaketank2.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../snaketank.jpg

i believe the humidity is fine, but are you saying its around the 80s thoroughout? try and break up the temperature with 80s on one side and 90s on the other.


Btw- had to post simply because it was the Dixie Reptile Show- Sweet! tis the only one i know of around in the Alabama area that ive got easy access to.

Pretty good!


I'd tweek it some more. The basics of what you need are:

A temperature gradient - as in one side of the tank at 92F one side at 82F to allow your snake to thermoregulate.

60% humidity - rising to 80% during sheds.

A hide available on the warm side and the cool side.


So I would put a UHT on the warmside with a thermostat set to 92F, move the lamp to the center, put the water bowl directly underneath it. Get a digital thermometer/humidstat (way more accurate that the strip or dial kind), also a IR temp gun is great for measuring the temps of the substrate the snake is on to make sure you are hitting the 82/92 gradient.

Also the mesh top on that viv will allow heat and humidity to escape (we use the same kind), so you can put some plastic food wrap over it, or have some plexiglass cut to fit, with a hole for the heat lamp to go above.

(I personally also add a UHT to the cool side with it's own thermostat, but that's overkill to be honest!)

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your first ball python! Here's the link to our caresheet on bp's. It will give you the specifics for these snakes and should be a lot of help to you.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=52

Just a suggestion but those analog gauges are known to be very unreliable and can be off by quite a bit. Here's what a lot of us use.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../Accu-Rite.jpg

It's actually not sold for snakes but works very well. You can find it at WalMart (brand name Acu-Rite) for around $12.00 or at Lowe's or Home Depot (sold under another brand name), that plus the cost of one AAA battery. It defaults to time, temp and humidity but push a few buttons and you have two temps plus humidity. Very handy and very reliable to monitor your environment.

Once you get your temps and humidity within the correct ranges, just let your snake settle in for a good week of no handling and you should be good to go for your first feeding attempt.


~~Jo~~

alrighty, how can i get the tempurature hotter in there? I think its only 88F because of the lamp, but if I move the lamp to the center of the cage the tempurature will prolly drop down. i forgot to say its a 20 gallon long tank

The heating pads that stick to the underside of the tank are highly recommended, but use a thermostat with them. That's what I was talking about.

Around here big pet stores and reptile stores tend to carry both the ZooMed and T-Rex brands, along with ZooMed thermostats (not so good) and Alife thermostats (okay).

If there is no where local to you, then MG Reptiles can hook you up with what you need. They are a forum sponsor, you should be able to find the ad :)

I forgot to add that the temps you are mostly concerned with are the belly temps, as in the temperature of the bedding you are using. A stick on thermometer will measure the air temp at its location. You need a thermometer with a probe, or a IR temp gun to take readings of the bottom.

For example, in our balls enclosure (also a 20L and pretty similar to yours) the stick on thermometer for measuring air temps read 78-82 most of the time, depending on the temp of the room. The cool side belly temps are 82 and the warmside belly temps are 92.

I hope that clears up what I was trying to explain a little :)

ooh I get it now.. awesome man. aruond here we have a Petco, a petsmart and a Wetpets, so they should carry a thermostat in one of those. Ill have to stop by walmart this week and get an acu-rite

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mm91187

alrighty, how can i get the tempurature hotter in there? I think its only 88F because of the lamp, but if I move the lamp to the center of the cage the tempurature will prolly drop down. i forgot to say its a 20 gallon long tank

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If you've got a UTH plugged in without any regulation, it can get really HOT. Chances are your temps are much higher than you think they are. The very first thing you need to do is get an acurate reading of temps. The thermometer that Jo gave a picture of is really great, inexpensive, and easily obtained.

I would also get that UTH plugged into a rheostat (dimmer switch) so you can keep it from getting too hot and burning your snake. You can get these very inexpensively at any hardware store and the heating unit just plugs right into it. Easy as pie.

EDIT: The rheostat is just a first step to controlling those temps. If you get a thermostat first, you can skip the dimmer all together...although it may still be useful to control temps on the cool side of the tank if you need a second heat source to get the right gradient.

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Originally Posted by mm91187

ooh I get it now.. awesome man. aruond here we have a Petco, a petsmart and a Wetpets, so they should carry a thermostat in one of those. Ill have to stop by walmart this week and get an acu-rite

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Are you in Montgomery?? I just moved away from there this past summer. Wetpets was a really neat pet store with some awesome herps!!

Yeah i am in montgomery lol.. my brother gets his pinkies and fuzzies from wetpets and we have a few friends that work there too. I might drive to walmart tonight and look for that acurite and maybe a few rheostats cause we have 3 snakes all together and none of them have rheostats

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Originally Posted by JLC

I would also get that UTH plugged into a rheostat (dimmer switch) so you can keep it from getting too hot and burning your snake. You can get these very inexpensively at any hardware store and the heating unit just plugs right into it. Easy as pie.

EDIT: The rheostat is just a first step to controlling those temps. If you get a thermostat first, you can skip the dimmer all together...although it may still be useful to control temps on the cool side of the tank if you need a second heat source to get the right gradient.

