Still new to this.. Had her since April 20th - QUESTIONS

[Slownlow]

Hi everyone,

OK.. Since I got Nyx she has been very active in the evenings. About 5-6 days ago she started hiding more. She was out Wednesday night so I fed her a fuzzie. I've purchased small mice now and will gradually move up as she's about 2 ft long and under a yr. (not sure what size she's safe with yet?)
Now, is she hiding more because she might be shedding? I lifted her rock today and I'm pretty sure her eyes are a cloudy blue.
Here are my questions:
Hiding more because of shedding?
Small mice big enough? The medium looked huge compared to the fuzzies
When I fed her the other night, I wanted her to catch a whiff of the mouse so I could get her to go over to the top of her rock to eat it away from the substrate - after doing this, she launched out and snapped at me twice.. Is this because she could smell the mouse and thought maybe my tweezers were it? She's never been aggressive and always eats without issue.
Also, I was going to attempt feeding her Sunday. Do I try while she's shedding?
I'm struggling with humidity still, it's up to 27%, I've created a lid that covers the top screen perfectly with aluminum tape on the down side - cutting a hole for the heating bulb. Help >

[Godzilla78]

You seem over worried about feeding.
Yes, she snapped at you because she smelled the mice, was in feeding mode and your hands have a similar heat signature as a rodent to her heat sensing pits on her face.

[Godzilla78]

The humidity sounds like a problem. Covering the top is a good first step. Using moist coconut or cypress mulch substrate will bring it way up.
How are you regulating the heat?

[Bogertophis]

Snakes normally hide & don't eat while shedding, so best not to offer & waste food. They won't starve, not eating while in shed is NORMAL for wild snakes.

Snakes are normally fed rodents that are as big around as their un-fed mid-body is...and BPs have large heads too, so they do this easily. (there are a few exceptions
for snakes with very narrow heads, but that doesn't apply here)

You must get the humidity UP to at least 60-70% quickly (now) while your snake is "in shed" for best results. By covering most of the ventilated top, that's only
part of it...now you need to use the right substrate that holds moisture in. And -OR- you can provide your snake with a "humid hide" filled with soaked & drained
sphagnum moss, orchid bark, Reptile Prime, or other substrates used & recommended here.

A snake that's trying to grab food often has very poor aim...& they aren't good with vision either. They aim for "warm & wiggling" & we use long feeding tongs
because our hands often make a better target than the food, especially if you haven't heated up the prey enough for them to use their heat sensing pits to find it.
Many here soak prey in very warm water (not hot, don't cook it!) after thawing in cold (best method to reduce spoilage), & may also use a blow-dryer on the head
of the rodent for more heat, then offer immediately. Any snake that misses their rodent & tags you is not considered "aggressive", just mistaken...it's up to you to
prevent silly snake mistakes.

[Armiyana]

She was out Wednesday night so I fed her a fuzzie. I've purchased small mice now and will gradually move up as she's about 2 ft long and under a yr. (not sure what size she's safe with yet?)
Small mice big enough? The medium looked huge compared to the fuzzies

Boger touched on this a bit... but a little more clarification
After the first 2-3 meals, a typical ball python should be eating small mice. I have the feeling that she's getting a bit nippy not just because she smelled food, but because she may not be getting a large enough meal as well.
Don't look at the size of her head as to what you will be feeding. A fuzzy, while the size of her head, is a very small meal.

She should be eating something that weighs around 10% of her body weight. And if she is 2 feet long, then she is getting far too little to eat from a fuzzy mouse. A fuzzy rat is maybe about right. If you don't have a scale available to weigh her, another thing to do is eyeball the size of the mouse compared to her girth. The meal should be about the same size as her widest point on her body, even slightly larger is still okay.

Because she's been eating smaller prey, if she was my snake, I would up to the small sized mice for at least a couple of weeks before possibly even jumping to a medium sized after that. Don't shift the size of the prey too much too soon. You don't want to risk a regurge.
I would also consider waiting until after she sheds to also avoid the risk of regurge.

[Slownlow]

Thank you. I have to add she's eaten 4 times before with me and no problem. I also have long tweezers. I assumed it was that she could smell the mouse was in the tank.
Thank you for your help

[Slownlow]

Okay, she's definitely shedding. I have fixed the humidity. I changed her substrate. But this morning when I got up. She's been shedding in pieces all over her tank... Help!

[ladywhipple02]

If she's shedding in pieces, then you haven't really fixed the humidity. You changed the substrate which might have increased the humidity, but not to the appropriate level necessary for her to shed all in one piece. I would take the recommendation for covering the top of the cage with foil or plastic. Also, did you answer how the cage was being heated and how the heater was being regulated? That's important.

First things first is to get her thru this shed - fix the top of the cage so it will hold the humidity, and then mist the cage down.

[Slownlow]

If she's shedding in pieces, then you haven't really fixed the humidity. You changed the substrate which might have increased the humidity, but not to the appropriate level necessary for her to shed all in one piece. I would take the recommendation for covering the top of the cage with foil or plastic. Also, did you answer how the cage was being heated and how the heater was being regulated? That's important.

First things first is to get her thru this shed - fix the top of the cage so it will hold the humidity, and then mist the cage down.

