Eleven progression (my first normal)

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Originally Posted by WhompingWillow

I also fell for a normal at PetSmart (who was not in great shape) and now he's doing fantastic. :)

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Thats so good to hear!!

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Originally Posted by WhompingWillow

One thing I'd suggest is to space out your feedings. If you gave a meal on 1/3 and another on 1/8 (one that was probably a bit bigger than it ideally would have been), that's quite a bit of food for a snake that's young and still adjusting. Every 7-10 days is fine. Aim for as big as the widest part of the body or 10-15% bodyweight. There are a lot of obese snakes in captivity. ;)

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Yes, understood, I now plan to feed her every 7 days. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Luvyna

I'm also quite surprised to see a Petsmart snake this healthy. Most of the ones I've seen come with a lot of health problems and need to be rehabilitated. It's really cool that Eleven is a climber! Must be good exercise for her especially after all those meals :D

I think that the shed was incomplete most likely due to humidity. In the photos of her climbing the table leg I can see some wrinkles on her body which is a sign of dehydration. You mentioned in a previous post that you have trouble keeping your humidity above 30-40% - this is too low for a ball python, it should be a minimum of 50-60% humidity. It might help to consult some of the BP care guides on this forum, there are lots of different methods for increasing humidity in the enclosure.

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A bit misleading, I had to spray the cypress mulch every morning to keep the humidity high enough. I then bought Spagmoss which i still give a spritz each morning to aid in keeping it high. Usually Its around 60-70%, but again thats with me spraying every morning. But you may be right she possibly is dehydrated.

Any other suggestions on how to help her shed completely? all Info is definitely appreciated.

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Originally Posted by rayman99

A bit misleading, I had to spray the cypress mulch every morning to keep the humidity high enough. I then bought Spagmoss which i still give a spritz each morning to aid in keeping it high. Usually Its around 60-70%, but again thats with me spraying every morning. But you may be right she possibly is dehydrated.

Any other suggestions on how to help her shed completely? all Info is definitely appreciated.

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I think that if you get a large (!) plastic food container (& cut a doorway in it) to use as a humid hide, that would help a lot. You need to completely soak sphagnum moss,
then pour off the excess water (spritzing doesn't cut it); the humid hide needs to be big enough for a lot of moss + the snake. If it's near but not right over (or under) the
"hot spot" so it's warm but doesn't dry out too fast it will be used by this snake a lot.

As far as right now & helping her out of the rest of her shed: a damp terry towel for her to be wrapped in for a while & rub against will help greatly, both for humidity & friction.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I think that if you get a large (!) plastic food container (& cut a doorway in it) to use as a humid hide, that would help a lot. You need to completely soak sphagnum moss,
then pour off the excess water (spritzing doesn't cut it); the humid hide needs to be big enough for a lot of moss + the snake. If it's near but not right over (or under) the
"hot spot" so it's warm but doesn't dry out too fast it will be used by this snake a lot.

As far as right now & helping her out of the rest of her shed: a damp terry towel for her to be wrapped in for a while & rub against will help greatly, both for humidity & friction.

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took all your advice, took out all moss from enclosure and tank, soaked and excess poured off And moss reapplied. Hopefully that helps and next time I’ll be better prepared. Also I think she really enjoyed the warm towel, as soon as I wrapped her, she moved around for 30 seconds and then sat there for 15 minutes while I gentle rubbed/ moved towel around.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...860ed60b79.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...102e3a592c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bbfbdd00d2.jpg

I decided to place her back in her original house for now, until I get this shed under control. The RUB holds temps and humidity very well. Im contemplating building a pvc enclosure over the next few months. It’s a bit sad having to put her back in the RUB but best right no

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Well, She Finally Pooped! I came home from work and as soon as I opened my front door, I was hit with a whiff of some unpleasantries. I immediately went to her tub only to Find nothing, I then went to my trash can to take out the garbage, only to see there was no garbage; I took it out last night...In utter confusion, I'm trying to figure out where the smell is coming from. It take her out of the tub, put her in a different look through the substrate and find the two small pieces of poop (combined about the size of a quarter), I did take a pic but I'll save everyone those details. I figured she'd have a lot more poop considering her last meal was a whopping 52 grams but maybe her body used the rest. She doesn't have that massive bulge at her cloaca that she had two days ago, So I think it was a good poop for her and all is good. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...853b30404e.jpg

I'm still working on getting the last bit of shed off, In her tub(since the night of the 11th) the ambient temp has been roughly 77° F, hotspot 90° F and pretty high humidity of 80%. I have her out now and she's pretty active, literally hanging out on the edge of the tub. I think she's happy now.
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Today I decided to give my girl an upgrade, she was constantly roaming around her 9 liter tub, so I put her in the 33 liter I was saving for when she was much larger, I also decided to buy a larger hide and bought coconut husk, then threw away the bag of cypress mulch. I have only had a reptile for about a month but I have decided coconut husk is what I’ll be using from now on, the mulch once dry was so sharp, and doesn’t seem to soak\retain water very well. I tomorrow, I’m gonna find some more clutter (preferably something to climb on) for the tub.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5243a18fee.jpg


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Well I have got to be the worst judge of rat sizing. After work today, I purchased her weekly meal, I weighed it and realized it was significantly heavier than it looked, (55 Grams). I then tossed the rat in the tub, and when Eleven came out of her hide, I then realized Eleven was not as wide as I remembered. None the less, width wise, the rat wasn't too big, just not the 100% correct proportion.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...08d747399a.jpg

Well my girl is going through her second shes since I adopted her (seems to she’s once per month). Her last shed did not go well at all, I spent multiple days trying to get stuck shed off, it’s was a nightmare and got all but a section on her neck. I don’t plan on having this issue again so as soon as I realized she was blue, I upped her humidity to high 90’s, the one issue is I tossed her a rat tonight before I knew she was blue, so I hope that doesn’t mess with her shedding process.
Wish her and I good luck!
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I’m pretty happy now, I’ve finally got a good shed, she had stuck shed on her for weeks, and this last shed was perfect! https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8f527b7728.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...41bb855580.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9525eab2fa.jpg


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