New Ball Python

Hi there,
I have been blessed with a brand new ball python, he is little...maybe 12 inches at the most. The problem I am having is that he bites...a lot. Can I use gloves to handle him with until he is more comfortable? Also does anyone recomend a company that makes nice snake cages? He can with a ten gallon glass tank but i would like something a little nicer :)

Yes, it's ok to wear gloves until he settles down and eventually learns that you're not some giant predator that's out to eat him.


Since he's brand new to you, though, you should not be handling him much at all anyhow. Give him plenty of time to settle in and feel safe in his new home and start eating regularly before you begin handling him on a regular basis or with any frequency.

As for cages...Animal Plastics has nice stuff:

http://www.animalplastics.com/

Expensive, though. I'd definitely recommend keeping him in something small and snug for a good year or so before moving up to a big, fancy cage.

OH...and welcome to BP.net!! :handshake

He'll calm down in time. He's in a new place and they freak out when that happens.

Check out RBI Plastics or Animal Plastics for caging. Both are great.

www.rbiplastics.com
www.animalplastics.com

Yea what they said :P and :welcome: to the family

This is a first snake for me and really I didnt go looking for it, sort of just got dumped on me by a friend. How long should I wait to feed him being he is in a new home? Should I feed him inside his tank or move him to another spot to feed him? Another question I have is about tank temps. He has an under tank heater...the kind that just sticks to the bottem and that seems to keep that side of the tank around 90 degrees. The other side of the tank being at room temp...however with the weather the way that it has been and the fact that I dont have air conditioning, the 'cool' side of the tank seems to be like 80 degrees...is this ok or is this to warm? And if so how do I cool it?
The other question is when it is so hot out anyway....should I still keep the under tank heater pad plugged in 24/7 ? Sorry for all the questions folks but what we have here is a girly girl...the jump on a chair if there is a bug on the floor type....trying to do right by a snake lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erincristeen

This is a first snake for me and really I didnt go looking for it, sort of just got dumped on me by a friend. How long should I wait to feed him being he is in a new home? Should I feed him inside his tank or move him to another spot to feed him? Another question I have is about tank temps. He has an under tank heater...the kind that just sticks to the bottem and that seems to keep that side of the tank around 90 degrees. The other side of the tank being at room temp...however with the weather the way that it has been and the fact that I dont have air conditioning, the 'cool' side of the tank seems to be like 80 degrees...is this ok or is this to warm? And if so how do I cool it?
The other question is when it is so hot out anyway....should I still keep the under tank heater pad plugged in 24/7 ? Sorry for all the questions folks but what we have here is a girly girl...the jump on a chair if there is a bug on the floor type....trying to do right by a snake lol.

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Well to keep your temps at the set area you will need a thermostat and 90ish is the correct range for the hot side.In order to give him time to settle in its best to totaly leave him alone for at least 7 full days.When i had my snakes i fed everyone in thier enclosures as it places less stress on them.You are allright asking questions as it shows you care about your snake to learn the proper ways to keep it healthy and happy :cool:

Erin if you haven't read over our ball python caresheet here it is...tons of great basic info there....

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

You'll want to go grab an Acu-Rite from WalMart so you can get a good handle on those temps and the overall enclosure humidity. More grief and hassle will be saved as well as your snake being healthy and eating if you attend to this issue as quickly as possible. They run about $12 plus one AAA battery. Do a search on Acu-Rite here on the forum under Husbandry and you'll find tons of threads with pics on how to use this handy thing.

Don't worry about the bug thing LOL. I can wrangle a 6 foot snake but if an itty bitty june bug gets into our home, I'm locked in the bathroom screeching to high heaven for my husband Mike to come "destroy that EVIL EVIL bug!"

That ball python is a baby, likely a quite young one. It's going to be very reactive, that's just it's survival instinct at work. Right now just concentrate on getting it's home set up right for it, making sure it eats an appropriately sized prey every 5 to 7 days and in time, handling will come along. What is it eating by the way?

