Newbie..

Hey everyone..
As a kid I was a big snake lover. I had a few boa's, pythons etc.
finally after many years and a child later.. I got myself 2 baby ball pythons!
I have a nice looking female and a beautiful pastel male. I'm just so excited to be a snake owner again, especially of the royal python. They are very cool snakes and extremely polite for a reptile! I think they are the ultimate pet.
Anyways.. I remember back when a ball python was just a ball python and were almost considered boring. NOW.. its so different.. all different kinds and I'm lost. Herps? Have no idea what that terminology means! I'm stuck in the past when it comes to these snakes and some of my knownlegde is a little rusty to say the least. I'm happy to be on this bored though and I'm hoping everyone is cool. So I wanted to say hi and if anyone wants to drop me knowledge... I'm like a sponge and I love to soak it all in!.. Joey is the real name.. hiya everyone!
gLoBaL mInD~

Hi Joey,

I, like you was out of snakes for years. Now that I'm old as the hills I decided to get me a collection going again. Having a great time of it too. There are a lot of people with much more knowledgable than me online but I'll help when I can. Just wanted to say welcome aboard.

:D :welcome:

Welcome fellow noob....... :snake:

Hi Joey and Welcome:) I'm a new snake owner also. Everyone here has been very friendly and full of helpful info!

:welcome: Glad to have ya! :carrot:

Hey welcome how are your snakes? Also a herp is the "Proper" name for reptiles. Hope you enjoy the site its great here.

Welcome. Herp is a shortened form of herpetology, which is the branch of zoology that deals with reptiles and amphibians.

Here are a couple links that may help you out on terminology as well...
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules...._content&eid=1
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=31102
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=30763

If you still have a specific question just ask. ;)

Hi and welcome to BPNet. Hope you enjoy your time here and enjoy the many threads you'll find here. Everyone is going to bug you for pics of your snakes LOL.

Welcome to the Club! Or should I say back to the club, we have repainted and changed the curtains but otherwise we still all love snakes so look around and ask whenever you have questions.

Welcome to BP.net and back into the world of Herps :D This place is -loaded- with information, from correct husbandry to "do snakes fart?" so pull up a chair and plan to spend waaay too much time here! :sunny:

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

Welcome to BP.net and back into the world of Herps :D This place is -loaded- with information, from correct husbandry to "do snakes fart?" so pull up a chair and plan to spend waaay too much time here! :sunny:

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Lmao! Well said! :P

Hi and Welcome!!! :sunny:

Wow thanks for all the replies... It's weird being a newbie! lol.. but you guys seem awesome. I'm a big fan of the music group Queensryche and I'm always on their board and I'm an old veterian there! The board there is so friendly and cool.. and then I see you guys and I can't believe you guys are as cool.. maybe cooler! ;) anyways.. I want to post a few pix of my boy and girl on here. My avatar is actualy my regular female. I just got my pastel last night so I'll snaps some digi's and post them up by tonight. Thanks all.. you guys rock! :rockon:

Welcome to the fold! :D

Welcome to bp.net! You know that it's mandadory to post pictures, right? Is the wee one in your avatar your little girl?

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Welcome to bp.net! You know that it's mandadory to post pictures, right? Is the wee one in your avatar your little girl?

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Yes that's my little girl!.. My lil boy is the pastel.. I should have snapped pix tonight but I got home so late. Promise tomorrow I'll take pix of the boy.. here is some of the female.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...D/100_3668.jpg

Excuse the ugly picture.. I had 102.5 fever, but this and my avatar are the only pix I have of her right now!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...D/100_3654.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...D/100_3662.jpg

PROMISE.. I'm gonna post them tomorrow so I hope you guys all revisit this post! Thanx everyone!

Jo Jo~

Nice looking girl. Hope to see more pics.:)

I actually have a bunch of newbian questions?.. I'm hoping a few of you can take to time to actually answer them instead of "Just" sending links. I love the links so I can read further on, but I hate to search for the answers. :)
Does this sound right to everyone...daytime temperature should be 85 to 90°F and a nighttime temperature of 70 to 80°F. I was also curious if you guys drop the temps to 60 to 70°F during the winter even if your NOT going to breed your snake? I'm also reading that winter cool downs should only be done on empty guts and of course with snakes in optimal health. Cooled snakes will not feed, and indeed food should not be offered???

