Had my regular ball for 1.5 months ( NEED HELP )

ok so me and my girlfriend purchased our first baby ball python.. she was born in captivity.. and was born in august, so she is almost 7 months old shes 19-21 inches.. we cant really get her to get straight ha any tips on figuring that out without hurting her?


anyways..
i need some ACURATE advice on the cage and equipment needed to make her environment PERFECT..
right now we have her in a 10gal tank with aspen bedding.. a small piece of drift wood that hangs over her waterbowl.. and a tree hide with 2 entry ways and 1 small entry way.

i know that the humidity in the enclosure isnt high enough.. what are some easy and effective ways to help with that situation.. as of right now untill i get her a larger tank i soaked a washcloth and laid it over the top of the tank on one half.. to get some moisture into the air... any other good ways..

i also spray the tank down lightly with a waterbottle for just a little mist in the cage..


im hoping to move her into a 50gal tank and just make the tank look like a huge jungle.. ha

Well I am not an expert but have a look see at my gallery pics of my set up. I do have a large underground heater abd the top is a ceramic heater and a side light. I have two hiding places and lots of stuff for him to climb. Oh it is a 40 gallon tank so it can last through adult I hope.

This is a great sticky that speaks to housing balls in tanks; lots of great information inside!! http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=56846

There are several good stickys/caresheets, including one on how to make a tank a good enclosure.
The basics are proper heat(safely), water, humidity, two hides(one on each end) and setting it up in a lower traffic area. Too large is bad, as is too small.
The sticky on tanks has how to cover the screen lid to keep in humidity. Tinfoil and tape, although that sounds MacGyver-ish, it works wonders.
For measuring, instead of stretching her, use a cloth measuring tape(from the fabric section of your store) and then you can run it along her body, even if she's crooked.
Hope this helped.

Welcome! I have to mention this...

Moving a young BP to a large tank right now may only stress her out and can lead to her going off feed.

It's a great idea to raise her in the 10 gallon for a while. BP's dont prefer large open spaces and love to hide snuggly during the day. BP's first instinctual need is to be secure.

Also, the challenge of climate control in a 50 gallon is much harder to achieve. I had a 20 gallon tank for my male (when I first got a snake) and it was pretty tough to keep the humidity and temperature in a good range. I quit messing with the tank and went to tubs.

Your already experiencing how difficult creating the perfect environment can be in a tank, so don't rush into a large 55 gallon one just yet. If you do decide to buy a large tank, remember that the larger the enclosure, the more stuff in it, is more work to maintain and clean on a regular basis.

My advice is to put off buying the large tank until you've had this snake for a few months and can read it. Get experience with a few sheds, some good meals and work your way up to a larger tank while making sure that all of the snakes needs are met before your desires.

For your humidity problem, have you tried any other substrate besides aspen? More specifically coconut fiber like bed-a-beast? I like it for a tank, it looks nice, you can tell when it's wet or dry, makes spot cleaning easy. Try putting (taping, duct tape) a few layers of foil on the screen, about 3/4's. This will raise both the ambient temps and humidity. Misting is a great way to keep humidity up, especially during the dry winter months. (Don't ever put tape inside a snake enclosure. It's a risk and can seriously harm your snake if he comes in contact)

You might also want to check out various reptile cages that are on the market. There are several vendors and I use this one: http://www.reptilebasics.com/2x3-Cag...h-p-16286.html. It's great for getting the display that you want and is made to hold temps and humidity really well. :)

thanks.. i didnt even think about using the cloth ruler thing..

as far as the tank.. i think i will prlly go bigger.. but just to like maybe 35 gal and from there ill be able to meet her needs a little better.. the tank shes in now is quite small.. i can barely fit in her hide,waterbowl and drift wood.. so i have no room for another hide and waterbowl for on the colder side of the tank.. since she prlly doesnt want hot water ha..

as far as temp and humidity i didnt understand that foil thing very well...
but the cloth that i put into water then put ontop of the cage, within id say 25-45 mins.. when i lifted her cage and put my hand inside.. i could feel the difference.. pretty impressed..

You're going to move a baby into a 35 gallon enclosure? :confused:

Did you read Connie's post? Large glass enclosures can be done with a lot of money invested in them and a lot of time and effort. But you're likely to have a stressed out baby that will refuse feed. How about a tub instead?

but theres no way i can meet what she needs for her tank with just a 10gal tank..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Igot_A_snake

but theres no way i can meet what she needs for her tank with just a 10gal tank..