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Hey, what kind of rheostat are you talking about? I went to home depot and looked around and the only thing they had was a white box that you tap, and each time you touch it it changes from low-med-high-off and it was used for lamps and was $10. I saw another but it only turned it off and on. I was looking for something like this that I found off another ball python website and the guy from that website is talking about the same thing but I couldnt find it

hey- about wetpets; do they sell frozen? we got some from petco for about 3$, jw incase i run out (i like to buy bulk at Dixie Reptile Show) ... (or did when i had my corn; Cyd)

im always excited by the prospect of a closer/cheaper foodsource!

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Originally Posted by Krynos

(I personally also add a UHT to the cool side with it's own thermostat, but that's overkill to be honest!)

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Personally, I'd go "overkill" too if I had a glass tank. Have you considered doing a write up on your setup? Its really well done as far as heating/humidity on a glass enclosure goes, and I'm sure it would definitely help out the new owners who do not wish to keep their pets in a sterelite/rubbermaid home. :)

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Originally Posted by shhhli

hey- about wetpets; do they sell frozen? we got some from petco for about 3$, jw incase i run out (i like to buy bulk at Dixie Reptile Show) ... (or did when i had my corn; Cyd)

im always excited by the prospect of a closer/cheaper foodsource!

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Yeah wetpets does have frozen mice, i went there a couple days ago and got a frozen fuzzy/hopper for $1.75, my brother got a bundle of 25 fuzzies from Dixie reptile show for $12

Oh yeah, I got another question. When it's feeding time, should I put my BP in another cage or should I feed it in its regular tank? My brother puts his in a separate feeding cage so they dont eat the substrate or so they dont his fingers on accident

You can feed in a seperate feeding container if you wish however a lot here feed in the snake's home enclosure.

From my point of view, I avoid moving a snake that is primed to eat and may be a bit nippy due to that, I don't have to move the snake back with a full belly and I think the snakes are more comfortable hunting in their own environment (I feed live). This is just my take on it though. As far as them ingesting substrate...they are made to fully digest whole prey (bones, teeth, fur, etc) so a bit of substrate isn't likely to cause them issues. If you are concerned you can always put a pad of clean newspaper down temporarily on top of the loose substrate. Also if the prey is not wet from being defrosted (if you feed frozen/thawed) it isn't likely to pick up much substrate anyways.

As far as them going for your hand, if you regularily are in there cleaning, freshening their water and gently handling them they soon know what is what. Establish habits and patterns the snake can recognize. We have a slightly different pattern on feeding day and the snakes seem to know it's time for eating. Make sure your hand never smells of prey...use hemostats, long tweezers or kitchen tongs if you offer frozen/thawed or pre-killed prey not your bare hands.

The fact is though if you own snakes, you are going to get nipped occasionally. Just part of the deal LOL.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by mm91187

Hey, what kind of rheostat are you talking about? I went to home depot and looked around and the only thing they had was a white box that you tap, and each time you touch it it changes from low-med-high-off and it was used for lamps and was $10. I saw another but it only turned it off and on. I was looking for something like this that I found off another ball python website and the guy from that website is talking about the same thing but I couldnt find it

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I found mine in the lighting/lamp area of the store. They had a LOT of different types. Mine is a small, white box with a sliding switch on it. You plug the dimmer into the socket, and then plug the heat source into the dimmer-socket.

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Originally Posted by JLC

I found mine in the lighting/lamp area of the store. They had a LOT of different types. Mine is a small, white box with a sliding switch on it. You plug the dimmer into the socket, and then plug the heat source into the dimmer-socket.

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Oooh.. I was in he lighting section and the only ones they had were the box shaped ones that you touch to cahnge the settings. I might stop be Lowes or the other home depot, does yours look like this?

Looks exactly like that. :)

awesome, ill have to pick up a couple of these tomorow

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Originally Posted by iceman25

Personally, I'd go "overkill" too if I had a glass tank. Have you considered doing a write up on your setup? Its really well done as far as heating/humidity on a glass enclosure goes, and I'm sure it would definitely help out the new owners who do not wish to keep their pets in a sterelite/rubbermaid home. :)

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Sure I can do that :) Probably sometime over the weekend.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

As far as them ingesting substrate...they are made to fully digest whole prey (bones, teeth, fur, etc) so a bit of substrate isn't likely to cause them issues. If you are concerned you can always put a pad of clean newspaper down temporarily on top of the loose substrate.

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Cleo had several bits of aspen during one feed - pooped just fine.

However, just to avoid problems (mostly ours worrying!), I cut a piece of clean cardboard to fit inside the one end of tank (for both Cleo and Carmen). We remove hides/plants from the cool end, place the cardboard down, I hold the live mousey with long tweezers at the base of the tail on the cardboard, snakey sniff, snakey slither close, snakey strike. Eats on the cardboard, which we remove after she slithers off to digest. =)

lol i like your avatar =D
thats not a bad idea.. i wanna see how he eats the first time, i might try that out though