An introduction, and setting up for a young BP

Greetings all.

I'm a first time poster on this forum.

After many years without a reptile in the house, we're setting up for a young ball python.

A quick bit of history, if you don't mind. My wife and I had a boa for 15 years. We got him as a baby, and when we "retired" him (a good thing, putting him out to stud) 20 years ago, he was 10.5 feet long and weighed 60 lbs.

We've had our African Grey parrott (or does she have us?) for about 33 years.

The current saga began a few weeks ago when I was chatting online with Deb (Dalvers63) whom I've known for years. The proud aunt was showing me photos of the recent BP babies.

I made the 'mistake' of showing the photos to my younger son Josh (19 years old) and this got his attention! He's entering his second year of college, and is seriously considering a career in veterinary, or a related field

We stopped by a local pet store so he could see a baby bp, and handle one. As luck would have it, they were cleaning one of the cages, and a small BP was out of the cage, so Josh got to play with it for a while... his first time touching a snake. He was hooked!

So, he got 'snake' lust. I spoke to Deb about this, and rather than take one of the babies, we're going to adopt a young female bp (currently named baby_m) who is nearly a year old (370 grams).

We're setting up for the new arrival, and I think we've got a handle on the necessities, but would appreciate any additional comments and thoughts on the matter before Deb ships the youngster from WA to NJ to her new home.

Already in house:

• Herpstat thermostat
• LCD thermometer/hygrometer
• Tiny digital IR thermometer (considering getting a better one)
• Water dish
• Small log cluster from pet store
• aspen bedding (although we'll probably start with newspaper and see how it goes from there)
• Hemostat 10"
• Shoebox size sterilite box for housing during cage cleaning

Arriving in a few days:

• Reptile Basics 3x2x1' cage
• UltraTherm UTH mat
• 2 - Reptile Basics medium hide boxes
• 35 frozen weanling size rats from The Mouse Factory

Back when we had our boa, our snake wasn't very good at live food, he was bitten a few times. I read a book called "The Keeper and the Kept" by the curator of the reptile collection of the Staten Island Zoo, and he (radically) suggested that snakes actually prefered dead food. In those days there was only one store in anywhere near us that sold frozen rats, a great convenience and our snake thrived on them. It's great to see them readily available these days, and turned into a small online industry!

So, I think we've got things pretty well covered. Josh is paying for most of this himself, so it's a significant investment on his part, which he's making gladly.

He's excited about having everything ready and setup before calling Deb to ship the youngster to us.

Is there anything we're obviously overlooking?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Alan, congrats to your family, yourself and your son on getting what sounds like a lovely first ball python. The preparation you're putting into this will pay off for both you and even more importantly for the snake.

After just a quick run through your list the only thing that jumps out at me is the hide. Most of those log hides are open at each end which doesn't suit these type of snakes terribly well. They tend to like hides that completely encase them other than obviously an entrance either in the side or the roof of the hide. Also they will sometimes toilet in their hides and those log ones I've heard are pretty near impossible to really clean let alone disinfect occasionally. Also it's best to offer the snake two hides if the enclosure has the room, one on each end.

You can go with a commercial snake hide or just make one yourself out of any sort of heavy, plastic, dark colored bowl or heavy black rubber dog dish or whatever (be creative). Think dark, barely bigger than the snake is coiled up and easy for you to clean. If you need pictures, don't hesitate to ask.

You should be quite pleased with the quality of the product from The Mouse Factory. I feel live these days but back when I did feed f/t, I always ordered from them.

Welcome to BPNet and don't forget to post pictures of your new snake as soon as she arrives. You've probably already read about it here but remember to allow her a good solid week of no feeding, no handling to get settled in properly. :)

First off, welcome to the board!

It sounds like you have pretty much everything under control and are better off than most (including myself) who start off with snakes.
This forum is loaded with so many great members who have so much advice and help to offer...I'm sure somebody will be along soon to give their advice!

Welcome!!!

Oh boy, you're going to LOVE your RBI stuff!!!

I have several of their 2x3 cages and they are fantastic!! Hold heat and humidity really well, very easy to clean, and gives a very mellow access to the snake!! :D Their hides are awesome and all of my snakes use them!!

Herpstat is an excellent choice as they are rock-solid dependable and (if you have the II) comes with nifty features ;)

Mouse Factory rodents are simply the best- bar none. The are healthy, clean, and low odor. Edna takes very good care of her rodents while they are alive as well as amazing post-mortem care. Awesome, healthy food for your son's new snake!!

Of course, while it sounds like you and your family are on a rock-solid path of successful ball python husbandry, you failed to mention one little item------
WE LOVE PICTURES!!!!!! :rofl::D:rofl::banana:
Please take several and share!!!!!

Again, welcome to the community :D

All,

Thanks for the kind welcome.

Franky,

The Reptile Basics hides are enclosed, they're not log shaped. The medium hide (10x7x2.5") is shown here with a hatchling.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/image.php?type=P&id=16327

I've ordered two identical hides.

Ah, now I see where you got the impression about the log shaped hides.

What I was referring to was a small driftwood cluster, not used as a hide, but perhaps useful for shedding, giving her something to rub against or crawl over.

The actual item is a Mac's Creation Driftwood Jungle Gym. The one pictured here is the larger, more complex version. The one we got is simply 4 pieces of driftwood attached into a roughly square shape with overlapping ends.

http://pet.imageg.net/graphics/produ...763095t400.jpg

I have some of those for my corns...they love it!. :) Just be careful and bake it often, since bugs like mites love hiding in all that wood. That's why I don't use them for my BPs anymore - just too risky. But my corns adore them. :)

Very nice and thorough list, there. :) Glad to see someone who's really prepared and knows their stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlanZ

All,

Thanks for the kind welcome.