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All it needs are a water bowl and 2 small hides. I have several much larger ball pythons in 12 qt tubs. They are quite a bit smaller than a 10 gallon tank, and their needs are met and they are all thriving.

but im not having a snake to breed or have tons of snakes... and my room is quite the extravagent room for a 19yr old male bachelor haha... big ass entertainment center, big screen tv... super nice stuff.. so i want to show my tank off and show my little beauty off too... but not in a tub...

And that's where the problems will begin. You want something that is completely different from a Ball python's NEEDS. You have to realize that making sure this animal is safe, healthy and secure is much more important than having something pretty for your amusment.

BP's will live for 30+ years. Why not take the time now to make sure you start out right for her sake instead of doing what you want to appeal to you. BP's are not a great display snake anyways, a hiding BP is a healthy and happy BP.
If they are out during the day, its a sign of stress.

If you do want a nice enclosure, Starmom has already shown a very common cage that is MADE to meet the requirements for a BP, and will keep it very displayable for you. Tanks are just not the way to go in my opinion.

Less worrying about how pretty it is, and more worrying about making it correct for your BP.

You can make glass work its just going to be challenging. I could try to give you some tips but from personal experience unless you have a room devoted to your snakes getting temps/humidity correct in a large glass tank is nearly impossible. If you want to offer your snake room and driftwood I would go with a 66qt locktop tub for a baby. This will help you maintain temps/humidity better and will meet your snakes needs. If you would like some advice on how to set up a tub shoot me a PM and id be glad to help you out. A tub can serve the same exact purposes as tank and still look good.

yeah i think i want her to be more healthy anyways..

I have to give it up, these are excellent enclosures and worth the money and time spent getting the climate correct.
http://www.reptilebasics.com/image.php?id=89&type=D

Try one of these:

http://reptilebasics.com/Reptile-Cages-p-1-c-257.html

They make for great display cases and are made for reptiles...where as fish tanks are made for.....well...fish :)

I am very new to the whole snake thing, but I must say that I have actually had quite a bit of success with my tank and I will gladly share with you what has worked for me.

I have a 20 gal long tank, the long part is the important part I think. She has two hides, a branch to climb on and room for a large waterbowl. I've got a stripe of tinfoil over both ends of my screen with the center of it open for my ceramic heater. I have two small-sized UTH that are connected to a rheostat to dial down their temps. I had to get the smallest size because my tank is acrylic (it was free!) and the big ones can warp acrylic, but the two small ones work very well for me with the rheostat, combined with the ceramic heater. The foil helps wonders with the humidity problems I first had with the ceramic heater drying out the air.

I think that I do have a special case, though. I live in a painfully tiny apartment, so I built a lofted bed to save room. Squiggles lives under there with my desk, so there is not much ambient light. A good amount of ambient light does come in through the blinds, but the loft shields her from most of it. I can tell that it is enough for her to know that it is day, because she spends the entire day in one of her hides (though sometimes she does move from one to the other I guess because of thermoregulation?) The second night falls, though, she starts moving around her tank and climbing on everything. She is extremely active at night.

I, too, wanted to show off my pretty snake for my friends but I didn't want to upset her or stress her out. What I do if I want people to see her is use a blue light that I have set to the same temp as my ceramic heater. That way my friends can see her very well in the darkness (like when she is moving around and playing tight-rope with her tree branch and her bigger hide) but she doesn't stress out. I'm sure she can tell we're their because of our heat signatures but she does not seem to care at all.

I realize that not everyone wants, or can make, a lofted bed! However, I suggest that maybe you get a pretty looking background image of some sort (from Petsmart or the like, very cheap) and put that on the back of your tank and at least the side that is facing a window. That might make her feel more secure :)

Do yourself (and your snake) a favor and stay away from the huge glass enclosures. I put my first BP in a huge tank (40 or 50 gallons). Then moved her to a 35 gallon tank and still had a ton of problems. Then I moved her to a 20 gallon tank, and finally a ten gallon tank when she was the same size as yours. As soon as she got in the 10 gallon tank everything was perfect. She has grown so fast in the smaller enclosure that I had to move her back up to the 20 gallon tank. I learned the hard way. For me anything over 20 gallons is impossible to maintain temps and humitity.

