I am very new to ball pythons. I tried very hard to have a good set up for the month old babies I picked up. In three weeks I could not get one to eat at all, she was drinking often, she seemed healthy and was very sociable. Right at the three week mark she started star gazing and flopping around. I know these are symptoms of IBD. We took her to the vet the next day and he said she was dehydrated and really needed to eat. He fed her with a tube and she kept it all down. After that she had a few more fits of flopping, but seemed calm after that. The next afternoon she had died.

Mean while the other girl ate after three weeks and seemed like she was doing well. Two days ago she regurgitated half of the mouse four days after eating. Shortly after that she started the flopping and star gazing well.She managed to make it just over 24 hours before we found her dead as well. I'm not saying that this was IBD and I won't say that it isn't. I don't know and honestly I can't afford to take either in to have testing done.

I did have a little trouble keeping the warm side warm enough for the first week, but it never dropped below 85 and 77 on the cool side. Humidity stayed at 50-77 warm side and cool side. I am using and under tank heater for 10/20 gallon tank. I did have the pair in a 20 high. I had hides on both sides and the water was changed daily. After a couple of weeks I switched to a wire top with a heat lamp to help the temps, at that point the temps spiked once up to 96 degrees, but that was only for a few minutes. We kept the high side between 88 and 92 for the last week. Humidity did drop a bit with the new top, but we kept a towel over the cool side and misted the tank several times a day and kept the warm side at about 40 percent and 55-59 on the cool side.

I know that I have probably made mistakes and I hope to learn from my mistakes. I am not willing to give up yet. I had done lots of research and asked many questions before I started this. I have done much more since the first one died and feel like I have learned a lot. Please if you read something I may not have done right please tell me. I will be getting another in the future.

Now my other question is just in case this was IBD how well do I need to clean my house. I know all the snake related items will need to be discarded or cleaned meticulously. And how long should I wait to bring another snake into my home?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice, and sorry for the long post.