Just got a Ball Python

[DerekG4]

I was recently given a very young baby ball python that a friend of mine found (I'll explain that story later on) and I was wondering what I should do now. This is my first snake by the way.

First off, my friend gave him to me on the 10th of October. As he gave it to me, I quickly went with him to my local reptile shop and bought the things he needed (substrate and an under tank heater. I already had the tank, bowl, and hides) as I took it over there, I was hoping the person there would be able to sex it and see if its healthy. She was not able to sex it (She said she needed a probe but she didn't have one at the shop) but she did say it looked healthy.

Before I took it to the shop, I checked the snake if it had any mites, if he was strong enough to be able to climb up my hand while hanging by his tail, and I checked if he had mouth rot. No mites, seems to plenty strong, and no mouth rot. Surprisingly the snake is also pretty tame and not head shy at all once its out of the cage. In the cage he's pretty shy and will slowly hide his head.

Now, back to the shop. I told the lady at the shop if she could try to feed it for me. She tried giving it an almost unconscious hopper mouse but it refused to strike. I went home and set up his tank in my room. By Thursday I went out of town and came back Monday (The lady told me the snake can easily go for a few weeks without eating, so I was confident nothing should happen). Now that I came back on Monday, I went out again to the shop and bought the smallest hopper they had (I didn't bring the snake to the shop that time) and tried feeding it. Once I took it home, I realize the mouse looks a tad too big, but I didn't think it would be that much of a problem because it wasn't that much bigger than his girth. Almost forgot to mention it pooped when I came back.

He didn't want to strike it, I then killed the mouse and tried feeding it to the snake dead. Still didn't want to strike. After that, I left it right next to him because I had to run some errands. About 2 hours later, I come back and it hasn't eaten it. So I tried doing a quick assisted feeding, I got the mouse by its neck, rubbed the nose of the mouse on the front of the snake's snout until he opened his mouth. Once he opened his mouth, I inserted the mouse's head in his throat far enough to the point he couldn't spit it out. He eventually swallowed it. (Mind you I did this because I felt the snake looked pretty skinny, as his spine was showing a little, and some parts of his body had loose skin)

So now the next day, today, he was still digesting it and appeared to still be the same exact size in his stomach. I went out to go to my grandpa's house and by the time I come back, I noticed my room smelled horrible. I looked in his cage and he regurgitated the mouse. It didn't even look digested at all, just wet.

Now I'm wondering what should I do? Should I attempt to feed him the next day, next couple of days, or next week or so? He seems to be pretty weak right now, as I removed the log and put him in a single entrance cave with half his body sticking out, he hasn't moved for about an hour now.

His tank is a 10 gallon glass tank, he has 2 hides, mulch (I don't know what kind, definitely not cypress though) substrate with some sphagnum moss pieces, and a large water bowl half filled with water. His ambient temps are about 76. His hot spot is about 94-96.

I'm not entirely sure what's his weight (I haven't thought about weighing him but I will soon after it recovers from the regurgitation), its not very big, maybe around a foot long or so, I have not measured it. The lady told me its most likely only a few days old.

So when should I feed it and what should I feed it? Is it healthy? Too skinny?

Now then, if you'd like to know how I got the snake, I'll tell you now; My friend's dad went to his neighbor's house to borrow a tool. As he's back there with him trying to find it, he hears the neighbor's daughter scream and quickly went to check out what it was. My friend's dad saw that what she was screaming at was the small python as her dad was ready to kill it (Her dad had no idea what kind of snake it was and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have cared). My friend's dad caught it (He knew it wasn't a normal, wild snake) and my friend told me about it that same night. I picked it up the next morning.

The picture's below are of the snake's enclosure (Front and top view, as of now) and of the snake when I first received it, being fed, fed, and now after regurgitation.

Currently he has started to move around a bit and drank some water.

For some reason its not letting me post pictures here. Luckily I posted on this arachnid forums with pictures before coming here. I'm not sure however if people can view them if they're not logged in to that forum. http://arachnoboards.com/threads/just-got-a-ball-python.300036/

[DerekG4]

, For some reason I can't make the photos any bigger than this and I also can't edit my posts.

[tttaylorrr]

, For some reason I can't make the photos any bigger than this and I also can't edit my posts.

if you have a smartphone you can use the free app Tapatalk to upload photos directly from your smartphone, or you'll have to register and upload your photos to an image hosting site like imgur.com

[SDA]

Others will come and offer specifics on husbandry. You need to square that aware and make sure it is perfect to reduce stress of this ball python.

Sounds like you and your friend tried to "rescue" either a wild born or escaped ball python. There is no telling the health of this snake or if it has any parasites, mites, etc.

If the snake is healthy then you are going to have to leave it alone once you get husbandry under control.

Since you assist fed it and it regurgitated, you must wait no less than 2 weeks before trying to feed it again. After that two week where all you are going to do during that time is clean any waste and refill water, you can then offer food again.

