Getting 2 BP's tomorrow

[ldyhawyk]

Tomorrow I will be getting 2 Ball Pythons. The belong to my friends brother and when he found out I was looking to get one he offered me his entire set up. He keeps collecting reptiles and is starting to get over crowded so he was happy to find a home for them. They are not adults yet, and not babies I guess they're adolescents?

He has them as a pair right now in a 30 gallon tank. From what I have read that is not going to work and I should separate them right? If they aren't full grown will this set up work for a little while? I will probably have a lot of questions as I go. I have never owned a snake before, I just have my Leopard Gecko. Does anyone have any words of advice to start me off?

When I asked the guys sister to ask him how much he wanted for everything she said that he is giving it to you and if you want to slip him a couple of bucks that's fine, but not to worry about it. Well he is bringing them to my house, setting them up and showing me how to care for them. I think I should give him something. Anyone have any idea how much that should be?

[BallKingdom]

Yeah, just buy another 30 gallon for the female. Raise em till they are breeding size, the female, and you can make some nice hatchlings.

I'd not reccomend tanks though, they aren't the best for humidity and heat. If you read the caresheet. that has a lot of info.

[Wizill]

oh it can be done. with a little time and thought. common sense is what keeps humidity in tanks. (i had to learn the hard way, since i have none)

[Hoomi]

Reptile show prices for normal captive bred ball pythons starts around $35 each. The cost of the set up will be dependent on what kind of stuff he's including.

From the sounds of it, though, he's not worried about the money aspect. He sees it as you're doing him a favor by providing a good home for some displaced pets. If you want to "compensate" him, though, for his investment, find out if there is something you can do for him. Maybe you can go over and spend some time helping him take care of his other snakes, under the guise of "learning". A large collection of any animal can really turn into a sizable chore, and he might appreciate some "grunt work" help.

You're getting a good snake for the first one. I've had mine coming up on two months now, and he's real forgiving of my learning curve. Not only that, but Ball Pythons are notoriously mellow, and it's real nice having a snake that makes terrarium cleaning so easy. When it's time to change his newspaper substrate, it's a simple matter of reaching in, picking him up off the bottom of the terrarium, and just holding him while I do the maintenance work. He just kind of crawls around on my arm a bit, checks things out, and when I'm done, he calmly crawls back off my hand into the terrarium.

[BallKingdom]

Hoomi is right. Ask him if you can lend a hand around his herps. When I get to cleaning my herp cages it takes about half an hour for a brief clean. He'd be grateful.