Also.. just curious, I have both my baby female and baby male living together in the same setup. Does this change the dispositon of these reptiles as compared to if they lived apart?.. And will they absolutely, positively not mate unless seperated, cooled down and then put back together? I don't even understand how that works.. or why it works? I mean I know if I was locked away from females all winter then put in a steamy room spring time.. I'd be.. well never mind!.. :D ok thats just some incorrect humor 'cause truly I'm not that type of person! :rolleye2:

So anyways, my new boy.. he is a pastel ball python he is of Ian G. Blood line. he is also 66% Het for Ghost. I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THAT TRULY MEANS! I know my female is NOT a "Pastel" she is a "Petco". Yes you heard right.. she is just a "Petco style Ball" :D We, actualy I really got her at the Reptile Center, but ya know what I mean.. In other words she is just a plain Jayne. :snake: So.. if anyone wants to get into deep detail I'd love to know what that means?? And I promise to get the pastelz pix up by tomorrow night!
Thanks again.. :sunny:

P.S. Feel free to use my terminology anytime you'd like.. Petco Bally Pythons are beautiful in there own way. Although I love all these wacky morphs, pastels, etc.. the Petco is still a beautiful snake! :) I think if the first Royalz were Pastel or say Spider and the Plain Jane was just introduced today.. she'd be on everyone's "Next Snake To Get" list. ;)
mE~

Actually I'm adding to my post because I just search the site where I bought my pastel and it said congrats to Joey in Port Jeff New York and he has a pic of him posted.. here is my lil boy! and.. I have NO idea why it says 165 g's? I didn't spend that much, thats for sure! :D Probably just another thing I don't understand.. :rolleyes:

http://www.snakemansexotics.com/ads/pastel66ghostl.jpg

Wow! That's a lot of questions :) I'll try to answer as many as I'm able to. I'm fairly new myself, but I can regurgitate information I've learned since I've been here :)

Temps: Should always be between 80-84 on the cool side and 90-94 on the warm side. Anything under 75 on the cool side can be bad for your snake and can eventually cause Respiratory Infections, so accurate temps are important, as RIs can kill if left untreated (not to mention, they can be pricey to treat).
Humidity: Should be between 50-60% all the time and up around 70% during a shed.
Measurement: You should measure your temps and humidity with a digital thermometer (the indoor/outdoor kind). Many people on here (including myself) use an Accurite digital thermometer/hygrometer. I picked mine up at Walmart for about $13--and I get hot side, cold side and humidity measurements simultaniously, and they're way more accurate than the stick-on kind you find at pet stores.

Housing Two Snakes Together: Absolutely should not be done. Snakes are solitary animals and prefer to be alone. Two snakes in an enclosure can lead to stress on the animals, cause one or both not to eat, any illnesses can be spread, someone could regurgitate a meal and you won't be able to pinpoint which it was... Basicaly, it's just a good idea to have two seperate enclosures. Another risk is that they mate before they're ready, and your female could possibly die as a result, being unable to physically deal with pregnancy. If and when you decide to breed your snakes down the road, you would only be housing them at intervals, for a few hours--a few days at a time, and they both need to be a certain size in order to do that (males sexually mature before females do, from what I've read). I don't know a lot about breeding, so I'll let someone else get into the details of that.

Het for Ghost: Again, something I'm not an expert at is genetics. I'll let someone else get into it in detail.

165g: Is how much he weighs in grams

Hope that helps! I think both your "plain Jane" and your Pastel are both lovely.

Het for ghost: 66% heterozygous for ghost ball python i believe is a recessive gene. So if you breed to a normal you get 2 out of 4 het ghost. If you breed your 66% het to another het you get 1 out of 4 ghost ball python and two out of that 4 to be het ghost. So that ghost you produce is homozygous, so you breed him to produce more and more so on and so fourth.

correct me if im wrong. :2cent: anyway :rockon:

Kim got it! Temps should remain stable 24/7, unless breeding. (which should only be attempted after the snakes after reached a certain weight and age.

