Analysis of Care etc?

[kloper70]

I bought my ball about two from my biology teacher, who gave me the snake, the terrarium and everything in it for 40$. She was not being kept very well; i did not own a snake and this was obvious. I am posting this here to make sure I am giving my ball the correct care because I love her to death.

Tank: She is 3'2" and the terrarium I got her in is 24x12x17. I'd like to get her a bigger one, but I don't have the money yet so I'm doing the best I can. It is glass with a screen top; no latch or lock so i keep my biology textbook on the corner. See picture at bottom.

Heating: When I got her, the only form of heat she had was a heating pad at the bottom of the cage that didn't get all that hot. The room she was kept in was cold all the time and this was one of my main concerns when i first got her. First I bought just a heating lamp; 65 watt bulb kept on the opposite side than the heating pad. I had that for about a month and just recently bought a ceramic heating element because the light bulbs kept burning out and it wasn't keeping the tank warm enough anyway. The cool side of the tank is about 80 degrees and the warmer side is about 90 degrees, both with some fluctuation.

Hide places: Her water dish also functions as a hide place, as it is dark and has a lid that i cut a hole through so she could fit entirely inside. She loves this water dish and spends a lot of her time inside of it, especially before a shed. It is on the cool side of the tank. On the warm side of the tank is another hide box of the same size that i covered in duct tape to keep it dark (both water dish and hide box are home-made from tupperware). She doesn't seem to mind the duct tape; i made sure it didn't noticeably smell. She hides in there a lot too.

Other things in the tank: She has a wooden thing that came with it - it was three pieces of wood screwed together, but it looks like it was manufactured. I took one of the pieces off because it took up too much room in the cage. It doesn't have any sharp edges or anything. I put some fake plant palms in there because i heard it can somehow help with humidity; also it makes the tank look more appealing. She doesn't have too much of an interest in them.

Substrate/lining/bottom-of-the-cage-floor: The cage wasn't lined with anything when I bought her, it was just the plain glass, so started to line it with newspaper because I figured that was easy to clean. Unfortunately she found out she could crawl under and inside of it. When I woke up in the morning it would be completely obliterated, and i had to reline it every day. I bought a repti-carpet and she hasn't burrowed under it; it also seems to help with trapping heat in the cage which is nice, because i live on the second floor above the garage and sometimes it can get pretty cold in my room. I tried to make sure it wouldn't harm her first.

Readers: The cage came with two temperature readers on each side of the cage and a humidity reader in the middle.

Humidity: This is probably the thing I've had the most trouble with. I would spray the cage with distilled water when I woke up in the morning for school and when i got home and before i went to bed. I still struggled to keep it above 30% humidity. So, in her hide box on the warm side of the cage i put a paper towel attached to the bottom and spray it with water. I guess this is called a humidity box? Also, I have started wetting down a washcloth and putting it on the top of the cool side of the tank. This has helped up the humidity, it now sits most often between 50-70%.

Day/Night cycles: I open my blinds and turn on my desk light before I leave (cage is on desk). I turn them off before I go to bed.

Feeding: I feed her a fairly large rat every week and a half. I tried to feed her weekly but she wouldn't them every time, and when I fed her every two weeks she would act hungry. So. Large rat every week and half. I feed her in her own cage. I will buy a rat, kill it by putting it in a bag and hitting it against the wall (I don't want to feed it to her live because I'm scared it will hurt her and I try to be merciful with the prey) then, while wearing what I call her "feeding glove" I dangle it by the tail in the cage. She normally sniffs around and then strikes it; I make it wiggle some more while she's constricting it, and the just let her eat the rest of it. Sometimes if she looses hold of it she has to look for the head again; i found that when i was feeding her mice she would eat them from any angle. The first time I fed her a rat she took like 5 minutes looking for the head and positioning the prey to eat it.

As a side note I was very surprised that my teacher was only feeding her a single adult mouse every two weeks!. I would feed her two mice every week and a half but I tried a rat one day and she loved it. It's been rats ever since.

Shedding: Rusty (snake) had a really bad shed the first time. I think it was because she was in a new home, and also because I didn't keep up the humidity then. It took a really long time for her to ever start to peel her skin off, and even then it wouldn't all come off. It was flaky and it looked really uncomfortable. Her eye caps were on for a very very long time. Eventually I held her and pulled them off myself; she started acting more like herself after that. I was pulling pieces of shed off of her for a very long time. :[ I felt so bad!
She is at the start of her shed cycle now. Her eyes have gotten the eyecaps and she is spending a lot of time in her water dish soaking. She seems to be doing well. We'll see how this shed goes; I'll follow up on it.

