Heat and feeding question

[amandersen]

Hello everyone!

I just got my first ball python, Annabel Lee. She is about a year old. I don't know her weight yet, but she is about 2 feet long.

Right now I have her in a 30 gallon glass tank (I know its not ideal, but its what I got). I have a zoo med medium under tank heater, a hydrofarm thermostat and a zoo med digital thermometer with probe. I have most of the screen top covered in saran wrap to keep humidity. Right now, the digital thermometer is reading 90, the ambient air stays at a pretty consistent 80 and the humidity ranges between 55-60%. I am using eco earth as a substrate, with a reptile carpet underneath.

My heating question is about the hot side of her tank. Where the probe is on the hottest part of the tank, underneath the carpet is reading 90. However the air temp on the hot side is about 75. What should be 90? The belly heat or the air temp? I've tried to find answers to this, but never really found one, so I'm hoping yall can help me. If its just the belly heat that needs to be 90 then, I'm good, but if its the air temp, I don't know what to do besides add a lamp, which will dry up my humidity. She has a hide on both sides, with a large water dish in the middle.

My feeding question is how often should I feed her. The people I got her from fed her a small rat twice a week. From what I've read, I've seen that I should feed her every week, every 10 days or every 2 weeks. It's very confusing, so some advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks guys!

[amandersen]

update:

I just weighed her and she is 493 grams and closer to 3 feet than 2

[kitedemon]

The surface temps should be about 90ºF and 80ºF cool. The air temps have a longer range but are just as critical, about 76-85º or so. Some say as low as 74-5º and some as high as 88ºF Personally I try to avoid the extreams and average in the middle.

Small rat is a bit of a slippery term. My supplier 'small' around 100gm. Many say this is medium. Weight is a lot less subjective. I feed sub adults (under 1000 gm) once a week about 10% of their weight per meal. Sub 500gm get 10% every 5 days and adults get 5-7% weekly. I am not a breeder so I am trying for optimal health not packing on weight quickly.

[nighttrain_1991]

I'm sure others with more experience will weigh in on this but here's my 2 cents. Since they are a terrestrial animal I think your set up sounds fine in terms of heat and humidity. If you see your air temps dropping below 75 then you will probably need to add some type of overhead heat. You could mist the eco earth or replace the saran wrap with a damp towel to maintain humidity if you needed to do that.

As far as feeding goes the general rule with hatchlings and jeveniles is to feed 10-15% of body weight with the prey item not being larger than the widest part of the snake. Since you are close to 500g, if you are wanting to breed her I would say you could continue to feed every 5 days as long as she is continuing to feed that often. If you are just keeping her as a pet I would think once a week would be fine. Once she gets over 1000 you could go to 10 days. This is just the general consensus that I've seen from other posts here. Like I said I'm sure others with more experience will way in.

[amandersen]

I'm sure others with more experience will weigh in on this but here's my 2 cents. Since they are a terrestrial animal I think your set up sounds fine in terms of heat and humidity. If you see your air temps dropping below 75 then you will probably need to add some type of overhead heat. You could mist the eco earth or replace the saran wrap with a damp towel to maintain humidity if you needed to do that.

As far as feeding goes the general rule with hatchlings and jeveniles is to feed 10-15% of body weight with the prey item not being larger than the widest part of the snake. Since you are close to 500g, if you are wanting to breed her I would say you could continue to feed every 5 days as long as she is continuing to feed that often. If you are just keeping her as a pet I would think once a week would be fine. Once she gets over 1000 you could go to 10 days. This is just the general consensus that I've seen from other posts here. Like I said I'm sure others with more experience will way in.

Thank you. I have a heat lamp on the ambient side to keep the air around 80, but not on the hot side, since I have a UTH. If I added a heat lamp to that side, wouldn't it raise the substrate heat? That is at 90, so I don't really want that to go up any.

And I do not want to breed her. She is strictly a pet. So I will change her to every week. The small rats that I have currently are about 55 grams.

[nighttrain_1991]

You have the uth on a thermostat, so you could add like a 40-60 watt bulb to raise the ambients up a few degrees and just turn down the thermostat a little if it raised the surface temp. If you needed to. Like I said it sounds to me like your set up should be ok. If you start seeing temps in the lo 70s you'll probably have to modify things a bit. If you have a hide that sits over the hot spot and one on the cool side I'm sure your snake will regulate it's temp just fine. You just don't want them trading temp for security or vice versa as they may get a bit stressed out.

[amandersen]

Thanks again. Sorry for what is probably really stupid questions. Like I said, she is my first reptile ever, and I want to make sure I'm doing things right.

[amandersen]

Ok,

so I made some changes. I took off the Saran Wrap and put a 75 watt infrared light in the middle of the screen and damp towels on Both sides of the light. Now the air on both sides of the tank are 80 and the substrate on the hot side is still 90.

Is it okay for the air to be the same temp on both sides as long as the bottom is only hot on one side?

again, sorry if I sound ignorant. I really did research before I got her, but I'm finding new info everyday and I just want to make sure I'm doing things right

[nighttrain_1991]

No worries there is definite information overload here. If you can maintain those temps it should be perfect. If your humidity is staying 50-60% you are all set. You can boost that up to 70 or so when they go into shed.

[scorps101]

Ok,

so I made some changes. I took off the Saran Wrap and put a 75 watt infrared light in the middle of the screen and damp towels on Both sides of the light. Now the air on both sides of the tank are 80 and the substrate on the hot side is still 90.

Is it okay for the air to be the same temp on both sides as long as the bottom is only hot on one side?

I do the same. I have a baby ball python (130 grams) in a 10 gallon. Hot side is 92 degrees on the bottom glass above the heat pad making the substrate temp around 90. And the coolside is 81 degrees. I maintain this by keeping a 50 watt red bulb in the middle of the tank. And I cover each side next to it a bit to keep in heat and humidity, but still allow ventilation. Your set up seems fine with the added heat lamp. Just mist once or twice daily. Goodluck



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