New to the Site :) Ball Python F 6-7 years 5+ feet

Hello All :) New to the site - pretty excited to see an online forum dedicated to Balls considering I'm a forum junkie.

A few years ago I owned a Ball who got a RI and unfortunately, passed. I tried everything I could with what I knew to do, including medicine provided by the doctor via syringe in the mouth. To my dismay, I did not know about forums such as this at the time, which would have helped me tremendously in providing an adequate environment for my pet.

Two days ago I found a listing on craigslist for a Ball Python. A family was getting rid of her because they wanted to get a new pet for their children. They had had her for four years, though she was about three years old when they got her, so that would put her around seven years old.

Her housing that came with her is not adequate for a ball python, so I am working on fixing it up. Their house cat used to lounge on top of the tank, which is 100% mesh at the top, and is bowing in. We plan on replacing the mesh with a heavy duty mesh in addition to the plexi-glass suggestions I've read on this forum to trap in humidity.

It appears that they were using Aspen, but just in case, I bought some Aspen to use as the bedding (also some Moss), as there are other substrates that look very similar IMO. They had a ceramic heat lamp, in addition to a fluorescent light and that was it.

Last night I purchased a day and night light to cycle with a timed power outlet switch. I also plan on getting an under tank pad once I am able to talk my boyfriend into building a stand suitable for the tank. Right now it is on a small wood stand that came with it, however, the stand is smaller than the tank, so I have no way to lift it off the wood properly.

I also bought the digital thermostat that gauges the humidity as well as the temperatures via probe. I had read about it on one of these posts, so stopped by Wal-Mart to pick it up.

When we got to the house to pick her up, the little girl was handling her, and then I realized the snake was in her shedding phase, so it struck me as odd they handled her regardless of what phase she was in. Needless to say, she shed yesterday morning, and it was the worst shed I've ever seen. Half of it was still stuck to her, with no hopes of coming off any time soon.

So, again, per this forum, I went and bought a rubbermaid bin, filled it with room temp water, and put her in there for 45 minutes. The shed came off perfectly. So thanks for all the suggestions!

She's very sweet and not aggressive at all. She's very head shy though, but I'm assuming that is from the young ones carrying her like she's a stuffed animal lol.

So, sorry for the long intro, just wanted to give you a background.

This weekend we want to fix her tank up properly - so I'll post pictures once I have it. I'm sure I'll do some things wrong, so I'll look forward to some input.

She doesn't have any hides right now, but there are a lot of sticks/logs in there and she likes to curl up between them. She's pretty large and very heavy. I was shocked. She's a little over 5 feet I'm assuming and I will probably have to build a hide for her as the ones at the pet store are much too small for her to fit under.

One question I do have immediately though - for a snake her size, would a regular size rat you would find at Petco or the likes, be sufficient? I know I've read that the feed should be comparable to the widest part of their body, but my god that would be a large rat. She's much fatter than a store rat, and her widest parts are quite larger than the rest of her.

I only have a webcam picture to show, which isn't that great, but I will work on taking some this weekend. The picture is pretty accurate to her size, it does not make her look fatter due to angle.

Thanks for having me on here and looking forward to many discussions.

Soshanna

:D
Miss Sammy L. Jackson -
http://www.soshanna.com/sammy.jpg

BTW Wall of text crit you for over 9000

Welcome to BP.net! :handshake

Sounds to me like you're well on your way to having an awesome snake in an awesome home! Keep up the good work!

As for feeding...you can offer a small rat every seven days and she'll be FINE. Some people like to feed bigger, but it's not necessary (not saying it's wrong...just that it's not necessary)...especially if they're eating regularly every seven days. In the end, it works out to a lot more food over a year's span than they'd ever get in the wild. ;)

Ditto to what Judy said...and welcome! :)

Welcome to the forum! :)

Sounds like you've done a bit of research already and I have no doubt the snake will do great in your care. She looks good considering the prior owners conditions you described; best of luck!

Thanks all! Good to know a small rat is sufficient, I was really dreading having to get a larger one. I've had some bad experiences with rats - they can be real jerks! I used to worry they would bite my old snake, and they would squeal when they died vs. mice just submit. Not to mention the time a rat decided to spin uncontrollably when I had him by the tail until his tail fell off and he went running. That was awesome.