Exercise/Behavior: Because there are not many climbing places in her cage (working on that!) I take her out at least every other day and give her attention. She likes to slither around my floor while I clean my room and sometimes I'll hang her around my neck while I'm sitting in my chair or at my desk doing homework. She is very curious and tries to get into everything of mine; i found if i let her explore it while being supervised she'll leave it alone. The thing she will NOT leave along at all is this chair I have. It's pretty old and has gears and things in it. It's electric and it's so old when i plug it in it trips the breaker. She always tries to slither inside of it! It gives me a heart attack. I never leave her alone and try to keep her from the chair. She got inside once when I left my friend to watch her, we got her out safely and without any injury. (Had to cut the chair up, though) I never leave her alone in anyone else's hands again. I have 3 younger siblings and many friends, she doesn't mind at all being handled by any of them but they're not allowed to do so unless I'm there. She is very docile and friendly. She has never anyone when I had her, she never bit anyone when my teacher had her and according to him her previous owner said that she never bit anyone when she was in his care either.
I've noticed that when I put something in her cage that she doesn't like she'll hiss at it from the other side. I super-glued a platform on the side of the cage (so she could climb around) and boy did she hate that. She hissed at it all the time. So I removed it and washed all the super glue off. It's not a problem anymore. She's never hissed at me, the only time she ever made a noise at me was when i was holding her down to get her eyecaps off (she never holds still enough for me to just do it). She made a noise that sounded like she was grumbling! I let her go play for a while and eventually she forgave me. I've heard it's rare for balls to yawn, but I see her do it at least every two week. I had her around my neck once, and she yawned right next to my throat! Scared me half to death! But she never has tried to bite/strike/constrict/attack me in any way. She just likes to yawn next to my jugular. -eyeroll-


I think I've covered just about everything here, let me know if there is anything I can do better because I really love my Rusty and I want her to get the best care I can provide.

[kloper70]

her general cage setup.


water dish.


hide box/humidity box


This is Rusty; her colors are faded because she's in the middle of a shed. You can see her eyes are all milky.


Desk she lives on.


This is her when she yawns - my friend caught a picture! This was before the repti-carpet and when I was still dealing with the newspaper problem.


Us. maybe you can see her size better here? She chills like that often.

[Kaorte]

Give me about 10 minutes and I will go throgh all this and give you my opinion on everything

So much info, lol!

[Kaorte]

Tank: She is 3'2" and the terrarium I got her in is 24x12x17. I'd like to get her a bigger one, but I don't have the money yet so I'm doing the best I can. It is glass with a screen top; no latch or lock so i keep my biology textbook on the corner. See picture at bottom.

For a snake that size, that tank will be fine for a little while longer. I wouldn't go with anything larger than a 20g long tank. Also, get some cage clips. Leaving heavy objects on top is kinda dangerous. They can push those up, and then smash themselves between the tank and the lid.

Heating: When I got her, the only form of heat she had was a heating pad at the bottom of the cage that didn't get all that hot. The room she was kept in was cold all the time and this was one of my main concerns when i first got her. First I bought just a heating lamp; 65 watt bulb kept on the opposite side than the heating pad. I had that for about a month and just recently bought a ceramic heating element because the light bulbs kept burning out and it wasn't keeping the tank warm enough anyway. The cool side of the tank is about 80 degrees and the warmer side is about 90 degrees, both with some fluctuation.

If your room temperature is above 75*F, then you should only need a UTH. Lamps, as you have noticed, suck the humidity dry and make it near impossible to keep up. If you can get away with it, ditch the lamps and CHE.

Hide places: Her water dish also functions as a hide place, as it is dark and has a lid that i cut a hole through so she could fit entirely inside. She loves this water dish and spends a lot of her time inside of it, especially before a shed. It is on the cool side of the tank. On the warm side of the tank is another hide box of the same size that i covered in duct tape to keep it dark (both water dish and hide box are home-made from tupperware). She doesn't seem to mind the duct tape; i made sure it didn't noticeably smell. She hides in there a lot too.

First and fore most. Get rid of anything that has tape on it. They will eventually find a way to get stuck to it and removing tape from a snake is no picnic. It is just dangerous to have in the tank.
I would also get her a regular water dish. Ball pythons don't usually soak and shouldn't be spending a lot of time in water, they are not water snakes. Get her two identical tight fitting hides. You have the right idea with the duct tape one, just loose the duct tape. Try going to the dollar store and getting a crock water dish and some opaque plastic bowls that you can cut an opening in.
Ball pythons spend 90% of their time hiding, so hides are very important for them!.

