new to BP's

Hello everyone I'm new here. I recently(two days ago) purchased my first snake a 4yr old BP. She has been handled a lot but I'm not sure how much time she needs to get used to me and how soon I should try to handle her. She doesnt seem agressive but I am not sure how to tell the difference between aggressive or nervous. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated guys and girls :)

btw her name is Cleo...

Give Cleo about a week to get settled in before handleing her. Good luck with your new addiction. :rolleye2:

Lee,

I am not an expert, relatively new to BP's and this site, but I hope I can help. From reading a LOT of these threads to gain the knowledge I hope to use to make my BP, aka "Viper," a happy little snake, I think I my be able to give a bit of advice. The experts say to leave your BP alone and do not handle for at least a week after bringing it home to it's new enviornment. If you adjust or change it's surroundings, they say to give it a week to re-adjust.
My snake has not ever struck at me or my children (fingers crossed), but they say the bite is not bad if it happens. I have also read that if they do strike to go ahead and handle them so that they do not "learn" to strike to get what they want.
I hope this helps, and that I did not offend any of the crew here that know a GREAT deal more than me.
Good luck.

The good part about Bp's is their mostly docile nature so i wouldn't be too afraid of it being aggressive. i would definately give it atleast a few days to settle into its new enclosure/surroundings and de-stress. when you do go to take it out move in slow and go from there. be gentle and smooth and keep it close to you and supported and it should do just fine. Good luck and welcome to the bp world.

Hey thank you everyone for your replies. I did get her out this evening cause I couln't help myself and she was awesome!! really calm she was but she is used to being handled and I set her home up like she is used to so it should be somewhat familiar. Thanks again everyone and I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future :p

I'm sure, as a new time owner, your husbandry will be a bit bumpy. Our job here is to help smooth that out for you.

A first step would be to take a picture of the snake, and the enclosure you have her set up in.

Take a good look at this care sheet and follow it down to it's last period.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules/...warticle&id=59

Good luck and have fun!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spiderfan

The good part about Bp's is their mostly docile nature so i wouldn't be too afraid of it being aggressive. i would definately give it atleast a few days to settle into its new enclosure/surroundings and de-stress. when you do go to take it out move in slow and go from there. be gentle and smooth and keep it close to you and supported and it should do just fine. Good luck and welcome to the bp world.

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I agree with this. She will not bite you unless you have the smell of food on your hands or you just do somethine stupid.

Good luck with your new BP!! If you have any more questions just ask around, everyone here is a great help!

:welcome:

i cant say ALL ball pythons are nice,i have a pastel that used to be anything but nice,and i have seen some nasty tempered ones,,but luckily,those arent very often.I ususally dont handle at all until they take thier first meal,once they do that,,then let the fun begin

I will be postin pics of Cleo and her enclosure as soon as I can. Its not like it should be I know. I bought her with the tank, a water bowl, a screen top, some plastic grasslike underlayment, a stick, heat lamp, and a heat rock.

I've taken the heat rock out and put a UTH in but its not good enough to keep the heat where it should be so I'm till using the lamp for now. I will be getting a red heat bulb to replace the light in it. with a humidifier beside the tank i can keep the hum. 40-50% but thats about as high as i can get it. If I put a wet towel over part of the top it jumps to about 90% so some suggestions would help me there. I fashioned a crude hide out of a shoebox for her as she had nothing and I thought coming into a new place she would want one. I put foil over 3/4 of the screen top to help with temp and hum. and with the setup i have I am at 75-78 at the cool end and 85-89 at the warm end. let me know what I can do different

What are you measuring your temps with? if it is those stick on dial thermometers, chances are your temps are already too hot and your humidity is fine. If you can I would try to find an accurite thermometer hygrometer combo unit. You can find these at walmart, the home depot, or lowes. They look like this: http://www.weatherconnection.com/scr...91p.gif&type=p

Also, you most likely don't have a rheostat or a thermostat working with the UTH to keep it at a safe temperature. You must must must control all of your heat sources because if you don't you could burn or cook your snake, and that is no good ):
Reptilebasics.com sells some nice thermostats for around $80. It is expensive, but it is pretty necessary. Reptilesupply.com also carries a more mainstream dial thermostat. I have used one in the past and they work pretty well. They aren't perfect, but they will get the job done.

As for hides, basically and plastic container that is opaque is good. Just cut a small opening and you are good to go. Make sure your BP fits snugly inside. I would recommend getting two identical hides, one on top of the UTH and one on the other side of the enclosure. Then you can just stick the water bowl in between them.

I do have a digital temp guage w/inside and outside temp to measure both ends but I have yet to get a good hygrometer so I just may go to walmart today to get the combo you suggested. Also I do not have a thermostat on my UTH so is it advisable to turn it off until I do? Here as some pics so you can better correct my setup. I will be getting better hides when I go the the temp/hygro combo. check out the substrate..im not sure what it is.

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...r/IMG_2200.jpg

http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/w...r/IMG_2201.jpg

No, I would leave it on, just watch it very carefully. Most popular brands won't get hot enough to burn, but they can by power surges. She needs another hide on her cool side. And becareful with that branch. They aren't tree snakes, but sometimes forget. My baby fell off hers a couple times so I took them out.

I would get rid of the mat in the bottom. I think it would be too easy for messy stuff to get underneath it, and too hard to clean. You should be able to go to the pet store and get some aspen really cheap. Or a hardware store, and look for some cypress mulch. Both will hold humidity really well. If you get some cypress be sure to check it for bugs. It's usually used for planting, and not cleaned very well.

Here is a cheap thermostat to invest in.

http://www.cheappetproducts.net/Rept...BE-P69363.html

I hope this helps. She is a beautiful girl :D And welcome!!

Ok thank you for your advice :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of bps! I would also ditch the mat as it looks difficult to keep clean. You can use newspaper or aspen among other substrates. As was said before, I would get a digital thermometer/hygrometer unit. They are about $12 and Walmart carries them (accurite brand). If that's a cardboard box it will work, but you won't get tons of mileage out of it as bacteria can build up pretty easily on it. What are you securing the lid with? Enjoy your new bp!

I think part of the reason why you are having trouble with humidity is because
1. the dial gauge you have is toward the top of the tank, and the snake will never go up that high. All of your readings should be taken at the snakes level (it makes sense right? :P)

2. That tank is HUUUUGE, and by huge I mean tall huge. Ball pythons are ground dwelling snakes so chances are your BP will never use the top 12" of that tank. That is just how they are. They are perfectly content in a 20gallon long for their entire life, maybe even a 30gallon long if they get particularly big.

Ok I got a digital therm/hygro and I'll be getting substrate soon. I know the tank is big but its what she came with so I guess it will have to do for now. Thank you guys very much I really appreciate all the advice.