She does have a slight wheeze, which worries me considering my prior snakes RI, but I'm hoping changing her conditions and giving her a more stress-free environment will help. Crossing my fingers.

Thanks again all! Been having fun reading all your posts for the past few days.

Miss Sammy L. Jackson...meet Samuel L. Jackson (The Bigger One)
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7909/img2791ug6.jpg

Holy Cow thats a big boy!!! ( you said boy right? ) We have some pretty huge frozen rats where I buy my feed and I figured they were for snakes like that! Hokey. Good luck, you sound like you are doing great!!! Beautiful snakes!!

Welcome to the group :gj:

Hi and welcome! :)

I think she said the snake was female. She looks about as big as my older girl was and she got a small rat every week or so. Sometimes she'd stretch it out to two weeks and was fine. At this point she should be done growing so I wouldn't worry about giving her the biggest prey possible; it's more of a maintaining this weight and size. Can't wait to see more pics. Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the site!!! Yea~ independent learners rock!!!!! And make sure to ask questions and let us know what's working for you and the snake too!!!!
The suggestion for a small rat is a great one; Judy, how many grams are yours? My small rats are 55g and they seem a lot lighter than other members' small rats! Anyway, my big girls get medium rats that are 80g and I bet that's more of the size that Judy's talking about....
Anyway, Miss Jackson is BEAUTIFUL!! Glad you rescued her and are taking such good care of her!! Again, Welcome!

Welcome!

This is a fantastic site. Your pickup looks wonderful!

What a lovely tangle of gorgeous snake. Welcome and congrats. :)

Bruce

Welcome to BPNet and congrats on the new snake!

You might want to consider hitting WalMart or one of those type of stores and grabbing a small kitty litter pan. Put a hole in it and you have a pretty nifty, very inexpensive and easy to clean bigger snake hide. Most of my adults only have a hide on the warm side as they seem quite comfortable lazing out on the cool side without one (their water bowl is also over there on the cool side). Aspen is a great substrate choice. With heavier adults it's a good habit to finger fluff her aspen especially under the hide once in awhile. Aspen tends to compress under the heavier snakes and doesn't let the heat through as easily (if you are using an under tank heating source).

Do watch that wheeze. It could be some skin over her nostrils from all that stuck shed but it also could be a brewing RI. If you have any concern about her health, a good herp vet is always your best bet. As you know from your previous experience, it's best to get on top of an RI before it gets too advanced. A lot of vets now prefer injections rather than meds by mouth for these snakes with their super duper digestive acids.

As far as rat size, even our biggest female who easily tops 3,200 grams these days never gets more than a small to smallish medium rat offered to her once every 7 days. We feed live rats and find this the best, safest and healthiest option for the big girls. A search through our forums (use Search and put in Live Feeding) will give you literally tons of threads on safe live feeding methods if this snake is used to live feeds.

Thanks for all the advice and compliments all! She does have a tiny bit of skin stuck on a nostril, so perhaps that is causing the whistle. I tried taking it off today, but since she's so head shy, only a piece came off, and some is still stuck in her nostril. I'm hoping it comes out on its own. I am going to get a rat today to feed her, so we'll see how that goes :)

I took some pics today as promised :)

http://a304.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...a109fd4d27.jpg
http://a109.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...2a4d8e00bc.jpg
http://a228.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...9701c7a183.jpg
http://a962.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...6c4a9a0101.jpg
http://a70.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/...ce61b7d205.jpg
http://a21.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/...95804726ec.jpg

and Casca, one of my bengals finally found out about Sammy :)

http://a6.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...d93a613a05.jpg

Great pics, welcome to the community!

thanks for the welcomes :)

just a question - I got her a rat tonight, and she's acting not so interested in it. Everytime she puts her face near the rat the rat kind of puts his paws up at the snakes face, and the snake gets head shy and backs up and veers away. It's almost like she's scared of the rat.

She just finished her shed a few days, and hadn't eaten for a couple weeks before that per the old owner, so I would assume she's hungry by now.. or maybe I'm just doing someting wrong? It's her night cycle right now on the lights. Any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by soshanna

thanks for the welcomes :)

just a question - I got her a rat tonight, and she's acting not so interested in it. Everytime she puts her face near the rat the rat kind of puts his paws up at the snakes face, and the snake gets head shy and backs up and veers away. It's almost like she's scared of the rat.

