New Baby Ball Python

[nicole1801]

Hi, I am new to owning a ball python. We got our baby bp about a month ago now, she is 3 months old now and she has only skipped one feed since we got her (she was shedding) we feed her a small mouse between 10-15g every 5 days and she strikes it every time very quickly. she lives in a small plastic container, its only 45x30x15cm. she has 2 identical hides (on warm and cold side) and a medium water bowl in the middle. we got a heat pad on the warm side with temperature controlled thermostat, the warm side is kept at around 30-31°c and the cold side at 27-28°c and humidity is around 50-60% but we did put it up to 70% when she was in shed. Her shed was rather bad, all in many bits. we have now recently changed the substrate from kitchen roll paper to aspen shavings and ever since she is very active all the time. she is often hovering over her water bowl and she has build a few tunnels through the aspen shavings. she also pushes the lid with her head sometimes. I am just wondering if I do everything right, because she used to spend much more time in both her hides and now she seems to be up and about a lot, even after her feeds.

Any help/advice will be much appreciated x

[supamyk]

If she is roaming around at night, thats kinda normal. During the day.... not so mormal. Did you recently change around her hides? Once I did and my girl refused to go in them.

[SlitherinSisters]

Sounds good, you could bump the cool side down just a few degrees. That's a tiny bit warm, but it certainly won't hurt the snake.

As for the prey size, I'm not entirely sure since I don't know how much the snake weighs. A good rule of thumb is to feed prey that is just a tiny bit thicker than the thickest part of your snake. You should be able to see a bit of a lump/bulge from the prey in their belly.

Sheds can be tricky, sometimes they have bad sheds even when everything is perfect. The aspen will help hold more humidity so it may help with shedding issues in the future.

[albinos_rule]

Just make sure to up the humidity a bit when they are going to shed, and that should hopefully help with the shedding problem.

[nicole1801]

Both her hides are the same and I don't think I changed them around. She is going in them, but only short periods. And she does have a small bump in her belly after feeds. I changed to Aspen after the shed, I cleaned and wiped everything with reptile cleaner too. She handles well too, only hisses when first touched x