The definition of new =)

[ranapipiens89]

Hi everyone, I'm Rana. I'm a 20 year old female who's been in love with reptiles since the beginning of middle school i'd say. Since I became interested in them, I've been begging my mother and stepfather to allow me to own a snake, my ultimate wish! Mom's terminally ill, so I have to live with her to take care of her. Since I started asking, about 8 years ago, every mention of the word snake was met with vehement NO!'s. Well, The county fair blew through this week and they had a snake exhibit trailer and I made friends with the proprietor, who said he'd never met a more interested and intelligent young lady in all the places the fair has been regarding his snakes () Anyway, I guess all his praise to my mom about my knowledge and interest in snakes got her to thinking and today, the miracle day, they allowed me to get a snake!!!!!! I picked out my ball python and all the supplies at the petstore this afternoon to the very fair price of 88 dollars. My new baby is in her soak dish right now relaxing.... I can't believe it, it must be a dream!!! I'm so happy right now. So I'm the definition of new, new to snakes, new to BP's and new to the forum!
Here's what I got:
10g tank (she's young, baby)
2 bags of aspen bedding, one half of a bag makes 2 inches in the tank
Stick on thermometer
steel mesh locking lid
large deep heavy ceramic dog dish for soaking
dome reflector lamp
50w daylight basking bulb
40 watt red night time bulb
large grapevine driftwood limb thing for climbing and basking on
frozen 2 pinky and 2 fuzzy mice (they came in 2 packs, 1 pink and 1 fuzz per pack, I got 2 packs)
Plus the snake

I already have large tweezers and made her hide box from the small cardboard box that they gave me to carry her home in, just cut a small round hole in it. I also misted the tank a couple times.... so.... I guess that's everything about my snake so far, just thought I'd join a forum, since I'm a member of an iguana and a hermit crab one and they've helped a TON, thought i'd give it a stab for my new baby

[Fallguy]

Welcome. There are many smart people here that are willing to share their knowledge. Just sit back, relax, and read through the threads. Many of your new questions, may have already been answered. Oh yeah. One more thing.....

[Jamie-n-Heith]

Welcome to the site and congrats on your new baby, If your anything like me you will become obessed with reading the post on this forum and you will leard A LOT!! You will have to post pics ASAP cause everyone is gonna want to see your new baby....

[lps2]

Welcome to the forum!...
Firstly, grab that stick on thermometer and throw it away, petstores love to sell them but they are incredibly inaccurate. Just hit up walmart and grab a acurite for $10-15, it will tell you temp and humidity accurately.
also a under tank heating element with either a thermostat or a dimmer will help a ton, those lights will kill your humidity.
check out the care sheets, they are an amazing resource
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules/...warticle&id=59

and yes PICS!!!!

[ranapipiens89]

Never fear, Pics are here ^^. I was planning on getting a new one anyway, because after I got home and got started setting up, I realized the thermometer only goes to 84 degrees! pretty useless for all my needs (namely basking spot)... Oh well.
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/26739...FMg?vhost=pets http://pets.webshots.com/photo/20271...kXV?vhost=pets

[ranapipiens89]

She finished soaking, here's some head shots of my new gal! (I don't know if it's a girl or a boy, but I call my unsexable juvie iguana a male, so I'll call my python a female)
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/29426...jNq?vhost=pets
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/20933...NHA?vhost=pets

[dr del]

to the forum

She has some very nice blushing on her back.

I may be wrong but it looks as though she is either at the start or end of a shed cycle?

When you get the acurite try and get the humidity to around 60% if you can.

She needs food a little bigger than a mouse fuzzy though - about a hopper mouse looks to be a good size for her I think.

But I wouldn't offer her food for the first week or so anyway to let her get all settled into her new home - and, tough as I know it is, try and resist the temptation to handle her aside from essential cage maintenance.

If you need help getting the temps and such dialed in throw up a thread and everyone will try and help.

And if you need anything the staffs names are in red or green in the userlist.


dr del

[DesignerBP]

Welcome and great looking snake. you came to the right place I know how excited you must be and best wishes to your mom.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Yep, the pinky mouse is probably pointless...I can't imagine a ball python eating one of those. Only my tiniest hatchlings were given fuzzy mice, she'd probably eat both of them at once and then want more.

You want a prey item that's as big around as the widest part of the snake--I know her neck looks very thin, but it's made to stretch a LOT.
That will probably be a mouse hopper, or even an adult mouse, depending on her actual size/weight.
Fuzzy rats are also a good choice, as it's usually preferable for adult balls to eat rats, so getting them started while they're young is easiest.

Don't be surprised if she turns her nose up at frozen/thawed rodents. You may have to feed her live rodents and work to switch her to taking the f/t ones. It's not very common for very young ball pythons, especially ones that have just been moved to a new home, to accept f/t. Unless she was eating them before you got her, it's doubtful that she will eat them when you first offer. It is worth a try, of course. Once she has shed, offer a warm thawed fuzzy mouse on tongs, at night when it is dark. If she doesn't take it, leave it in with her and see what happens. If it's rejected, you may have to use live until you can convince her to switch.

She does look like she is opaque (about to shed). Remember, do not handle her at all until after she has eaten for you--then wait 2 days, THEN you can handle her for short periods. She probably will not eat until after she sheds, if she's opaque. It's important to keep the humidity high if her eyes are as clouded as they look in the photo. I would raise it to 70% at least. You may have to mist several times a day until she sheds. If the humidity isn't high enough, the shed will stick to her, and won't come off in one piece. Then you would have to soak her or put her in a wet pillowcase, and help remove the rest of it.

If you had it to do again, you would probably not have chosen overhead heat lamps for your heating source. They aren't the best choice for ball pythons, because they tend to drive out the humidity in the tank. If you still have your receipts...see if you can trade them out for an undertank heater and a rheostat or thermostat to control it. The latter may be a little pricier, but it will save you enormous headaches in the long run. If you get rid of the heat lamps, you can cover most of the top of the tank with plastic wrap, to help keep in the humidity. Ball pythons like a humid environment, but with dry bedding.

[ranapipiens89]

Well here we have a case of petstore information that's wrong. The petstore only sold the small mice prekilled and said that they were feeding the snakes the fuzzy sized mice. They also specifically directed me (more like physically threw in my cart) the heat lamp and two bulbs One of the bulbs blew the minute I put it in the lamp anyway, and the lamp is a gigantic pain in the rear, when you try to unscrew the bulb, what happens is the actual socket starts to unscrew from the ceramic casing first and THEN the bulb comes out, plus there's no one off switch, it's unplug and plug back in.... I think I was going to go to the petstore myself ANYWAY, that's a little ridiculous and I don't want to fool with that much trouble for a heat lamp =/. ANYWAY, yes, she is preshed, she's got one eyecap and the other one is off and her belly is pink. Thanks for everyone's help. I probably might have traded it in yesterday had this girl I asked online who "owns 7 bps and is writing her own care guide" not told me that "besides the aspen bedding, you're going real well" when I listed all my supplies. *sigh* I tried to do research, I really did. : I shall go out ASAP and get the other things, I DO have the receipt, when you're my parents and you buy something more than say 30 dollars, you KEEP THE RECEIPT, lol... I love my super frugal parents, they try so hard to be cheap, but I tried not to let them this time, I tried to get things that I knew or had read were good for snakes.

Also, I think It would be prudent for me to order my mice online, the next nearest petstore that has frozen mice is nearly 60 miles away and I don't even know what variety THEY have either, I do know that where I got my snake, it was only the 2-packs fuzzypinky packs.... And considering gas prices these days and petstore inflation, It may (probably) be cheaper.