new member..new snake..

hi everybody. i am a new member to these forums and i have also bought a new bp for the first time and i am having a problem. i know this is probally common with most bps but i just wanted to see if anybody could help. ive had him/her since april 15 2006 and when i bought him/her the pet store employee said they were "babies" yet its almost 2.5 feet long. everything seems to be pretty healthy. it has eaten 2 live mice within 2 weeks. its deficated once it looks very nice and vibrant (no ashy scales) and at night it is VERY active. the terrarium is set up pretty well (i think) i have a 20 gallon aquarium with astroturf 2 hide spots a few branches for climbing with a heat lamp that stays on/off for 12/12... however every time i even get too close to the aquarium it strikes at me. i understand that its getting use to a new home and needs some space to adapt but its been 2 straight weeks without being handled or bothered at all. i would really be dissapointed to have a snake i cannot handle. is there anything i could do?. any help would be appreciated thanks !!

Hi and welcome aboard!! :handshake:


First off, check out our caresheet and make sure temps and humidity are ok:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=52

Sounds like your basic setup is fine, although there are easier ways to get and maintain the proper environment...but I shall restrain myself since that isn't what you're asking. ;)

Sometimes snakes just need longer to settle in than others. Especially snakes bought in a petstore because, at the very least, they have been kept under extremely stressful situations with less than optimum conditions.

One trick that one of our experienced members recommends for helping a snake feel more secure is to loosely crumple newspaper and fill the entire cage with it. (Not tightly wadded balls) This gives the snake a feeling of being able to hide even when its moving around. After a week or two, start to very gradually remove papers from the top of the pile...until eventually it is all gone.

Besides that, just consistent, gentle, short handling sessions (after the newspaper routine has been completed is best). Takes patience and persistence. One of our great mods has a ball python that was a wild-caught adult when she got it....it was extremely aggressive and stressed out...but after a lot of patience and working with her, she's turned into a model of good behavior and "happy" snake! Hopefully she'll chime in here with her experience.

hey thank you so much for the help judy i really do appreciate it. you seem to know what your talking about so i have another question

(for you or anybody else)

im thinking about getting a 2nd or maybe a pair of a different type of snake.
if i do get another snake im not sure what i would like. as much as i LOVE the appearance and everything else i know i would not be able to take proper care of a boa constrictor. so i think i'll wait on that idea. im thinking maybe perhaps a corn snake? or a couple garter snakes? living in chicago i dont have many choices seeing is pretty much everything you do or have is illegal here. i have a very young niece who i would like to be able to hold it. also with corn snakes they too eat mice. so it would be a 1 stop trip for the meals for my ball and my corn snakes..... i have NO idea on prices for cornsnakes at all... are they expensive?... ive looked all over the internet and seen prices from 49.99-300.00!! that doesnt help much.

once again thanks in advance for showing kindess to a newcommer:D

i also have a few pictures of my ball python.

i do not have my digital camera yet i had to take them with my sidekicks camera so the quality is horrible.

:welcome: to the site!! Please feel free to post pics. Unless they're so blurry you can tell if it's a snake or a belt. lol ;)

As for a second snake you may want to look at spotted pythons, rosy boas, and even kenyan sand boas. They are stay relatively small. I've been wanting a nice spotted for awhile now. If I find a nice adult, I probably won't be able to help myself. lol. Anyway there's a couple suggestions.

lol the pictures arent that bad..at least not as bad as a belt... maybe a rope:P
i might be mistaken but the 3 types of snakes you named arent at any pet stores i know of where i live.. i only recall a few types of snakes such as
ball pythons
red tail boas
garter snakes
corn snakes


here are a couple pictures from the first day he/she was brought home..
keep in mind the geniuses at the pet store said they were "babies" now im not the brightest person when it comes to snakes..... buuuuttt it doesnt look like that much of a baby to me.. how old would you say this lil rascal is?...
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...2/25ec76ad.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Photo_168.jpg

You can purchase different species, online. Just find a reputable breeder to deal with. I know I have seen spotteds and rosy here, but no kenyan sand boas. If you are near a reptile show, I'd advise you to research and then attend.

Without a size reference it's hard to tell how long/big he is. Although he does have a nice pattern to him. :gj: Very nice. :D

thanks

as i said earlier its really hard to handle him so im not sure how to weigh him i really dont wanna stress it out to much after the eating is going so well

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

:welcome: to the site!! Please feel free to post pics. Unless they're so blurry you can tell if it's a snake or a belt. lol ;)

As for a second snake you may want to look at spotted pythons, rosy boas, and even kenyan sand boas. They are stay relatively small. I've been wanting a nice spotted for awhile now. If I find a nice adult, I probably won't be able to help myself. lol. Anyway there's a couple suggestions.

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check out http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=7&de=402768

:P Just helpin

Gorgeous pattern on that guy! And like Christie said, it's hard to tell how big he is with those pictures, but I would guess a juvenile. Just guessing, though.