As for the 66% ghost thing. That means your snakes has a 66% chance of carrying the gene. (not a 66% chance of producing a ghost baby) Ghost is a recessive trait. It's NOT a sure thing, and in order to prove it out you'd have to breed it with a 100% het or a visible ghost, in order to prove it out. I hope that helped and I didn't muddy the waters more. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

Kim got it! Temps should remain stable 24/7, unless breeding. (which should only be attempted after the snakes after reached a certain weight and age.

As for the 66% ghost thing. That means your snakes has a 66% chance of carrying the gene. (not a 66% chance of producing a ghost baby) Ghost is a recessive trait. It's NOT a sure thing, and in order to prove it out you'd have to breed it with a 100% het or a visible ghost, in order to prove it out. I hope that helped and I didn't muddy the waters more. :rolleyes:

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I think i muddied the waters pretty good!!!

Ok so what would happen if I breed it with the "Petco" ball?.. :D
What would or might be produced?

Your "petco" ball is what is considered to be a "normal," which is the more common term people use.

Since the pastel trait is co-dominant, when a pastel is bred to a normal, half of the offspring will be pastels and the other half will be normal (or petco style as you keep referring to), statistically speaking...it usually doesn't work out perfectly like that - its like flipping a coin.

You need to separate your snakes permanently, don't ever let the temps drop at night until they are adults, and do a LOT of reading...sounds like you've got a lot to learn. ;)

I do have a lot to learn.. and so far I'm already getting some really good info! :) Ok.. I have a 60w Daylight bulb in a 20 gallan Long tank, standard stick on heating pad and at night I through a 75w moonlight bulb. I believe my tank heat drops a bit with the moonlight bulb? Is this not enough heat for my snake? too much, too little. I do have a temp gage. My lighting is on one side of the tank... and the temp gage is on the opposite end by the water dish. I'm getting readings of 78-84. I know it would probably be warmer readings if the temp probe was closer to the other side. Any thoughts?..

Your first step to getting the right temps is getting an accurate tool to measure them. The 'temp guage' the pet store sold you are incredibly inaccurate and a waste of money - return it if you can. Instead, opt for a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer available at any target/walmart. Acurite makes a nice one that is commonly used.

The indoor/outdoor thermometers usually have a probe that you can place wherever you want to measure the temperature - in the hide, on top of the hide, at the cool end, wherever. See how that is better than just sticking a guage to the side of the tank where you snake will probably never go?

Why do you think that the 75w bulb is putting out less heat than the 60w? Brightness has nothing to do with the amount of heat put out. If it were me, I would run the moonlight 24/7 - your ball probably is not very happy with a bright bulb shining down of them 12" away all day long, especially considering that they are nocturnal.

Hey I really appreciate your time with me...
Okay I might have made this not understood...
I have a temp gage that does have an extended probe I can put where ever I like. I just thought If I put it too close to the heat lamps it would give me false readings of really how warm my tank is. On the instructions for this thermometer it just showed a picture where they stuck theirs.. but never explained where to put it or why. I do have a 75w infrared bulbs that I can use instead of the daytime one, but someone suggested I use the day one instead during the day and the blue moonlight during the night. But see this is why I joined here because I know you guys are much more knowledgable then the normal pet store owner when it comes to these particular snakes. Ok.. so where should I put the the probe.. and what bulbs do you recommend. Also do you agree with everyone as far as housing the snakes in different tanks? I always see in pet stores baby ball pytons together in one tank. If you do think they should be housed seperately.. do I need to rush out and get another tank and seperate them pronto!? I'm glad everyone is shinning light on these topics for me! Very appreciated "elevatethis"
Thanx~

DEFINITELY separate them. They are not social, and one will basically become dominant over the other. The resulting stress on both by constantly competing for space can cause health and feeding problems long-term.

The reason the pet store has them together is out of utility...the pet stores generally do not care about the well-being of the animal, but care more about moving them out of the store. A common reason pet stores put snakes in bare tanks is so prospective buyers can see them - ball pythons like to hide all the time, which wouldn't a good selling point for unknowing customers, just seeing what looks like a tank with no inhabitants. That's normal ball python behavior and they should be allowed to do it.

Like I said, no need for the bright overhead light or the burden on you to switch lights every day. Just run the moonlight 24/7, keep your heat on all the time, no night drops. Your ball will thank you.