There is no guarantee you will be able to feed this wild snake nor get it to acclimate to an enclosure. You need to consider it a wild animal as in Florida there are many escaped species like this.

Honestly the best thing you could do is look up a reptile rescue and surrender this to people better experienced to handle wild caught reptiles.


If that is not something you are willing to do you will need to follow every advice about perfecting husbandry to reduce as much stress as you can and once you have that under control and if you get your snake to start feeding, you need to make a vet appointment to get test done for infestations to rule out parasite and disease.


Not trying to be hard on you but keeping any wild animal is never a good idea.

[DerekG4]

Others will come and offer specifics on husbandry. You need to square that aware and make sure it is perfect to reduce stress of this ball python.

Sounds like you and your friend tried to "rescue" either a wild born or escaped ball python. There is no telling the health of this snake or if it has any parasites, mites, etc.

I think it was wild born (I forgot to mention nearby where he found it he said there was a clutch of large, leathery eggs that have hatched, highly assuming they're python eggs) The only thing I've noticed so far is that by its tail it has a strange bone poking out a bit. Doesn't seem to be anything bad, most likely a bone deformity. I doubt it has any mites, it has no lifted scales and no black or red spots.

If the snake is healthy then you are going to have to leave it alone once you get husbandry under control.

Is there anything wrong with my setup?

Since you assist fed it and it regurgitated, you must wait no less than 2 weeks before trying to feed it again. After that two week where all you are going to do during that time is clean any waste and refill water, you can then offer food again.

Can it really go that long without eating? I was originally planning on trying again this Friday because I thought any more than a week would be kinda bad for him since he looked a little skinny to me. I refill/change his water every 2 days.

There is no guarantee you will be able to feed this wild snake nor get it to acclimate to an enclosure. You need to consider it a wild animal as in Florida there are many escaped species like this.

So far he's slithered around his enclosure and already knows where his water bowl is. I suppose it already sort of knows where everything is now. I hope I get it to eat, if not, I'll give it to someone here that would be able to take care of it better than I do.

Honestly the best thing you could do is look up a reptile rescue and surrender this to people better experienced to handle wild caught reptiles.


If that is not something you are willing to do you will need to follow every advice about perfecting husbandry to reduce as much stress as you can and once you have that under control and if you get your snake to start feeding, you need to make a vet appointment to get test done for infestations to rule out parasite and disease.

If I can't get it to eat, I suppose I'm gonna have to give him away. I will try my best to raise it and get him to eat. I previously wanted to get some ball pythons so I can breed them, which is why I jumped at the chance to get this little baby and get some experience out of it.

Not trying to be hard on you but keeping any wild animal is never a good idea.

I just felt bad for the snake. If I hadn't taken it, its head would've been chopped off by my friend's neighbor.

[SDA]

Yes it can be fine that long. Regurgitation needs time for the digestive tract to heal to not develop issues. This will also force you to limit interaction with the snake which is crucial to get it to reduce stress.

It's nothing on you as a responsible adult it is however that wild animals rarely work as pets

[DerekG4]

Yes it can be fine that long. Regurgitation needs time for the digestive tract to heal to not develop issues. This will also force you to limit interaction with the snake which is crucial to get it to reduce stress.

It's nothing on you as a responsible adult it is however that wild animals rarely work as pets

I suppose I'll feed him on the 31st then, which is 2 weeks from now.

But since it is a baby and likely only a few days old, wouldn't it be almost the same as CBB hatchling since its barely that old? I'm sure its never eaten before I got it.

[SDA]

You need to do everything to make sure this snake is healthy and as stress free as possible. They should not regurgitate food and now that it has it is your job to ensure it gets every opportunity to relax and heal from a regurgitation. Since you can't know for sure what is going on you need to take care to stop that from repeating.

Anything less than two weeks and you really are risking aggravating its stress levels. Regardless of its age you have to get it wanting to eat and when this stressed it won't.

Give it two weeks to try and see if you can get it to acclimate and to have its digestive tract recover.

[DerekG4]

Give it two weeks to try and see if you can get it to acclimate and to have its digestive tract recover.

Once the day comes, what should I do exactly? Attempt giving him a live pinky mouse and see if he'll strike at it? If he doesn't eat it should I attempt another assisted feeding? I still don't entirely see why it regurgitated the hopper in the first place.

[Starscream]

If it really is that young, it wouldn't have gone through its first shed cycle. Most folks will tell you they don't even offer food until after their first shed.

The most common reason why a snake regurgs is because of husbandry. What's your temperatures on both sides look like, humidity, do you have a hot spot, are your heating devices controlled by thermostats?

Just looking at the pictures of the enclosures I'd suggest getting fake plants to make the snake feel more secure, but that is secondary to making sure your husbandry is spot-on.