She just finished her shed a few days, and hadn't eaten for a couple weeks before that per the old owner, so I would assume she's hungry by now.. or maybe I'm just doing someting wrong? It's her night cycle right now on the lights. Any suggestions?

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It seems the bigger and older girls take longer to get comfy in new environment. Our 2004 girl, Osiris, took 2 weeks before eating anything and the owner we bought her from said she had not eaten in 2 weeks before that. Our 2005 girl, Egeria, still has not eaten since we got her, but she has been majorly stressed as she had an RI when she got her and she had to get injections every day for 8 days and before that we spent 4 days trying to get her to take the medicine orally. If she does not eat by the end of next week we are going to try an African Soft Fur treat to see if that can spur her into action. From what I understand African Soft Fur rats are like chocolate to women! :D

I don't like chocolate :( Maybe she's weird like me! lol

Hmm how do I help her get comfy? Just time? Don't handle her?

Now I have to figure out what to do with this rat lol

Great looking snake!

I'd leave her alone for about a week, and don't offer any food in that time. Also, you should probably cover the sides and back of that tank. BPs like to feel claustrophobic, and clear glass doesn't help with that.

Welcome to the site! Beautiful snake:)

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Originally Posted by ChrisBowsman

Great looking snake!

I'd leave her alone for about a week, and don't offer any food in that time. Also, you should probably cover the sides and back of that tank. BPs like to feel claustrophobic, and clear glass doesn't help with that.

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Yes, covering the sides is a good idea. It would really help her feel more secure.:)

Hi Im new too! Great looking snake!

Welllllllll....... It's been almost 2 months with my girl Sammy.

She still hasn't eaten. I don't know what the heck the previous owners did, but I know that when I picked her up they asked me if I wanted the rat they had in a box because she didn't feel like eating that week. Now it's been 2 months and she still hasn't eaten.

I know it's somewhat normal for a ball not to eat for a few months, but I can't help but worry that maybe something is wrong.

Also, lately, she has been curled up on the hot side of the tank under some of the sticks in there and hasn't been active at night at all. Sometimes I stick my hand in there just to make sure she's still moving.

When I do pick her up she's super active and goes exploring all over me and acts like a normal ball, but in the tank she just sleeps constantly and won't eat.

I finally figured out how to get humidity up about a month ago. Every night I put a wet towel over 3/4 of the top of the tank and that keeps humidity around 60% the warm side of her tank is 85-90 in the daytime and the warm side is around 75-78.

So, as far as I can tell, I've got the temps/humidity fairly accurate.

Do girls just go through this funk once in awhile?

Also, she still has what looks like retained eye caps. I put mineral oil on them for a week and nothing happened. It's almost a cracked type look on the eye, though they are not dented at all.

When I do put a rat in there, she goes up to it, smells it, looks like she's going to strike and then veers off in another direction in la la land. It's pretty frustrating.

I hope my girl gets big like that!
I want that cat too, she's beautiful!

Hello!!

I am wondering if your tank still looks the same as in the picks that you posted awhile ago in this same thread??

Does she have a hide to fit her?
Also are the sides of her tank still exposed? I'm just going by the pics that you had posted, I know that they are over a month old, but if you haven't covered 3 sides of her tank you might try that. So much exposure and openness can make them feel less secure sometimes and cause them not to eat.

Also do you know what her feeding schedule was like before you got her? What size and type of prey and how often? Are you feeding her the same thing (rats vs mice, live vs f/t??) that the prior owners were feeding her?
Also, not an experience of mine but something I remember reading on this site somewhere, basically if they are overfed for a length of time sometimes they will fast to kind of let their bodies catch up. And again this is something that I read on this site, not sure if this would apply to your snake or not.

Also, what time of the day do you try to feed her?

From my own experience, my girls can be kind of picky when it comes to eating. One of my girls will only take mice (have you tried them?? you could feed yours multiple mice once a week... just a thought). And they will only eat late at night when the house is darker and really quiet. I feed live mice in their enclosures and place the mouse on the opposite side of the tubs than my girls are.