Franky,

The Reptile Basics hides are enclosed, they're not log shaped. The medium hide (10x7x2.5") is shown here with a hatchling.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/image.php?type=P&id=16327

I've ordered two identical hides.

---

Oh silly me I obviously missed that! Those are excellent hides and will work out beautifully for you and your snake. Believe me chipping dried urates off a hard to clean hide loses it's charm pretty fast LOL.

The log thing is just cage decor and will do fine other than the warnings to watch it for bug issues but you'll probably be fine there with the snake coming in clean and just being super careful with quarantine if you bring in another snake at a later date (or visit snake shows or pet stores...you do NOT want any little hitchhikers coming home with you :()

Can't wait to see it all set up and your lovely snake. It's heartwarming to see this much work going into snake keeping prior to the snake showing up. Great job!

Welcome, and I must say that you are well prepared for the arrival of this snake. :gj:

welcome to the site. Sounds like you are on your way. Good luck to you and your son. He is gonna get the fever soon and have to have more LOL. Thats what happened to me.

Well, we're all set up and ready for the new arrival, coming in a few days.

The photos below shows the RBI cage as it's heating up during the installation.

I needed to get the cage higher than the countertop, so I added a few black legs (actually 6" CD holders from the ContainerStore). The side effect was that the temperatures dropped because of the increased airflow under the cage. So I built an 18x33" shelf that goes atop the legs, and now the cage sits on that (with 1/2" spacer legs for a little air flow).

The HerpStat is hanging on the wall, the probe is between the UltraTherm mat and the bottom of the cage. In our case the thermostat needs to be set to 104.5 degrees to get a 92 degree temp inside the warm side high (as measured by a very nice IR thermometer from RBI).

The substrate is several layers of regular newspaper topped with two single 18x24" sheets of unprinted newsprint (conveniently sold as a pad in an art supply store, shown in the first photo to the left of the cabinet).

As a precaution, we heated the driftwood in the oven to make sure it's sterile.

I installed a 14" warm white flourescent light that should help when cleaning the cage. Obviously we'll leave the light off most of the time.

The thermometer/hygrometer that's there now is temporary... I'm expecting a wireless unit to come in this week.

By the way, Rich at RBI has been a pleasure to deal with!

If all goes well, the youngster will ship from WA on Monday night, and we should have her here in NJ on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for all your support, comments and suggestions.

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/perso.../cagea_640.jpg

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/perso.../cageb_640.jpg


http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/perso.../cagec_640.jpg

Well, the young lady arrived safe and sound this morning.

We placed her in the cage, and within a few minutes she set about exploring her new home. So I grabbed this quick photo before she decided to curl up in the corner behind the warm-side hide, where she stayed for the rest of the day.

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/perso...newhome412.jpg

Now that it's dark outside, she's doing some more exploring. We're letting her get settled in for a couple of days before handling her.

Thanks for all your help with the fine tuning... we were ready for her arrival.

Hi,

She looks lovely. :)

One thing though - double check how warm that lamp gets at both ends after it has been on for a while.

I had one that got worryingly hot and I ended up having to put a gaurd round it. They can also mess up the temps in the tank so just keep an eye on everything for a week or so to make sure all is well.:gj:

If it is only for providing light you might find you can get away with the ambient light in the room.


dr del

Dr Del,

We plan to only turn on that fluorescent light for cage cleaning and the occasional photo, so heat won't be a problem.

Now we have to figure out what her name is <s>

A very nice setup and a pretty little girl. :)

As for names, well... all my snakes (with two exceptions) are named after Greek Gods. :D
That one looks like an Aphrodite to me. ;)

Oh she's lovely!

If you have a Home Depot handy to you, in the aisle where they sell packing boxes is a great deal on enclosure paper. It's just a long box, orange and white in color, labelled Packing Paper, 10 lbs, approximately 165 sheets and it's only $8.99! Robin (rabernet) told me about this and I'm loving it. For you with only the one snake and that enclosure, for less than $10.00 you should be set for ages.

I'm no help for names LOL. All our ball pythons have crazy hard to say, hard to spell, harder to pronounce gaelic/celtic names. :)

It's been 19 days since her last feed on the west coast. We wanted her pretty empty for shipping here, and gave her a few days to acclimate once she arrived. So we figured that she was ready to feed.

We did our first feeding tonight, a F/T weanling rat.
We placed the rat and a piece of paper towel into a plastic bag and placed the bag in a large bowl of hot tapwater.

After about 20 minutes, we removed the paper towel and placed the paper in her cage to pre-scent and inspire some appetite while the rat continued defrosting in the bag in the hot water. She poked her head out of the cool side hide and looked around (though she didn't move towards the paper towel).

When defrosted fully, Josh placed tongs on the nape of the rat's neck and I instructed him to dangle the rat about 4 inches in front of the lady. She came out of the hide a bit more immediately, and looked at the rat for about 45 seconds. I had Josh begin to move the rat away just slightly, and she followed. About 10 seconds later she struck strongly. She remained coiled for a few minutes.

This was Josh's first time feeding a snake, and he (and a friend) stood in awe as she released and repositioned the rat, then struck again at the rat's nose... then proceeded to slowly and deliberately ingest the rat. It's a cool thing to watch, and I enjoyed watching the guys (19 and 20 years old) watching this for the first time. We kept the lights fairly low and they stood very still during this entire process so as not to distract her.

All this time, she was only partially out of her hide box. As soon as the tail was swallowed, she quietly retreated fully into the hide box for a well deserved rest.

So it looks like we have a success on our hands... now if Josh would only decide on a name <s>