Daughter and My 1st Snake

[BillinIndiana]

I have to call Bologna here.

That is a downright lie. LIAR!

You can never have just ONE Ball python....you will find yourself getting the bug and before you know it you will have a rack system built in your spare bedroom with various morphs for breeding projects. You will find yourself unable to sleep at night and load up the laptop and play around with the morph calculator so you can satisfy your desires to breed crazy cool looking snakes. "Just a pet" you say...frakking bullcrap sir! It is an addiction and it cannot be quenched...just satisfied briefly with new "pickups" (which you will spam the forums with the MINUTE you get home and can throw it under a lamp in a white setting to get the best pictures possible while claiming "the pictures suck but the colors are even BETTER in person")

Blah blah blah. We've heard it all before. You're the new kid in class and you have to sit in the front of the school bus...but worry not...the next new kid is just coming home with his new "pet" just now from his local reptile expo....




Welcome to the club!

Yeah, I've heard others say this too.. We're going to take our time and stick with the one till we're sure we know how to care for her.. Then we might reconsider?

Congrats on your baby! However, I wouldn't start handling until it has had at least a week or two to settle in, and has eaten 2-3 times in a row for you. I know its hard to not handle them, but trust me, it well help your snake settle in better, and be better, more well adjusted in the long run, IMO.

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I was afraid someone would say this..Haha. I was just trying to rush it a little I know. We haven't messed with her since we put her in the cage when we got home. She checked it out and now is in her hide on the warm side.. As hard as it will be, we'll take your advice and wait till she eats, Thanks

[Crazy4Herps]

Yeah, I've heard others say this too.. We're going to take our time and stick with the one till we're sure we know how to care for her.. Then we might reconsider?

I couldn't agree more! It can take a while to get the hang of things; it concerns me when some people jump in to get another snake after just having acquired their first.

And to those who say it's impossible to have only one... I'm going on my 5th year with my one precious ball python (though I have a few other species of snake as well). It's all the fun with less poop to clean up!

x2 on waiting for handling... I know it's so hard to wait! But definitely worth it, you'll avoid a lot of difficulty if you can get her eating well from the start!


She is a gorgeous little girl, and Avalon is a pretty name! Congrats to the both of you!

[BillinIndiana]

Well it made it through the 1st night..ha. I peeked in at her last night. We had the red/night light on and she was out moving around her cage.. I take this as a good sign.
Now today, I just had to say something to my daughter about her music being so loud. I told her to turn it down, I'm sure this is going to stress her new baby out. She rolled her eyes at me and turned it down... Ahh Teenagers, don't ya love 'em ?

[Annarose15]

Unless the bass is rattling her tank, I doubt the music will bother her too much (not that it's a bad excuse!). One other suggestion I'd make is to use cypress, aspen, newspaper, or paper towels for bedding. That reptile carpet can't be spot-cleaned, which can lead to her sitting in ammonia ickiness a lot more than if you have a substrate that can be spot-cleaned or quickly swapped out for clean when she urinates.

[BillinIndiana]

We have two of the carpets. I figured we could switch them during cleaning. How often do you clean your snake's cage ? What all do you do to clean it?

[icejd7]

Congrats on your acquisition! They are addictive, going on 7 snakes now after starting first with corns, now up to BP's. I find them more docile and able to "chill out" while sitting with them. Their paint jobs are pretty cool too.


Cleaning:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=clean+cage

I started out with carpet but read what a pain it was to clean, so went to aspen, but that started to get expensive. Now I'm using blank newsprint (picked up for 200+ sheets at uhaul for $11.

I also started with a tank but humidity was hard to keep constant, now I've got them all in a rack system. If I need to raise humidity for shedding time, I tape up some holes or put more water in the bowl.

Enjoy and this is a great place for information, I've learned a lot from the experienced people here.

[BillinIndiana]

Congrats on your acquisition! They are addictive, going on 7 snakes now after starting first with corns, now up to BP's. I find them more docile and able to "chill out" while sitting with them. Their paint jobs are pretty cool too.


Cleaning:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=clean+cage

I started out with carpet but read what a pain it was to clean, so went to aspen, but that started to get expensive. Now I'm using blank newsprint (picked up for 200+ sheets at uhaul for $11.

I also started with a tank but humidity was hard to keep constant, now I've got them all in a rack system. If I need to raise humidity for shedding time, I tape up some holes or put more water in the bowl.

Enjoy and this is a great place for information, I've learned a lot from the experienced people here.

The humidity in the tank is going to be a little extra work, another reason we'll probably just stay with the one snake.
My daughter is kinda scared of using the Aspen. A friend of hers from school lost his Corn snake from ingesting a piece of wood.
We were just going to change the carpet weekly ?

[Kaorte]

The humidity in the tank is going to be a little extra work, another reason we'll probably just stay with the one snake.
My daughter is kinda scared of using the Aspen. A friend of hers from school lost his Corn snake from ingesting a piece of wood.
We were just going to change the carpet weekly ?

Impaction from substrate ingestion is very rare in ball pythons. If it worries you then you can use paper towel. Trust me that cleaning the pee soaked reptile carpet is going to be a major pain. Disposable is the way to go. I clean out the cages as soon as I notice the snake has gone to the bathroom.

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[BillinIndiana]

How often do they defecate or urinate? Seems like everything I read says 3-4 weeks on #2...

[Mike41793]

I probably play music louder than your daughter and all my snakes are fine. As someone said, unless its vibrating the tank, it shouldnt bother it.

Defecation can vary alot. Some of mine go once a month, some go only after they shed which is longer than once a month usually, and some go randomnly lol. Usually they pee at least once or twice a week. (Or at least most of mine do).

Congrats on your new pet and welcome to the addiction!