Any Tips?

[lepidunce]

Ok, I just received my first herp. And I have a large enough tank, a hydrometer, two thermometers, ( 83 and 89 respectively) Two hides, and night time heat lamps. Plus a water dish, and fir substrate. Any tips and or tricks for general care of a BP? Remember, total noob here.

[lepidunce]

Just thought I would clarify: the lamps are black light heat lamps. I don't cut them off at night or anything.

[omnibus2]

Get rid of the light bulb immediately.

Replace it with a thermostat that is plugged into an undertank heater (or flexwatt heat tape).

Do not use a tank; instead, use a tub.

Make sure you are measuring temperatures with a digital thermometer, such as the acu-rite ones.

This is what I personally recommend for you to have the best and least stressful experience with bp. Also, there are stickies on this website that cover the care of bp more elaborately.

[stinker2009]

Get rid of the light bulb immediately.

Replace it with a thermostat that is plugged into an undertank heater (or flexwatt heat tape).

Do not use a tank; instead, use a tub.

Make sure you are measuring temperatures with a digital thermometer, such as the acu-rite ones.

This is what I personally recommend for you to have the best and least stressful experience with bp. Also, there are stickies on this website that cover the care of bp more elaborately.

Just to add on, the thermometer/hygrometer thing is at wal mart and its only 12 bucks. If you wanna stick with the tank then make sure you cover three of the sides. Depending on where you live, you might want to do some work on the top to keep humidity in. Once you figure out the humidity in your tank, do a search and you'll find some good articles for keeping humidity up in a tank. The foil treatment one by Argentra (sp?) is awesome and worked great on my set up.

[Kaorte]

Ok, I just received my first herp. And I have a large enough tank, a hydrometer, two thermometers, ( 83 and 89 respectively) Two hides, and night time heat lamps. Plus a water dish, and fir substrate. Any tips and or tricks for general care of a BP? Remember, total noob here.

Since you are a total noob, I am going to make some assumptions about your enclosure and how you are taking care of your animal. Please remember I mean no offense and I just want you and your snake to be happy

A large enough tank could actually in fact be too large. Ball pythons are very secretive and shy animals. They enjoy smaller spaces and are stressed by larger ones. If you have a baby BP, go with a 10g. If it is a juvenile or adult, go with a 20g. Unless you have a massive female BP, you will not need anything larger than a 20g.

I am willing to bet that the thermometers and hygrometer you have are not digital. Those analog stick on thermometers are well known for being up to 10*/% off. That is not good. The most popular option with ball pythons seems to be the accurite weather station. You can purchase this for $12 at home depot, lowes, or walmart. It comes with an external probe to measure your hot side (outside temp). A thermometer on the unit for your cool side (inside temp) and a built in hygrometer. Simply place the unit on the cool side and the probe on the hot side, tada!

You didn't specify what kind of hides you have. Your ball python should have two IDENTICAL tight fitting hides. The rock cave kind work the best. Make sure they are a tight fit, the snake should barely be able to fit in there. Half log hides are not recommended for ball pythons because they are very open and don't really "hide" the snake at all.

Heat lamps will almost always cause your snake to have a bad shed. A bad shed is when the skin doesn't come off in one piece and pieces are still stuck on the snake. You would have to mist your tank 10 times a day to keep the recommended 60-70% humidity. Do yourself a favor and switch to an under tank heater with a thermostat. UTHs are about $20 and the cheapest thermostat, the reptitemp 500r, is $25. This unit is hard to find in stores so look online. UTHs can cause burns or cook your snake if not used without a thermostat. The UTH will control your hot side temp and should be between 90-94*. If you can't keep the ambient tank temperature above 75* without a lamp, then get a red bulb, a moonlight bulb or a ceramic heat emitter (CHE). If you are actually using black lights, ditch them. They are very harmful to bps.

A trend I have noticed with new owners is a super huge water bowl. Contrary to popular belief, ball pythons do not need a bowl big enough to soak in. The only reason they would soak is if they have mites (problem) or if they don't feel safe (problem). If you have a gigantic water bowl, you might want to downgrade a bit. Especially if you move your snake to a smaller tank.

Some general tips:
-Do not handle your snake for the first week that it is home with you. They need some time to relax and get to know their new environment before the big predator monster (you) comes and snatches them away.

-Weigh your snake. Don't measure it. Weight is a much more useful tool to measure how big they are. A digital kitchen scale that measures in grams (up to 3,000g) should work. They are like $20 at target or walmart.

-Feed 10-15% of the snakes body weight. A big mistake with beginners is feeding pinky mice. Those are way to small for even a hatchling. Start off with hopper mice and then move to adult mice.


Hope this helps get you started!

[lepidunce]

Thank you, every one. I have two thermostats, a hygrometer, now two identical hides, and I got rid of the lamps in leu of a under the tank heater. humidity is staying (almost) constant at 65% and the temps are looking good. I believe Pickles is a much happier snake, and it's all thanks to you. I remember why I made an account in this wonderful place. Once again, thank you.

P.S. I have a twenty long tank, for a juvenile normal ball. His eyes have clouded, so he's gonna shed soon. Hope the tank lights didn't mess up the shed too badly, since it will be my first.

[Elise.m]

Thank you, every one. I have two thermostats, a hygrometer, now two identical hides, and I got rid of the lamps in leu of a under the tank heater. humidity is staying (almost) constant at 65% and the temps are looking good. I believe Pickles is a much happier snake, and it's all thanks to you. I remember why I made an account in this wonderful place. Once again, thank you.

P.S. I have a twenty long tank, for a juvenile normal ball. His eyes have clouded, so he's gonna shed soon. Hope the tank lights didn't mess up the shed too badly, since it will be my first.

Thermostat = A device to keep your UTH at a constant temperature.

Thermometer = A device to measure what your temps are at.

[Alice]

Thank you, every one. I have two thermostats, a hygrometer, now two identical hides, and I got rid of the lamps in leu of a under the tank heater. humidity is staying (almost) constant at 65% and the temps are looking good. I believe Pickles is a much happier snake, and it's all thanks to you. I remember why I made an account in this wonderful place. Once again, thank you.

P.S. I have a twenty long tank, for a juvenile normal ball. His eyes have clouded, so he's gonna shed soon. Hope the tank lights didn't mess up the shed too badly, since it will be my first.

Smart for asking questions, actually listening to the advice given and then acting on it! Good luck with the shed!

[lepidunce]

I seem to have had a stupid attack, recently. I of course meant two thermometers, (nice little digital ones) and I picked up the thermoSTAT two days ago. Temps are good Pickles is happy, I just hope the shed's good. And I've bumped the humidity to from 67-73% or there abouts. thanks, everyone!