Hey all-

I am excited to say I am a newbie to the ball python world. I picked up my little guy, Spot, on May 6th at the Cleveland Reptile Show.

A bit of history on Spot:

As of the 6th the breeder says he was 2 weeks old. He's a little fella and can sit in my palm. He was only $20 and unfortuantly hadn't had his first meal yet, nor his first shed from what the breeder told me.

Now I know, some of you are thinking why not buy a bp that is older and more established with feeding, being a first time BP owner. I probably should have. Even thinking about it now I wish I had. But Spot is with me to stay through thick and thin.

I had originally picked out Monty, a beautiful little BP that had more yellow in it than the coffee/carmel color of Spot. In my excitment of owning a BP I failed to do a complete check and it turns out (thanks to the help of a sales person) that he had major kinks in the spine. So the gentleman I bought Monty from gladly let me replace him.

The excitment of owning a BP again caught up with me, but this time I ran a full check of my new Spot. No visible mites, or ticks, no discharge from the mouth or nose, non kinked spine, vent clean, eyes clear - non dented.

The sales lady said that i needed both a lamp and a UTH. So i picked up both and set them up. Now with my corns, I have had a hard time getting temps correct with just a UTH (they are finally stable), so I figured having both the lamp and UTH I'd be able to reach the 90°F mark no problem. So I rheostat the UTH and plug in the lamp. Temps soar to 115°. Oh no... I go out and buy a 50 watt bulb, considering they gave me a 75 watt for a 10 gallon. It was supposed to be a 60 watt but it was a 75 in a 60 package. So with my 50 watt the temps drop to 105°. Crap still not good enough. :::lurks forum to find answer::: No bulb, she reads. Unhooks light and watches temps drop to 91°. Good close enough, work on getting it to 90. Check it this morning (5 days later, temps are at 88°).

He has two hides, which he doesn't use, he's content sleeping under the crook in a piece of drift wood in the middle of the tank. If he's not under there he's squished himself between a hide and the glass. I caught him near the water bowl, so hopefully he's drinking.

I bought a mouse the second day I had him and admit i tried to feed him. He took no interest. I then scolded myself for having cornsnake already I need to wait a few days to let him get adjusted. I am just so damn excited though!!! So I left him alone for 3 days, didn't hold him or anything. He's crused around his tank a few times, so that's good, he's active.

I am waiting till the 13th to try and feed him a live small mouse. I'll try it at night w/o watching him. I do have an issue with that though...since it's live, how long should I keep it in with him? I don't feed live to my corns, and am concerned about attacks. If anyone can give me a suggestion or a post link that would be great.

Other than that I am done for now, sorry for such a long post, but I am so excited to have him. If I keep typing I'll go on forever. LOL. Thanks for listening.

P.S. Pictures will come this evening, I need to buy batteries for my camera.