Other things in the tank: She has a wooden thing that came with it - it was three pieces of wood screwed together, but it looks like it was manufactured. I took one of the pieces off because it took up too much room in the cage. It doesn't have any sharp edges or anything. I put some fake plant palms in there because i heard it can somehow help with humidity; also it makes the tank look more appealing. She doesn't have too much of an interest in them.

I don't really see how fake plants can help with humidity but yes, they do make the tank look nicer, but it also adds to the list of things to clean.

Substrate/lining/bottom-of-the-cage-floor: The cage wasn't lined with anything when I bought her, it was just the plain glass, so started to line it with newspaper because I figured that was easy to clean. Unfortunately she found out she could crawl under and inside of it. When I woke up in the morning it would be completely obliterated, and i had to reline it every day. I bought a repti-carpet and she hasn't burrowed under it; it also seems to help with trapping heat in the cage which is nice, because i live on the second floor above the garage and sometimes it can get pretty cold in my room. I tried to make sure it wouldn't harm her first.

Ditch the carpet. Once she goes poo poo on it, it will be done for. That stuff holds bacteria like none other and you will never be able to get the poop smell away. Paper towels, or aspen are other options.

Readers: The cage came with two temperature readers on each side of the cage and a humidity reader in the middle.

These suck, get rid of them. They can be up to 10* or % off. Those liquid crystal ones are not meant to measure the temperature of air, they are meant to measure the temp of water. So whatever you think your temps are, they are not..

Go to the home depot, lowes, or walmart and pick up an accurite weather station with outdoor probe thermometer. This will be the only unit you need and it is very accurate. Place the probe right on the glass where the UTH is and put the rest of the unit on the side opposite of the UTH. The indoor temp will be your cool side temp and the outdoor temp will be your hotside temp.

Humidity: This is probably the thing I've had the most trouble with. I would spray the cage with distilled water when I woke up in the morning for school and when i got home and before i went to bed. I still struggled to keep it above 30% humidity. So, in her hide box on the warm side of the cage i put a paper towel attached to the bottom and spray it with water. I guess this is called a humidity box? Also, I have started wetting down a washcloth and putting it on the top of the cool side of the tank. This has helped up the humidity, it now sits most often between 50-70%.

The humidity is probably not what you think it is but here are some better options for keeping the humidity up:
1. get some foil tape and cover 3/4 of the screen lid with it (on the OUTSIDE of the screen).
2. Get some sphagnum moss and place it around the tank.
3. Get rid of the lamps

Day/Night cycles: I open my blinds and turn on my desk light before I leave (cage is on desk). I turn them off before I go to bed.

Sounds good, thats all they need.

Feeding: I feed her a fairly large rat every week and a half. I tried to feed her weekly but she wouldn't them every time, and when I fed her every two weeks she would act hungry. So. Large rat every week and half. I feed her in her own cage. I will buy a rat, kill it by putting it in a bag and hitting it against the wall (I don't want to feed it to her live because I'm scared it will hurt her and I try to be merciful with the prey) then, while wearing what I call her "feeding glove" I dangle it by the tail in the cage. She normally sniffs around and then strikes it; I make it wiggle some more while she's constricting it, and the just let her eat the rest of it. Sometimes if she looses hold of it she has to look for the head again; i found that when i was feeding her mice she would eat them from any angle. The first time I fed her a rat she took like 5 minutes looking for the head and positioning the prey to eat it.

A medium rat should do her just fine, every 10 days or so. With bigger prey items, it does take them a lot longer to eat it. Nothing wrong with that. Since she is full grown, she will be fine if she doesn't eat every week.

Shedding: Rusty (snake) had a really bad shed the first time. I think it was because she was in a new home, and also because I didn't keep up the humidity then. It took a really long time for her to ever start to peel her skin off, and even then it wouldn't all come off. It was flaky and it looked really uncomfortable. Her eye caps were on for a very very long time. Eventually I held her and pulled them off myself; she started acting more like herself after that. I was pulling pieces of shed off of her for a very long time. :[ I felt so bad!
She is at the start of her shed cycle now. Her eyes have gotten the eyecaps and she is spending a lot of time in her water dish soaking. She seems to be doing well. We'll see how this shed goes; I'll follow up on it.

Try the other things I mentioned about keeping the humidity up and you should see a nice shed in a few days.

Exercise/Behavior: Because there are not many climbing places in her cage (working on that!) I take her out at least every other day and give her attention. She likes to slither around my floor while I clean my room and sometimes I'll hang her around my neck while I'm sitting in my chair or at my desk doing homework. She is very curious and tries to get into everything of mine; i found if i let her explore it while being supervised she'll leave it alone.

