New to ball pythons

[Pillzee]

I have a few things I am curious about!!

1. Are ball pythons generally curious?

I know they tend to stay in their hide, but do they inspect their surroundings?

2. Are there some things that could stress a ball python out that I should know about?

3. What are proper heat and humidity ranges?

Mine are at 78-80 ambient, 83- 84 on the warm end and 75-77 on the warm end. And humidity is 60.

[Sammiebob]

Great questions and kudos to you for asking them! Here's the best answers I can give you from my personal experience. Remember, all animals are different and all ball pythons can vary in personality.

1. Mine are, unless they find a really warm spot such as around the back of my neck. When in their cages, mine don't wander around much if at all. However, I also keep them in a rack system.

2. Don't handle super often for prolonged periods of time, and after feeding don't hold until about two days after they have eaten. Don't keep two ball pythons together, don't assist feed unless it is a complete and total last resort. They don't like baths unless they want to be in their own water dish, and if you ever have a mite problem, the treatment can stress them out sometimes.

3. Your humidity is perfect, your ambient should be about 80-80, and the hot spot should be 88-92. The cool side seems about right.

[Pillzee]

Another thing, too!! He is a rescue and I feel like (from looking at other pictures) he's underweight or thin? . He is eating, a medium rat every 1- 1 and 1/2 weeks.

[Pillzee]

Great questions and kudos to you for asking them! Here's the best answers I can give you from my personal experience. Remember, all animals are different and all ball pythons can vary in personality.

1. Mine are, unless they find a really warm spot such as around the back of my neck. When in their cages, mine don't wander around much if at all. However, I also keep them in a rack system.

2. Don't handle super often for prolonged periods of time, and after feeding don't hold until about two days after they have eaten. Don't keep two ball pythons together, don't assist feed unless it is a complete and total last resort. They don't like baths unless they want to be in their own water dish, and if you ever have a mite problem, the treatment can stress them out sometimes.

3. Your humidity is perfect, your ambient should be about 80-80, and the hot spot should be 88-92. The cool side seems about right.

How do I warm up the warm side? That's just where the temp was when I checked earlier. When I checked the temp it said humidity was 99! Then I figured out my boyfriend splashed the water dish when cleaning it. Its usually 60s.

[Sammiebob]

On the hot side you should have a heating pad regulated by a thermostat. If you only have one snake I would suggest the hydrofarm tstat on amazon. Its $33 shipped I believe and from what I hear works pretty well. I plan on getting a couple pretty soon. But you should NEVER have a great pad that is not regulated. Set the tstat to about 90 and place the probe UNDER the tank between the heat pad and the bottom of the cage.

[Sammiebob]

He looks pretty small at the moment, I would suggest one small rat every 6-8 days

[Pillzee]

He's 4 years old, 48 inches long and 1139 grams before last feeding?

[Pillzee]

I saw on a exotic vet TV show (I know, not the best source of info) that heating pads can burn a ball python?

[JackTar]

a thermostat will prevent this. You can do a search on this site for how to properly set up your thermostat to your heat pad

[Pillzee]

Okay. Thank you!!!