hi i’m new to this forum but i’ve been reading this forum for awhile. after a lot of research and preparing for a few years i decided to finally get my first ball python.
now one of the things i feared has happened, okay so i got my ball on jan 15. he’s about 4 months 177grams.
he ate dec 10 before i got him
so on dec 18 i decided to try to feed him i wasn’t sure if he would take or not since he was still getting used to his new environment but he took no problem and still seemed hungry. i waited for him to digest and i handled him shortly to weigh him. he was bigger than what the breeder had told me originally. so before i got him i bought med mice bc that’s what the breeder said he took. so his next feed which was dec 22nd at 8pm i fed him two med mouse that equaled 26 grams (15% of his body weight since he is still a baby) he took both no prob and didn’t look around for more food this time and went into his hot hide to digest. i left him alone for 4 days and then tried to handle him a bit. now i think this was a wrong move but i took him off his hot hide and i know i shouldn’t have done that. i was being gentle and slow supporting his belly but he seemed stressed and squirmy so i put him back. he didn’t go back into his hot hide tho and a few hours later i heard him choke and gag and thrash around and i look and there was a small sliver of meat on the glass in front of him and some of his fluid was also on the glass the meat had a little bit of fur on it still. it stunk so bad, i cleaned it up and he seemed to go back to normal he drank some water and starting following me like he does when he’s hungry. but i put a towel over the front of his glass to give him some space and privacy.
so now for his setup. he has a 40 gallon tank which is kinda big but i have tons of plants and flowers all plastic to give him coverage i also have a bunch of black construction paper on the outside of three sides of his tank. so for temps. his hot mat on one side is on a thermostat and stays between 88-90 degrees. his cold side i have a ceramic heater on a dimmer since it’s winter. at it stays at 78-82 degrees. i have a temp gun that i use to check the temp of the ground of the tank. i also have 4 digital thermometers that read temps and humidity one at the bottom of the tank at the back one at the bottom at the front and one at each side also on the bottom. they all ready around the same temp and humidity i stated before. and i know cermaic heater drains humidity even tho i live on the water so it’s always a little humid. but i do have a humidifier hooked up to a hydrometer it never falls below 50 and never above 70 it usually stays at 61-62% it turns itself on and off and he has a large water dish i change every couple of days with filtered water and i add some reptisafe. i also used filtered water for his humidifier. and i use coconut husk for substrate. i also keep towels on top of the screen to keep in humidity and heat. now i just don’t know if it was my fault for moving him off his hot hide i did wait 4 days but maybe it was too big of a meal or if it was the fact i fed him two mice instead of the one he’s used to. i decided no handling for atleast 2 weeks. and i’m skipping his next feeds so he can replenish his fluids. he seems hungry and is doing his normal behavior hiding all day and coming out at night and laying on top of his cold hide and watching me to see if he’s getting fed. i fed him when he was on top of his hide so he waits there for me to offer food. i just wanna make sure he isn’t sick. maybe someone can give me some ideas on what they think it might be. someone with more experience? if it happens again we’re going straight to the vet. i’m also ordering his appropriate size of rat instead of mouse soon. it sucks to have to waste the mice. but i don’t want him to be sick. thankyou. sorry for the long post i mtrying to be as specific as possible.
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