As for another snake, corn snakes are great. They come in a LOT of different colors (morphs) and that is why you see such a wide swing in prices...kind of depends on how common or rare that particular morph is. You can always find affordable cornsnakes though. And they're very easy to take care of.

If you're looking for something your niece can hold, keep in mind that a baby or young corn can be highly agitated and flighty. Not at all suitable for very young hands. This is true for most any baby snake I can think of. Your best bet with a youngster is to hold the snake yourself and let her pet it, which you can do just fine with the BP, too.

do you really need to buy a garter snake cause aren't those like everywere

yeah i also thought about that. i remember as a young kid going to abandoned railroad tracks and finding 3 or 4 a day.. and at the time i never wanted one as a pet.. just one to hold for a minutes and let it go back to the wild... no that i want one i cant find any outside... plus i dont think its right to take something from the wild and put in in a 10-20 gallon glass tank.. even though thats probally what 90% of pet shops do...

well actually i just handled my bp for the first time with no striking at all.
actually he crawled around my hand while i was changing the bedding. so i just slowly lifted him up...

as for corn snakes im looking for something under 50-60.00 i think theyre one of the most beautiful colored snakes available for that cheap... and i heard they can grow up to 3-5 feet which is about the average size for a bp.

heres a couple pictures i have NO idea why he came out with a red tint
enjoy my crappy camera phone pictures ...

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...2/1a36d461.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...2/61cb2022.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...2/214f1614.jpg

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...2/488b19f3.jpg

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Originally Posted by slipknot666

do you really need to buy a garter snake cause aren't those like everywere

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Garter snakes are great snakes to keep. They do not require rodents, are very active during the day, are fun to watch, and are great display snakes. Just because an animal may appear to be 'everywhere' does not make it a bad animal to keep.....there are probably more ball python owners than garter snake owners in the US.

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...and i heard they can grow up to 3-5 feet which is about the average size for a bp.

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That may be the same length as a BP, but the size is much different. Corn snakes will stay very slender compared to any BP. For instance, my BP is 31" long (as of my last measurement)....and my gopher snake is somewhat over 4' long...hard to say exactly because it's VERY hard to get a shot of him being still long enough to measure. But looking at the two, you would swear the BP is a much larger animal, even though the gopher is much longer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daniel1983

Garter snakes are great snakes to keep. They do not require rodents, are very active during the day, are fun to watch, and are great display snakes. Just because an animal may appear to be 'everywhere' does not make it a bad animal to keep.....there are probably more ball python owners than garter snake owners in the US.

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i dont think he meant it as "why would you get a garter snake when its such a popular pet and everyone has one"
i think he meant it as in the sense why would you pay for one when they're free everywhere outside..

can anybody reccomend any good websites to buy snakes and have them shipped besides lllreptile.com if you wanna keep it secret you could pm me ;) lol... thanks

That's a pretty broad request. Any specific snakes you are looking for?

Give kingsnake breeder listings a try. :)

Welcome to the forum. I'm the Mod that had a really aggressive BP for awhile. Brannagh was an adult when we got her from a pet store though not for sure wild caught. It gets a bit confusing because in a really short space of time we adopted a non-eating confirmed wild caught adult female and then found two more adult females at our local pet store LOL. Bit of a crazy time.

Anyway, Brannagh was highly aggressive and struck at anything that moved near her enclosure. The newspaper trick is a good one and I'd definitely recommend it. Brann was so stressed she couldn't even use her hides as she felt the need to patrol and defend her enclosure till the point of exhaustion. The crumpled up newspaper took care of that. Time, firm but gentle handling, routine...routine...routine and the wearing of gloves till she stopped trying to nail us took care of the rest. Fast forward a few months and this big 2,000 gram female that was once so aggressive that we couldn't even safely change her water is now being handled by children.

The big thing is to realize this isn't about a mean snake or even aggression just to be aggressive. It's about fear. That snake you've just gotten might have been wild born or it might be captive born, whatever it is, it's still been through some reptile supply company, then a pet store, now to you so it stands to reason it's a bit freaked out.

Try making sure that the enclosure is in a very quiet room in your house, not the main room. Maybe cover three sides of the glass with a background stuck to the outside so only the front is open, clear glass. Add in as much as you can so there's very little open space for the snake to deal with (hides, etc). Make sure your husbandry as far as temps and humidity is bang on (glass tanks are a challenge but it can be done). Do whatever you can to minimize stress and fear driven strikes but realize they are going to happen so put on gloves for now. The bite won't really hurt but why get bitten if you don't need to and it can cause the snake to lose a tooth in your skin so again....why risk that. For me, gloves are a useful tool.

Other than that, establish routines and stick to them every step, every time. Regular, short handling preferably in the evening when these nocturnal snakes are naturally more active. Very calm, very firm handling. Make sure the removal from his/her enclosure and the return to it are calm and easy. Even if this snake is flipping out don't return it until it calms even for a millisecond. Don't push the handling at first...even 2 good minutes of calm handling is a step forward. Baby steps, patience, compassion for the snake's fear, routines that the snake will start to recognize...also don't be stressed yourself when handling. I firmly believe the snake's sense this (they are after all highly tuned predators), so if you are feeling rushed or stressed or concerned about a bite, skip the handling session till you are calm and ready.