i just went to petsmart this morning to go get some stuff for her enclosure... i got a gauges for temp and humidity... and i got 2 small waterbowls... and another hide for her... i switched it around in the cage a bit.. with a waterbowl and hide on each side of the tank.. with my lamp over the side with the smaller waterbowl, as i let the temp adjust for about 45mins.. i saw that the temp was around 90degrees... but the lamp is only on one side of tank the other side felt much colder from just feeling the glass... the humidity gauge said 65percent.. i got it to get like that because i wet a washcloth and folded it in half and just laid it on top of the screen on top of cage... so when she is done shedding i will just take off washcloth and let the humidity decrease...


so far so good... :]]]

anymore advice??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Igot_A_snake

but im not having a snake to breed or have tons of snakes... and my room is quite the extravagent room for a 19yr old male bachelor haha... big ass entertainment center, big screen tv... super nice stuff.. so i want to show my tank off and show my little beauty off too... but not in a tub...

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Also you shouldn't try to be so "cool". Doesn't really matter what TV or entertainment center you have.

Edit: I'm sorry for that post. I'm just in a bad mood being at work all day.

wasnt trying to be cool.. just trying to give you an idea of what kinda tank i wanted to fit my room style..

I got my baby ball in a 40 breeder and he's tiny. Eats great! All and all everything is perfect and the 40 breeder will last him his whole life. If you're worried about humidity I take 2 small dish towels and place them on top of each other wet on each side of my heat lamp which is on the middle of the screen and temps and humidity are 100% PERFECT.

(I also use beaked moss and mist it once a day pretty good.)

The enclosure needs to fit the animal, not the other way around.

You wouldn't stick an Iguana in a 20 gallon tank, and expect it to thrive, would you? Just like you wouldn't stick a baby Ball Python in a 75 gallon tank that is improperly heated/humidified, without any places to hide, and expect it to thrive in that.

Baby Balls prefer small, dark, warm places and a HUGE, drafty, see-through tank doesn't provide that. They require security so they feel safe enough to thermoregulate themselves. If they don't, then they risk respiratory infections and other illnesses because of the undue stress put upon them. They need a stress-free environment(ie, small, dark, warm place) to grow and thrive.

You cannot place limitations on an animal that has strict husbandry needs. If you want a big, fancy, hard-to-take-care-of tank, then get some saltwater fish...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by V1L3 DiaL3cT

I got my baby ball in a 40 breeder and he's tiny. Eats great! All and all everything is perfect and the 40 breeder will last him his whole life. If you're worried about humidity I take 2 small dish towels and place them on top of each other wet on each side of my heat lamp which is on the middle of the screen and temps and humidity are 100% PERFECT.

(I also use beaked moss and mist it once a day pretty good.)

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You know what those dish towels breed?? Lots and lots of bacteria that is being filtered down through the air and breathed in by your snake, possibly setting up a respiratory infection. Water plus heat sets up a great breeding ground for the bacteria, especially if you don't change out those towels every single day.

Get some plexiglas and cover about 3/4ths of the top, it's a much easier, permanent solution to the ongoing humidity problem when using a tank.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Igot_A_snake

wasnt trying to be cool.. just trying to give you an idea of what kinda tank i wanted to fit my room style..

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I know, like I said, i'm sorry. Today has been one of these worst days at work, and I shouldn't have taken it out on someone I don't know.

I appologize. :8:

So am I just lucky that my Ball has had no problems in his large tank? He eats fine the temp is perfect and so is the humi. Plus he chills in his hidding place untill dark then roams the tank and basks inder the ceramic heat on the "vines"??

Is it just me or am I lucky this way???
:neener:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WaRocker

So am I just lucky that my Ball has had no problems in his large tank? He eats fine the temp is perfect and so is the humi. Plus he chills in his hidding place untill dark then roams the tank and basks inder the ceramic heat on the "vines"??

Is it just me or am I lucky this way???
:neener:

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I wouldnt say your lucky, I think you found your niche. If the husbandry is perfect, than more often then not the BP will do well.

Getting the husbandry perfect in a large tank is difficult, even for the best intentions.

It is readily known that baby BP's do extremely well in smaller enclosure compared to a large glass tank. For a youngster, security is the number one thing on their list.

We aren't making up this advice, many of us have started out in a tank and were met with shedding problems, non-feeding, and even more seriously, illness.

