First 3 months keeping ball pythons - report card and concerns

[Geckodelic]

Hi

One thing I pride myself on is not taking short cuts when it comes to my animals. Having a collection of geckos and turtles, I always want to make sure I am doing EVERYTHING correctly because I tend to worry about things way too much.

My first 3 months of keeping ball pythons has been nothing short of amazing. I cannot believe that I haven't been keeping them all along. Please take a look at my review below and address my concerns as you see fit. I want to make sure all of my animals live long, healthy, and happy lives. I currently have 2 ball pythons and i'm adding 2 new ones in a couple months. One of them being a little costly, so there is zero room for error.

My current 2 Ball Pythons:

Pro's:
- Both snakes have been eating every 5 days without missing a meal
- Both snakes have been switched from live to F/T rats
- Humidity ranges from 55 -65%
- Both snakes are now having FULL 1 piece sheds
- Temps are 88-91 hot side, 77-81 cool side consistantly
- Their enclosures are cleaned and tubs switched once per week
- Both snakes have seen significant growth. I got the female and she was a bit underweight. She is now double in size and never misses a meal.

Concern's:
- I am deathly afraid of my snakes getting RI (I read to many forum posts of others experiences). I have no reason to think my snakes will get it, but it scares me reading about people losing their entire collection. How common is RI to invade a collection if my husbandry skills are on point?
- I use unprinted newspaper as a substrate and need to mist once per night to get the humidity constantly between 55-65%. Is misting safe? Seems like an easy way to get sick.
- Night time cool side gets to about 74-75. Is that too low? Hot side is about 88 at night. (Not much I can do to keep it at 78-82 at night)
- I will be bringing in 2 new snakes soon. I know the importance of quarantining in a separate room, however, I don't have any other room in the house that I can consistantly keep an ambient temp of 78-82. Is quarantining on the other side of the same snake room and washing hands before handling acceptable?

I just want assure myself that I am doing everything correctly. Please chime in if you have an opinion that will benefit me.

Thanks,

Mike

[Kinra]

- I am deathly afraid of my snakes getting RI (I read to many forum posts of others experiences). I have no reason to think my snakes will get it, but it scares me reading about people losing their entire collection. How common is RI to invade a collection if my husbandry skills are on point?

I keep my snakes in a rack and I have dealt with an RI with one of my snakes. If you pay attention and catch it early there is little chance it will wipe out your collection. My vet told me there are times when your snake can get a minor RI and it will actually go away on it's own before you notice.

- I use unprinted newspaper as a substrate and need to mist once per night to get the humidity constantly between 55-65%. Is misting safe? Seems like an easy way to get sick.

I mist my boas and haven't had a problem resulting from that. It should be fine to mist as long as you aren't soaking everything.

- Night time cool side gets to about 74-75. Is that too low? Hot side is about 88 at night. (Not much I can do to keep it at 78-82 at night)

As long as the hot spot is consistent they will be okay.

- I will be bringing in 2 new snakes soon. I know the importance of quarantining in a separate room, however, I don't have any other room in the house that I can consistently keep an ambient temp of 78-82. Is quarantining on the other side of the same snake room and washing hands before handling acceptable?

It is possible to QT in the same room, just make sure you adhere to quarantine procedures and don't contaminate the established ones by using things you use with the QT snakes.