Day one

[Mugglechristine]

Hi all,

My husband and I just got our very first ball python today YAY! But i have some concerns.

#1 we got him home today at about 3- 330pm and he had been roaming around his cage up until about 15 mins ago (at 730 pm) i know that much activity means he is stressed, what can we do to relax him? I think he finally feel asleep...

#2 we picked up one of those starter kits for snakes, a glass terrarium, bedding, hidy hole, water dish, under the tank heating pad, a UV lamp, etc. I turned off the lamp to simulate night time but the tank temp dropped down to 80 in the basking area in like 5 mins. I have the UTH on but it doesn't seem to help. I turned the lamp back on for now, what can we do to keep the tank more heated at night? or is it okay that we leave the lamp on?

[Flikky]

The best thing to help him relax is to leave him alone. He might have been trying to figure out his new surroundings before being comfortable enough to go hide. Give him ~ a week to settle in.

The most important thing is keeping the temps correct. You can buy red bulbs that don't give off daylight to keep temps up if you'd like to simulate day and night. You can try raising ambient temperatures but really, to me, as long as the UTH is the correct basking temperature I don't worry about a 'basking area'. Your bp most likely won't be out of his hide too much anyway

and

[Mugglechristine]

Thank you,

We have left him alone... just watching him from a distance! and that is what my husband thought about him getting used to his surroundings so thank you for confirming that... i feel better!

As long as it doesn't harm him, i don't care about simulating day/night... we are not planning on breeding(i just don;t want to harm him at all). So with that said it sounds like it is okay to leave this light on until we get a red bulb?

and thank you for the welcome!!!!

[The Serpent Merchant]

Leaving a bright white light on can stress a BP out but having a proper hot/cool side thermal gradient (80 degrees on the cool side and 90 degrees on the hot side no part of the cage should ever get above 95 or below 75) is more important. You need to get an infrared bulb ASAP.

[Mugglechristine]

okay thank you very much!

[PitOnTheProwl]

Don't forget to regulate your UTH with either a dimmer or t-stat.
What are you using to measure temps and humidity?
Throw away the gauges that came with the kit