Hello everyone. My husband and I own two ball pythons. Darla (f) and Dopey (m).

Darla, we bought first and we got her, beginning of June. She was only a foot and an inch from nose to tail and has grown quite a bit. Since we got her she has shed twice. The last time being end of last month and beginning of this month. I noticed today as I put her into the feeding tub that her color is darker and her belly has gone pink. Her eyes aren't cloudy yet though. Could she be shedding again? This baby has grown to an impressive two feet already and is only about an inch and a half in girth. How often DO ball pythons shed? I was under the impression that they shed every three to four months.

Also, I've been having the damnedest hard time keeping the humidity in the terrarium. It used to be our 40 gallon fish tank but when all of them went belly up and Darla outgrew her 10 gallon... we decided to wash it out with Clorox and make it her terrarium. Two weeks later (this being mid-July) we brought Dopey home. He's a tiny little thing... of the two pythons at Petsmart he was the least skinny... the other one was waaay to skinny for me to even consider buying it even out of pity.
When it came time to change the bedding (which for had started to moulder due to the fish rocks still lining the bottom... and on the advice of my friend who's an avid snake lover I bought hydroballs and put the aspen bedding over them. This helped keep humidity levels up for a while but I'm still having trouble with it dipping down to "desert". I have a 100 watt intense basking bulb for day time and a 50 watt night light. I mist the enclosure every morning before I turn the day lamp on and mist it lightly when I see the humidity dip down to "desert" ... meaning about 3 to 4 times a day, depending on if its sunny or rainy outside as somehow this affects the terrarium even though I have central air conditioning all the time.


Sorry for the rather long post but, I am new to this and don't want to harm them.