Quote Originally Posted by j_h_smith View Post
Cool down your enclosure by 5 degrees. Cover the enclsoure or keep the room as dark as possible 24/7. You can feed, but it's not neccessary. Wait about 2months, bring up the heat, uncover the enclosure, start feeding with slightly smaller prey. This is called brumation. Some say you don't have to if you're not breeding, but it won't hurt.

If this isn't for you, keep everything up like you've been doing, maybe you can cover the enclosure to help with any stress.

This is all pretty common.
Jim Smith
That may be some of the worst advice I have seen in the Ball Python section. Ball Pythons do not brumate. They are from a near equatorial zone, and brumating them would be about the worst thing you could do, as you could potential create an environment that is very condusive to Respiratory Infections.

With that said, the beginning of your statement says to drop 5 degrees. That would probably not hurt the animal, but if there is no intention to breed it, there is no reason to do that either. As far as brumation goes though, I typically lower my colubrids by about 15 to 20 degrees. Also, if someone was to brumate an animal, there is a bit more preparatory work that would be necessary (such as ceasing feeding about three weeks prior to cooling the snakes, to ensure that they have expelled all waste and have digested all food, so that they would not have food rotting in there stomach due to a lack of heat for digestion).

Please make sure that you understand what you are recommending to someone that is asking for help before you make suggestions that are not correct and could potentially cause more grief.