Another thought, have you tried prescenting her enclosure awhile before feeding her?

Well, yes the tank is pretty much the same. It's actually the same tank she's been in with the previous owners. We haven't covered the sides as of yet, but she's upstairs in our bedroom which we only go into at night to sleep. It's not a busy area, and we don't have kids or anything so she's left alone. I don't have a hide for her as she's quite large and if I were to put two hides in there, there would barely be any room for her to move around between the hides and the water bowl. She likes to snuggle up under the pieces of wood and they're in a fashion right now where they kind of push down on her as she's situated herself under them. If I ever want to get her out I have to remove all the wood to get her since it's around her.

I've tried rats and mice both get the same response. Once we held the rat by its tail over the tank and she went to grab it but just smacked it with her face and then went back down. She never opened her jaws. It's as though she sees it as a nuisance.

I've been feeding her at night time. I've also tried in the daytime the following day if I get the rat a Fri night and try again on Saturday.

I'm starting to think that I may not be suited to be a caretaker for ball python. I used to have cornsnakes and they were SO much easier and ate consistantly.

I also have two bearded dragons who are happy as can be but Sammy is my stress case.

Oh yes, and I had contacted the previous owners with questions about her previous eating habits, and they never responded to me.

Have a feeling they knew something was wrong with her and were just trying to off-load her.

welcome!

Justin

Soshanna, is there any place near you that breeds rats, like a private pet store, etc?

It's good she's in a quiet room but I would encourage you to get her hides. Her hides need not be all that big, basically just the size of her in a tight coil as BP's like to have that smooshed in feeling. Even if it leaves her not much floor space that's fine, the concept here is to get her feeling safe and secure enough to eat and hides can help with that.

I would at this point consider a visit to a qualified and experience herp vet or at the very least to have an experienced BP hobbyist or breeder have a look at her. The eye issues going on this long are a bit concerning. A check on her feces (or a vent wash if she's not passing any) would also be a good idea to make sure that she's not eating due to a load of internal parasites. None of this should cost you a fortune at the vet's office.

Make sure your temps and humidity are stable and within the range suggested.

Now as to the rat breeder thing - if she's well and her home is correct I would suggest a rat fuzzy or very young rat pup. That would be a rat between about 8 days of age but not older than 15 days of age. This age of rat doesn't have much for teeth yet and is quite safe to leave overnight with her. Some of these big adults go into a type of shock and that small, easy to catch meal may trigger her need to feed. A live fat fuzzy rat left in overnight with a snake has worked as a feeding incentive here quite often. If she'll take that you could slowly work up in size of prey but it would at least get her thinking about food again.

If you are concerned or feel you are in over your head, please feel free to PM me your location and I can try to see if we have a member near you to help or a rescue to take her in if that's your decision.

Well, my plan was to go to LLL reptiles this weekend. I was going to bring her in and have them look at her and just give me an opinion. I've tried looking for vets around here, but they all seem to be "cats,dogs,birds,reptiles" type vets. I took an old ball python I had to a vet like that before, and the vet wouldn't even hold him as he was scared of him. So, I had to hold the snake while they looked at her from a distance and he covered his arms and hands up. I'm just not down for that lol. If I go to a vet I expect them to know how to handle a snake, especially a sweet ball.

LLL reptiles also has the range of feed that I think is what you are suggesting. I know it will be stressful for her to go, but I really want someone to look at her who has had experience with these issues. I've never had problems with eyes on snakes and it's almost making me think she's partially blind. She's pretty clumsy when looking for the rat. She gets up to it finally, and then if the rat bats at her face or something she completely retracts.

I'll work on the hides this weekend.. it's just the largest ones at the local pet stores are too small for her, and I'm hoping LLL has something I can get.

Oh yes, and I'm in North County San Diego - Vista

Hi,

I just made a post that has a link to several vets lists for exotics if that helps.


dr del

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Originally Posted by soshanna

I'll work on the hides this weekend.. it's just the largest ones at the local pet stores are too small for her, and I'm hoping LLL has something I can get.

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You can use upside down cat litter boxes with a hole cut in the side for a hide.
They don't look wonderful but work great and are not expensive.

:)

Welcome! Awesome big snake and enclosure.