Hello and Welcome:D Where are the pics???? We all love pics LOL

They said that they were feeding it one or two (if it would take it) pinkies a week and i guess a cricket once in awhile (they had a pet frog too)
I havent really been handling him so much as just trying to take care of the tank that he is in....when I changed the water in the tank he shot out and bit me, the temp gauge fell off the side and when i tried to put that back up he bit me and then the one time I did have to pick him up he was fine until i put him back into the cage (only had him in my hand for like 2 min at the most) and as soon as I went to take my hand away he bit me....thinking of naming him "Bit-me" LOL

Oh lordy. Okay first up, no crickets. Crickets are a good food source for lizards...not ball pythons. Secondly pinkie mice are basically not much of a meal for most any normal sized baby BP. You want to likely be feeding either fuzzy or hopper mice depending on the girth of your snake. Is it eating frozen/thawed, live or pre-killed?

As far as the nipping, it's just a stressed, scared baby snake, likely hungry on that kind of diet and very grumpy. You would be too hon. Provide it with a proper home, properly set up, feed it correctly and leave it be for now with no more contact than you must have with it for the next month or so. If it has a tendency to strike out, use a hide to block the snake or gently drop a soft facecloth on it while you do cage maintenance. It's more likely to hurt it's mouth pulling out teeth biting you than it is to really hurt you, so avoiding the bite is best for the baby.

Frozen......I couldnt do the live thing (see above chair comment lol)
Right now he is in a ten gallon tank with a screen lid....here is the odd bit...I have two cats so right now I have books ontop if the corners of the lid to hold it on....just in case.....it is also sitting ontop of 4 hockey pucks because i dont want the heat pad to damage my furniture.
Found this set up on craigs.....what do you guys think??
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/for/380582666.html

Can't say I have ever seen a tank like that but with those vents it's rather nice actually. I'd likely cover the outside of the back and two sides with a decorative background to give the snake the maximum feeling of security (they can look really nice too). Here's what I mean with my daughter's Milksnake (pics taken when the milk was a baby).....


http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ProudOwner.jpg

Jo,

your daughter should be on the price is right.... :)

the tank looks good, i can't really tell how big it is though. a good rule of thumb is you want the enclosure to be no smaller then 2/3 the length of your snake. so example: the smallest enclosure a 3 ft ball could live in would be a 2 ft tank. so if the tank is a good size go for it, but it might end up being to small and you'll have to upsize things later.

emailed the woman so hopefully she will write back and still have the tank available...if nothing else it looks like its cat proof....in an earlier post of the same tank she said that it was about the size of a ten gallon.
The one thing that I seem to be getting different info on is weather to feed the snake inside or outside its tank. Some people seem to feel that feeding it inside its tank will make then think that you are ALWAYS going to feed them when you stick your hand in the tank increasing chances of being bitten. And yet other websites say that you should feed your snake inside its tank so that it doesnt look for food when you take it outside its tank....any thoughts??
:carrot: <--just bought my puppy a toy carrot that looks exactly like this one hehe

LOL thanks Kev but right now she'd rather grow up and own her own Platty Daddy ball python. :D

The feeding in the tank causes biters is an old thing, bit of a myth. If your hands are in their reguarily cleaning, freshening water, gently stroking the snake or lifting it out for handling and if you haven't just handled a rodent, most snakes are not going to nail you. If you stick your hand in at a hungry snake lurking from the door of it's hide and wiggle your fingers, you might get bit and it would be your own fault LOL.

Personally with most of our 18 ball pythons you couldn't pay me to grab them and put them in a seperate tub to feed. By Wednesday afternoon (it's feeding night) they are all parked, primed and ready to nail dinner. No way am I grabbing 3,000 gram plus Miss Brannagh and moving her LOL. I'm not that brave!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erincristeen

i guess a cricket once in awhile (they had a pet frog too)

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Umm instruct them to please become members here before buying any other reptiles.We can give them the proper foods for reptiles with ease and tell them to slap whoever told them to feed it crickets.:P