I hope that everyone that reads the recommendations here understand the point of view I'm trying to provide.

Why place a new keeper into a bad situation by giving them advice that is not only unpractical, but hardly met?

Stick with the tried and VERY true methods, and as they gain experience and feel comfortable with expanding their horizons, they can do that when it is still meeting the needs of the BP.

No one here is trying to put anyone down, rather help this guy get things going correctly and smoothly.

I totally agree help is the bottom line. I was just sharing what is working for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Igot_A_snake

i just went to petsmart this morning to go get some stuff for her enclosure... i got a gauges for temp and humidity... and i got 2 small waterbowls... and another hide for her... i switched it around in the cage a bit.. with a waterbowl and hide on each side of the tank.. with my lamp over the side with the smaller waterbowl, as i let the temp adjust for about 45mins.. i saw that the temp was around 90degrees... but the lamp is only on one side of tank the other side felt much colder from just feeling the glass... the humidity gauge said 65percent.. i got it to get like that because i wet a washcloth and folded it in half and just laid it on top of the screen on top of cage... so when she is done shedding i will just take off washcloth and let the humidity decrease...


so far so good... :]]]

anymore advice??

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Looks like you are doing much better:gj:

I would go to walmart and get a digital thermometer with a probe. You put the probe on the hot side and the unit on the cool side. It will show the hot temps as outside and the cool as inside and you can keep temps in check. They also have unite with humidity gauge. This will insure your husbandry is accurate and you snake is well:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Looks like you are doing much better:gj:

I would go to walmart and get a digital thermometer with a probe. You put the probe on the hot side and the unit on the cool side. It will show the hot temps as outside and the cool as inside and you can keep temps in check. They also have unite with humidity gauge. This will insure your husbandry is accurate and you snake is well:)

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I would like to add a little bit to this. I would get 2 thermometers from wal mart (accurites work well) and put one probe on the hottest part of the glass and the unit on the hot side. Take the other thermometer, put the probe in the middle of the tank and the unit on the cool side.

This will give you all the temperature readings you require. Also if you don't have a thermostat. Get one.

What is your budget like?

You sound like you want the best for the snake which is great. Like people have said here already. Tank setups can be made to work but they require a little more work than other setups to get things dialed in right.

If you have the money a vision cage like already posted (www.reptilebasics.com, www.animalplastics.com, Etc) would give you a beautiful display which is easy to setup and regulate at the same time. They are built with your snakes exact needs in mind.

Tank setups = low cost/tough to maintain and dial in/not the best for your snakes needs but can be made to work.

Tubs = Cheap, Great for keeping multiple snakes/easy to setup and maintain/Not very pretty to look at.

Vision Cages = Expensive/Beautifull setup to display your snake/Easy to setup and maintain.



Regardless what you chose you can make it work with a little knuckle grease.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Igot_A_snake

i got a gauges for temp and humidity...

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The stick on dials? They are horribly inaccurate and most keepers make the mistake of measuring the middle or top of the enclosure, not at ground level. See if you can't return them for a refund and go to Walmart and pick up one of these instead. Found in the hardware department with the indoor/outdoor thermometers for about $12.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...mageloader.gif

Edit - Didn't read all the way through to see others had also recommended this. :)

yeah i actually put the stick on gauges... but not at the top... i put it right at the bottom of the tank

The Thermometer that Rabernet is recommending will give you the actual temp inside the hot side hide as well as the cool side of your enclosure. You place the probe under the hot side hide and place the actual unit on the cool side of your enclosure. You get the hot and cool side temps as well as an accurate humidity reading. It's a no brainer man, this little tool is pretty much a must and it's cheap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BostonMacK

The Thermometer that Rabernet is recommending will give you the actual temp inside the hot side hide as well as the cool side of your enclosure. You place the probe under the hot side hide and place the actual unit on the cool side of your enclosure. You get the hot and cool side temps as well as an accurate humidity reading. It's a no brainer man, this little tool is pretty much a must and it's cheap.

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Acurites are great--I have one exactly like the one Rabernet posted. :gj:

It would be a good idea to quit shopping at Pet Smart, too. Everything, repeat EVERYTHING they sell is ridiculously overpriced.

yeah... started realizing that...
where are some good places to shop?

For starters you can head to a Target or Wallmart to get that Accurite thermometer or one exactly like it for about $12.