New to forum, new to BP's.

searched the site and wasn't sure where to put this type of thread, so if this is in the wrong spot feel free to move it to the apporpriate section please. I just got my baby BP, about a 9-12 inches long, maybe an inch in diameter. A buddy who owns an exotic pet store gave me the snake, the cage, and all the fixtures for free, I just had to grab the lide and heat light. So I def got lucky on the deal. At first I had just a type of carpet on the floor with a few logs here and there, but no real hidding spots for it. The heat light when on gets the spot under it about 90 degrees, and he/she would normally chill under the light. I have recently put in like a mulch type bedding I got from the pet store, made sure it contains no ceder, and put in more logs and some actually hidding spots for it. Sicne then he wont come out, he has been under the same log for three days. I keep the heat light on during the day which adds light to the cage as well, then at night I put in a red bulb. and dim the lights in the room. Before I changed the cage at night he would move around and during the day he would curl up in the corner of the cage under the light under a log as much as he could. Now, he has spots where he can completel hide in and he never leaves it, even at night. Its also on the other side of the cage, so he isnt getting any heat over there either. The temp where the lights are is ~90 degrees and on the other end is in the 80's. Humidity im having a really hard time with and the best I can get is 50% and its usually at 40%, have no idea how to get 80% in there where is supposed to be. Any ideas? or is he just finally feeling secure in his new home and thats why hes hidding out? The water dish is big enough for him to sit in, but he only did that the day after I got him, since i redid the cage he hasnt moved at all.....getting kinda worried. Also dont have a name for it yet, or know if its a male or female. Heres some pics, any tips, pointers, advice would be awesome. Just glad to find a BP forum that looks like it has a knowledgable crowd.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...4me/snake3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...4me/snake2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...4me/snake4.jpg

Hello and WELCOME!!!!

Hey Welcome to the site

Check this out, this has everything you need to know on how to house, care for and maintain your BP

http://ball-pythons.net/modules.php?...warticle&id=59

Hello and WELCOME! :sunny:

First :welcome:


As for your enclosure do you provide belly heat, to help with digestion and overall health?

Do you have a thermostat to maintain proper temps and avoid overheating?

What are your temps exacly on the warm side and the cool side, and what type of thermometer do you use to measure them?

BP can chose either cool or warm side however you need to make sure your hides (on the cool and warm side)are tight enough and identical, because if your hides are not tight enough and not identical your BP will chose security over thermo-regulation. Ideal hides should be identical and tight so your BP can snug in (all side touching your BP's body), you can make them out of plastic bowls or simply buy them. In my experience log hides are not the best when it comes to provide optimal security.

Welcome to the forum! I went ahead and moved your thread to a more appropriate location.

Anyway, 80% humidity is much too high for a Ball. 40-50% is fine, although you may want to bump it during shed if you notice stuck sheds. 80-90F gradient is fine as well, and don't worry about where your Ball likes to spend his time. As long as you have the same type of hide on the warm and cool side, your Ball will figure out where to go. And as far as your Ball spending most of his time in his hide... that's what they do. :) Stressed Balls will spend a lot of time moving around the cage during the day and acting restless. The best indication of a happy Ball is one that will consistently eat for you. Just make sure you don't feed him too much. Rat pups or mouse hoppers should do for now, but they won't need more than a full size mouse or weaned rat their whole life.

Good luck!

on the warm side of the tank temp is closer to 100 degress, sometimes its 100, others its in the high 90's, depending on how close the light is to the thermostat. on the cool side is right at about 80 degrees. the hides are identical. exact same size one faces forward with a plant infront of it, one faces to inside the tank. one is on the heated side, one is on the cool side. he wont leave the one on the cool side. And they are perfect size, he fits nice and snug in there. I dont have any belly heat, just the over head heat lamp. I read on a couple sites that the belly pads mess up their body heat. so didnt grab one. I dont know what kind of thermostats they are, made by Flunker or something like that. Last he was fed was weds, but he wont leave his hide so im kind hesitant to even attempt to feed him..