Ball pythons are terrestrial snakes and are clumsy climbers. Putting climbing items in her tank might just cause her to fall off them.
Taking her out often isn't a problem but make sure you give her some time to digest (48 hours) after feeding. Handling her too soon after a feeding could cause a regurgitation.

I've noticed that when I put something in her cage that she doesn't like she'll hiss at it from the other side. I super-glued a platform on the side of the cage (so she could climb around) and boy did she hate that. She hissed at it all the time. So I removed it and washed all the super glue off. It's not a problem anymore. She's never hissed at me, the only time she ever made a noise at me was when i was holding her down to get her eyecaps off (she never holds still enough for me to just do it). She made a noise that sounded like she was grumbling! I let her go play for a while and eventually she forgave me. I've heard it's rare for balls to yawn, but I see her do it at least every two week. I had her around my neck once, and she yawned right next to my throat! Scared me half to death! But she never has tried to bite/strike/constrict/attack me in any way. She just likes to yawn next to my jugular. -eyeroll-

As I said, she doesn't really need anything to climb on since ball pythons are not climbers. Any change you make to her setup can be a little stressful and she will need time to get used to the changes. Its not that she "doesn't like it" its more like, "WHAT IS THAT STRANGE THING IN MY HOUSE". Eventually she will be fine with the changes you make.
Ball pythons are pretty head shy and don't really like their heads messed with, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
As for the yawning, perfectly normal. All my snakes yawn after feeding. That is how they realign their jaws. Now, yawning excessively (many times a day) can be an indicator of a greater issue.


Hope this helps you out a bit. You have come to the right place and you seem to be on the right track!

[kloper70]

Thank you Kaorte! I will adjust her living conditions accordingly.

[stratus_020202]

What she said ^^ She/he looks really good though. Such a pretty little normal.

If you want, try to get her a tub to live in. Like a 34 qt from Walmart. They are only like less than $10, and fairly clear so you can still watch her. They hold humidity really good too.

Remember, give them lots of luv and attention

[WingedWolfPsion]

For the most part it seems ok, but I second the opinion that paper towels will work better than cage carpet--do you really want to wash that with your clothes? ^_^

I recommend Viva brand paper towels--they're very cloth-like, absorbant, and harder for the snake to crawl under. Take care if she snags bedding (of any kind) when she grabs her food, you may want to watch and be sure she doesn't swallow it along with her prey.

Also, the water bowl needs to go--choose a hide for that side of the tank, and use a non-tipping water bowl that she will find less appealing to sit in. Excessive moisture can lead to skin infections. The tape is a hazard.

The coolness of the ambient room temperature is a concern--heat lamps do make it harder to humidify, but keeping stable temps is most important--you seem to be doing pretty well with the humidity under the circumstances. However, as this is just a single pet, you might consider investing in a commercial tank humidifier or fogger. They are a bit pricey, but would take a lot of the concern out of it. Consider covering 3 walls of the tank with foam insulation board. The snake will only feel more secure for it, and you'll still have good visibility. The insulation may help stabilize the temperatures.

Another option is to invest in a radiant heat panel to supplement the undertank heat. This would attach to the side of the tank and gently radiate heat to keep temperatures up. It may make keeping the humidity up much easier, along with covering most of the screen top with plastic wrap. A thermostat is required for a UTH or other heat source, in any case--if the room temperature changes, then the heat needs to change with it, or risk overheating or underheating. Heat devices can also slowly begin to emit more heat over time.

I also second the recommendation of an indoor/outdoor thermometer with remote probe. They work great, and are generally under 10 bucks. You may even be able to find one with a built-in humidistat for slightly more.

[kloper70]

I really appreciate all these tips, you guys - my problem is my step mom just lost her job and we are a family of six - though normally quite blessed with a large amount of spending money, I am no longer being paid for my babysitting. I take 3 AP classes and concurrent enroll. So I don't have the rime for a job. Point being, no money to spend here. Are their less expensive or free home-made ways I can fix my erroneous ways?

[Kaorte]

Well, you will need to spend a little bit of money. Proper thermometers and hygrometers are a must, so that should go on the top of your list.

And you need to change your hides and water bowl. You would be amazed at the things you can find at the dollar store.

Accurite thermometer/hygrometr -----Home depot, Lowes, Walmart --------$11
Plastic bowls, water dish----------------Dollar Store-----------------------------$3

So you could spend less than $20 to completely upgrade your snakes tank. Gather your change! lol

[Vypyrz]

You should also add a controlling device to the UTH if you don't have one. Thermostats are preferred but you can also use rheostats or lamp dimmers from Lowes or Home Depot. I believe the lamp dimmers will cost you about $10...


Rob