One of our habits is to open the snake's enclosure, lift the hide if they are in it, gently stroke them down their lower body then lift them out. We do this every single time so they know this means a lift is coming. Just another routine for them to recognize as non-threatening.

Best of luck with your new snake. Don't worry that it's a mean one. Lots of snakes take time to settle in and handling will come in time. Your scaley friend will be with you for upwards of 20 years so a few months now is such a small investment in a lifetime of companionship. Some don't ever adjust to a lot of handling and after all they are snakes, not puppies so they don't even need handling. That's a gift for us more than a need for them. You'll eventually know what your own snake's limits are, just be watchful of how it reacts and respect it's natural limits.

:welcome:..and your little guy is very pretty!!! If you're lookin for that corn,I highly recommend a reptile show.....pet stores have inflated prices to cover overhead, and on the web, the animals are usually set in price. ......at a reptile show though, dealers are looking to make quick cash, so the animals are priced to go. Plus, you can haggle dealers as well to drop a price lower.Every show I've been to had a plethora of corns, tons of colors and all sizes. There is no doubt in my mind you could get a well started yearling for the price you stated....heck, if you settled for babies, you could get a pair!!!You should go to South Mountain Reptiles' website...they have awesome pics of the color and pattern varieties you could check out, just to get an idea of what you can choose from.

thanks alot for all of your comments everybody. although im not sure of any reptile shows anywhere near where i live. il look into that. i mean any snake that can be handled is perfectly fine. im not too worried about the husbandry or taking care of the snakes because i take proper care of all of them the best i can ive had about maybe 40 or 50 reptiles in my life and maybe 10 out of all of them died the rest were sold off because i was so young and they started getting too big for me to handle (plus my moms scared of anything thats not human)..


i love the color patterns on corn snakes and the way they seem so docile. i would perfer to keep the price of the snake under 40 or 50.00. on lllreptile i seen that they had a pair of ball pythons for 99.00 plus 29.95 for shipping. but then again i really do not think im ready for a pair of bp's that are going to breed seeing as i have no idea of making incubators or anything of that such..

by the way what do you guys think about reptimart.com and reptileauctions.com? it seems like they have ball pythons for VERY cheap...

That place is rampant with scammers and I would not purchases from there.

Anyone else notice that his bp looks REALLY thin? Maybe its the camera phone pic but it looks like his body is very triangle-shaped...definitely looks underweight to me.

that may just be the pictures.. or not... im not sure but ive been feeding him/her small mice once every 3 or 4 days and ive never had a problem with him refusing to eat...

uhhh 3-4 days is a little too frequent for a bp... sure, he may not refuse now, but he'll probably end up going on a hunger strike for a while. You should be feeding him one adult mouse every week, don't worry, he'll bulk out in no time.

Now that you pointed that out, I've been looking at the pics really closely. He does look a bit thin.

I will also agree that feeding every 3-4 days is unnecessary. Feed a couple of the mice at one feeding, once a week. Digestion for snakes requires a lot of energy from them and their bodies undergo a physiological change while digesting. Here's a link. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...02_python.html

It's fine to feed multiples. Just wait until the first one has been consumed and then wait 5 minutes and offer a second.

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Originally Posted by dca367437

....but then again i really do not think im ready for a pair of bp's that are going to breed seeing as i have no idea of making incubators or anything of that such..

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Not that I'm trying to encourage you to get another BP, but I did want to point out that having a male and female doesn't mean you should have eggs. They should always be kept in separate enclosures except for the intentional and temporary time together to breed. So...if you never put them together, then you shouldn't have to worry about eggs. :)

As far as the pictures...personally, I can't tell if the snake is too thin or not. Seems ok to me. But the others are right on with their feeding advice.

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

It's fine to feed multiples. Just wait until the first one has been consumed and then wait 5 minutes and offer a second.

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when i said 4-5 days i meant feed him one very small mouse and then after he hides for about 12 or 13 hours feed him the next night when hes active again.
i bought some new stuff for the cage today... he looks like hes much happier in the bark rather than the green astroturf... he was active all day today

and jlc i would LOVE another bp.. the only thing is this is a present from someone else to me... kind of like a late birthday present that i know about.. so i would perfer to keep it very cheap.. as cheap as possible seeing as shes already buying me the aquarium,screen top,hide boxes,repti-bark,thermometer, hygrometer,etc. if i could find a baby bp around my area for cheap (between 40-60)i would be happy to buy another one they seem to be my favorite snake. i seen a few corn snakes which look nice but for prices like that i would much rather pay a little more for another bp.

as for the 4-5 days being a little too frequent.. i think i might move it down to one adult mouse a week.

thanks for the help all of you!!