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Originally Posted by xdeus

Welcome to the forum! I went ahead and moved your thread to a more appropriate location.

Anyway, 80% humidity is much too high for a Ball. 40-50% is fine, although you may want to bump it during shed if you notice stuck sheds. 80-90F gradient is fine as well, and don't worry about where your Ball likes to spend his time. As long as you have the same type of hide on the warm and cool side, your Ball will figure out where to go. And as far as your Ball spending most of his time in his hide... that's what they do. :) Stressed Balls will spend a lot of time moving around the cage during the day and acting restless. The best indication of a happy Ball is one that will consistently eat for you. Just make sure you don't feed him too much. Rat pups or mouse hoppers should do for now, but they won't need more than a full size mouse or weaned rat their whole life.

Good luck!

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that makes alot of sense, when I first got him he didnt have any full hide spots, he could only go under a partial log, and he would move around alot. during the day he would sleep but at night he was all over the place. climbing in and out of hise water dish, climbing on the logs, etc etc. So it makes sense the poor thing was freaked out and was just trying to find a place to hide, which at the time I didnt have one provided for him. I work at a cable company so I got to do ALOT of reading on TONS of sites about BP's and thats when I found out ALL of them stressed having hidding spots, so I went out to the pet store and grabbed a couple for him. I'm just a new owner and when I first got him he was all over the place, and now, he never moves, so I didn't know how to interpurpt that. And 40-50% humidity is alright? i read in the 80's is where you wanna be....my buddy was laughing me, the one with the store, cause he just an emerald green tree boa in and it has to have 100% humidity, lol.


And thanks for moving to the correct section for me.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

Last he was fed was weds, but he wont leave his hide so im kind hesitant to even attempt to feed him..

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That's what they do. :) Balls are ambush predators and spend the majority of their time hiding. Come feeding day, just dangle the rodent a couple inches in front of your snake or place the live rodent in the cage. Your snake will figure out what to do. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by xdeus

That's what they do. :) Balls are ambush predators and spend the majority of their time hiding. Come feeding day, just dangle the rodent a couple inches in front of your snake or place the live rodent in the cage. Your snake will figure out what to do. ;)

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When I was a little kid, right now im 22, my best friend had a BP and that sucker was active as hell and was always all over the place....that cause the thing was stressed beyound belief? we also had a heat rock in there, which I now is not good to do... :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sw204me

I read on a couple sites that the belly pads mess up their body heat. so didnt grab one. I dont know what kind of thermostats they are, made by Flunker or something like that. Last he was fed was weds, but he wont leave his hide so im kind hesitant to even attempt to feed him..

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I would recommend you to provide belly heat, also when you say Flucker you mean thermometer not thermostat right?

If so those kinds are not accurate you need to measure your temps and humidity at the bottom of the enclosure with a digital thermometer/hydrometer that you can find at Walmart for 12$/13$ dollars it look like this http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...hermometer.jpg

When you mean wednesday you mean the last one or yesterday? Just feed him once a week same day every week, and he will get out of his hide when he will smell the prey.

BP spend most of their time hiding it is normal, as long as your BP is healthy, eating weekly, he will be ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sw204me

When I was a little kid, right now im 22, my best friend had a BP and that sucker was active as hell and was always all over the place....that cause the thing was stressed beyound belief? we also had a heat rock in there, which I now is not good to do... :(

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Well, Balls are like people... they're all different. I have some that spend nearly all of their time hiding, and will come out at night and basically sit on top of their hide. I also have others that love to roam around when the sun goes down and wake up frequently during the day if they "hear" a noise and like to come out and see what the commotion is all about.

