Ball Python Care

[DarrinLowe]

Hello,

Recently (Last Monday) we (My girlfriend and I) purchased, a Ball Python.

(Monday was their feeding day)

When we purchased him he was not fed. We were told to wait two days, and try to feed him and we did, he did not eat on wed. We were also told that if he did not eat, wait until the next Monday and then try to feed him again.

So we have tried to feed him tonight, we are using a seperate bucket lined with towels. We thawed the mouse with warm-hotish water (tap-water hot) and then used a blow dryer on the mouse to heat it up.

We then used our feeding tongs, to dangle the mouse infront of him.. No dice.
We left the mouse in the bucket, and put the lid on and turned off the lights, once again.. Nothing..

I do understand that it is normal for ball pythons to not eat for long periods of time, but he is a juvenile, so we are concerned for him, and would like to make sure everything is alright.

Earlier we did notice a white film / crust on his nose, but it was not very visible, and we were unsure if that signified anything.

Currently, he is back in his cave on the heat side.

Do you have any suggestions for helping him regain his appetite or any ideas for what might be causing his lack of hunger.

Thanks,

- Darrin

[ed4281]

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Husbandry-FAQs

Check these out they will help you alot

[DarrinLowe]

Thank you for these links,

From what I have read it could be a number of things.

Would you suggest not moving him from the cage to his box, as one of those states that they do not become aggressive if you feed them in their cage.

I personally have always suspected that the temperature in his cage / the humidity is too low, but currently we do not have anything to measure this, we do have one of those heaters that stick to the underside of the cage, but it is not very big. I will try to obtain a digital thermometer today, if I can afford it. (Petland likes to jack their prices) (No we didnt get the snake from petland, it was from a reptile store that breeds them)

[blushingball419]

No, you don't have to move him to a different container to feed him. I personally feed my bp in her tank and I've never had a problem with aggression. Especially if you just got him recently and he might still feel a little insecure, picking him up and moving him into another new place could make him feel even less like eating. I would say just wait another week and try again. Eventually when he feels comfortable enough he'll eat.

Whatever heat pad you have should cover about 1/3 of the bottom of the tank, but depending on the size of your bp you could get away with a smaller one for now. If you need to raise the ambient temp an infrared heat bulb is always a good choice (although it does kill the humidity).

Oh, and you can get a digital thermometer much cheaper at someplace like Wal-mart or Lowe's

[DarrinLowe]

We now have a digital thermometer / humidity monitor. At the moment it says 68F on the cold side, and 35% humidity. We will be putting some stuff to cover most of the mesh top (leaving a small part open) and spraying it once we know for sure what the readings are. Its only been in there about 10 minutes or so.

We will try your suggestion and just feed him in the tank, next monday.

I was noticing that your corn snake is named Jambi!! Thats pretty awesome, our ball has the same name!

[TomC]

After your thermometer normalizes you want to try to hit about 80 on the cool side and around 90-92 on the warm side. you want humiduty between 50 and 60 percent.

[blushingball419]

Yeah, if your cool temp stays around 68, you'll definitely need either an infrared heat bulb or a moonlight one to get it up to about 80 or so. Or you could get another heat mat for that side and a thermostat/rheostat to lower the temp, but I know what it's like to be low on funds, and a heat bulb is usually the cheapest way to go. You'll probably just have to mist more often.

But if your temps and humidity are good, then I'd just say he's still acclimating and to keep trying to feed him every week until he finally realizes he's hungry!

Haha thanks!! That is pretty awesome!! I thought I was the only one with that name!! Did you also get yours from the insanely awesome tool song or is it unrelated??

[DarrinLowe]

Well, the bank finally took my paycheck off hold so I got the funds, (Minus my dam speeding ticket >.< )

But yeah, (It's at my girlfriends house) she was saying that the temperature is still in the low 70's so thats pretty bad. But we misted last night so his humidity is getting higher. I will go take a look for a thermostat / rheostat. I was looking at petland / petsmart yesterday and they had such a small selection for reptile supplies. It was pathetic.

Thankfully the place where we purchased our snake will be open today, so we will head over there and see if they have anything better (They are a dedicated reptile store)

Yeah, I've been a huge Tool fan for years, and have never grown bored of their music haha. I went and saw em this summer, was a pretty intense concert. If you check out their website there is some stuff hinting that they're in the beginning stages of recording the new album.. I'm PUMPED! lol. You can also see a pic of Carey's insane synth.. ITS EPIC!

Anyways, we will try to figure something out to get our snake warm and happy, I hate to think that hes been sitting in cruddy temperatures for the past week.

[blushingball419]

Same here. Tool is such an amazing band!! And I'm so jealous that you've seen them live!! Definitely next time they go on tour, I'm there!! Yeah, I heard they were writing a new album, can't wait to hear it and sometimes I wish they wouldn't wait so long between albums... although it's always worth the wait!

But anyway, before I get completely off topic haha If your bp has pretty much been staying on his hot side, then you probably don't have to worry that the other temps are too cold. I'm sure he's been staying warm enough. Just get the other heat mat and thermostat as soon as you can and I'm sure he'll be fine

[DarrinLowe]

I will definitely look into that. I am also going to check and see if the heatmat is even holding still. I remember that the guy at our reptile store, was telling us to use duct tape or something to hold the mat in place (Cause you can never remove it after you apply it) and we didnt have anything so we used masking tape, which I doubt holds up very well when heated.

I'll look into quite a few details, and hope that we can find a solution soon. I know he is prob fine atm, but I would like to ensure the health and longevity of our snake.

God knows I failed with fish. >.<