I covered the lid last week, Aluminum tape facing down and then a few days ago (the only hole is the square I cut out for the Heat Bulb - the heat on that side sits at around 95 all the time.) I have a heating pad under the same end, which is under part of the hide, I purchased a thermostat to regulate the pad but I don't believe it is working properly, first time using it. The heating pad no longer sticks to the tank, so I have it under the tank sitting on aluminum foil. I think I'm safe to unplug the thermostat from the heating pad now and run it at it's full heat capacity because of it not being directly on the glass. Previously when it did stick to the glass, it was super hot. I changed her substrate to Zoo Med's 100% Natural Cypress Mulch. The humidity was super high when I initially changed it, and then sitting around 50%, this morning was 40%. I misted the entire tank this morning. She has a large water dish and a big rock hide. (substrate all through out)
I did read that I can soak her in about 1/2 inch of water in a tub that is closed and place within the tank for an hr and then help her with a cloth to get it all off.. Is she at that stage if I'm finding pieces all over the tank? Also, last night was the first night she was fully out and climbing her ivy and water dish in over a week.

[RedRabbit]

I covered the lid last week, Aluminum tape facing down and then a few days ago (the only hole is the square I cut out for the Heat Bulb - the heat on that side sits at around 95 all the time.) I have a heating pad under the same end, which is under part of the hide, I purchased a thermostat to regulate the pad but I don't believe it is working properly, first time using it. The heating pad no longer sticks to the tank, so I have it under the tank sitting on aluminum foil. I think I'm safe to unplug the thermostat from the heating pad now and run it at it's full heat capacity because of it not being directly on the glass. Previously when it did stick to the glass, it was super hot. I changed her substrate to Zoo Med's 100% Natural Cypress Mulch. The humidity was super high when I initially changed it, and then sitting around 50%, this morning was 40%. I misted the entire tank this morning. She has a large water dish and a big rock hide. (substrate all through out)
I did read that I can soak her in about 1/2 inch of water in a tub that is closed and place within the tank for an hr and then help her with a cloth to get it all off.. Is she at that stage if I'm finding pieces all over the tank? Also, last night was the first night she was fully out and climbing her ivy and water dish in over a week.

You're asking good questions. There are a few distinct points I want to help address, so I'm gonna try to separate them into sections for easier reading.

The Shed:
- One valuable thing I learned from this forum is that "the next shed begins as soon as the previous one ends." What that means is that, in order for your snake to have a good shed, the humidity conditions have to be on target all the time, not just during the visible shedding period. You mentioned you've been wrestling with the humidity being too low, so for however long it's been in the 20% range, that unfortunately contributed to this time's patchy shed too.
- My first snake Iggy also had two really patchy sheds before I was able to get everything optimized. If Nyx looks like she's done the best she can but still has chunks of shed stuck to her, then in my experience, those only become harder to get off the more you wait on them. In Iggy's case, I did end up giving him a brief warm water soak and then wiping the stuck shed off with a washcloth, and it worked, though of course he didn't like it one bit. If you do decide to go that route, just make sure to read up on it thoroughly so that you're well-prepared and it minimizes stress on your snake; the forum has a great sticky on it here:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...hed-No-problem

The Humidity:
- You probably already know this from previous research and/or other advice on here, but just to be sure - you'll want to aim for around 50-60% humidity at baseline, and shoot for 70% when you see your snake has gone blue/gray and is visibly getting ready to shed.
- Sadly, heat bulbs are really good at drying things out very quickly. If you definitely need the bulb for maintaining your target temperature gradient, then just be prepared to mist regularly to compensate.
- It's good that you have a large water dish - more surface area for that water to evaporate into the air and help the humidity a bit.
- I don't have experience with the cypress mulch so I can't comment on that, but I have heard that coconut fiber substrates are pretty effective for holding a lot of moisture/humidity without getting water-logged.

The Heat Pad + Thermostat:
I'd probably need set-up pictures or more details to give you more specific advice, but here are my questions and comments just going by your current description.
- What kind of thermostat do you have? We might be able to help you troubleshoot why it doesn't seem to be working properly.
- If the heating pad is not adhered to the surface of the tank anymore, then we definitely have a problem there. It's designed to be able to generate a good amount of heat, but in a way that's very localized to a surface and does not "radiate" very far. I wouldn't recommend just letting it sit and run unregulated at full capacity; it'd be at best, unreliable as a heat source, and at worst, a fire hazard waiting to happen (and not something you want anywhere near your cute ball python).
- What is the reason the heat pad is not sticking anymore? If it's just that the adhesive on it was weak, then you can tape it flush to the glass with a heat-safe tape. If it's because the heating pad was peeled back at some point and then stuck back on, then I would recommend replacing with a new heat pad. The peeling back can easily warp and damage the wiring within the pad, resulting in faulty, uneven functioning that even a thermostat can't do much to help.
- Might be an obvious question, but - where is the thermostat probe placed? A thermostat can only do its job based on what its probe measures, so that might also be part of your issue. Most people on this forum place the probe either sandwiched between the heat mat and the glass surface, or right flush against the heat mat's outer surface. If your heat mat isn't even attached to the tank at this point ... well then, you see why I'm asking, haha.

I realize that's a lot of text to wade through, so I apologize for that, but I hope at least some of this info is helpful to you!