Stressed snakes will quite often be moving around during the day and act very restless or act aggressively by hissing or striking out at you. It sounds like you're on the right track, though. :sweeet:

how ironic is that, I got a snake thats as lazy as I am...

he was fed Weds as in last week. And I was just reading about the digital thermostats, I got the ones that stick on the sides of the cage, which you all say are in accurate. So ill be swinging by wal-mart to take a look and see what they got, these allow you to monitor both sides are the same time? or only a side at a time? And what makes the ones that stick to the cage so bad?

Hello and Welcome to the sight!

on another note I have a 75w white heat light and I had a 75w infered heat light, the infered took the temp gauge and pegged it at 120 degrees, and the white like keeps it right at almost 100 degrees, I swapped out the 75w red bulb for a 50w and it keeps the gauge at 100ish degrees as well. are those temps ok? Ill post pics of my set-up, its nothing fancy, but I jsut want to make sure I'm doing everything the best I can...the reason I ask is I just read a post where a person was using like a 125w light and heat pads and thermisters and all this and that....my tank is no where near that complicated, are your all's?


Edit: Sorry for all the noob questions, just seems everything I read is the same thing I read previously just using different words and is rather vague, but with you all I get more exact answers.

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Originally Posted by sw204me

So ill be swinging by wal-mart to take a look and see what they got, these allow you to monitor both sides are the same time?

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You will be able to monitor the temps on both side as well as the humidity.

You just place the display on the cool side and the probe on the warm side.

The Accurites at Walmart measure both sides simultaniously PLUS the humidity accurately. It's definitely worth having.

GA Mentioned a "thermostat"--this is something that you plug your heat pad (or lamp) into and you use the thermostat to monitor how hot your heat source is getting--so you don't end up with a cooked BP! They're definitely good investments. A few good brands are: Ranco and Johnsons (~$75), Herpstat (~$100) and Helix (~$130). I know it seems pricey...but when it comes to your pet's safety over the course of his life, it's really not all that much money :)

And 100+ degrees is waaay to hot for a BP's warm side! It's not a wonder he hangs out in his cool hide--I imagine it's too hot for him with heat spikes of 120 degrees :) Also, there's the issue of the little stick-on heat readers being -reaaaly- inaccurate...so it could be hotter or cooler than the temps it's reading.


Cold side: 80-84 degrees
Warm side: 90-94 degrees
Humidity: 50-60%

Those are the generally-suggested guidelines--at least around this site :)

Also, I think it's generally believed that belly heat helps BPs digest their meals, so it might be a good idea to look into one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sw204me

read in the 80's is where you wanna be....my buddy was laughing me, the one with the store, cause he just an emerald green tree boa in and it has to have 100% humidity, lol.

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Erm...I'm pretty sure that Emerald Tree Boas need more like 80-90% humidity? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong...but I think 100% would be a little high.

thanks for all the post, I just got done reading that huge sticky at the top of the forum and will make the proper adjust ments to the tank to make it a better home for it. And I took that bulb that spiked the temp to 120 out the sec I saw what it was doing. now on the warm side it ranges from 95-100, which also is really high, so my idea is to put a dimmer switch on the lamp to tone down the intensity of the light, yay or nay on that idea?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sw204me

thanks for all the post, I just got done reading that huge sticky at the top of the forum and will make the proper adjust ments to the tank to make it a better home for it. And I took that bulb that spiked the temp to 120 out the sec I saw what it was doing. now on the warm side it ranges from 95-100, which also is really high, so my idea is to put a dimmer switch on the lamp to tone down the intensity of the light, yay or nay on that idea?

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A dimmer switch, or rheostat, will work fine as long as your room temps are stable. A thermostat would be better as it will keep the temps steady no matter what the room temps are. Also, I'm not sure how accurate your temps are anyway. If you're measuring the temps using those stick-on thermometers, you're getting temps of the glass and not the floor of the cage which is more important. The floor may be much warmer or colder than what is being reported by your stick-ons.

stick ons are being taken out tonight and being replaced with what you all metioned.