Climbing Balls

[majorleaguereptiles]

This climbing seems to me like the snake is most comfortable at the coolest part in the cage obviously. If she is always there, my gut feeling would tell me the overall ambient temperature is too hot, leaving her unable to use a comfortable hide on the ground and take advantage of gradient temps. Call me crazy but most balls are comfortable in the 78-83 range. They will do fine in 90 degree tanks, but I do know when they are given a choice, they settle in around 82-85 degrees to bask. Most new python keepers seem scared of temperatures below 80 degrees. Truth is, they can really be comfortable there. In 20 years I've never seen a Respiratory Infection. Anyways, very beautiful snake there. Just wanted to shed some of my experience.

[MitsuMike]

She is climbing and chilling in that spot for warmth it seems. She is directly under the light.
Some things that looks out of place are the following:
-Dial ambient temp/humidity reader (HIGHLY inaccurate)
-Random probe exposed (guessing no UTH)
-Only looks like heat bulbs for heat (BPs do better with a belly heat of some sort, making a hide worthless b/c now they have to expose themselves for warmth)

[MitsuMike]

This climbing seems to me like the snake is most comfortable at the coolest part in the cage obviously. If she is always there, my gut feeling would tell me the overall ambient temperature is too hot, leaving her unable to use a comfortable hide on the ground and take advantage of gradient temps. Call me crazy but most balls are comfortable in the 78-83 range. They will do fine in 90 degree tanks, but I do know when they are given a choice, they settle in around 82-85 degrees to bask. Most new python keepers seem scared of temperatures below 80 degrees. Truth is, they can really be comfortable there. In 20 years I've never seen a Respiratory Infection. Anyways, very beautiful snake there. Just wanted to shed some of my experience.

What?? Maybe a Burm but not a BP. All mine are in the 92 degree hide pretty much all day everyday. Now they aren't at the moment b/c of breeding season (young ones still are), seeing I dropped the temps but that is beyond the point.
Telling people bad husbandry tips isn't a way to help out a new keeper, starting bad practices is not a way to start. If later on the keeper "feels" as though another way is "better" then so be it, but there are optimal guidelines to keep your pet thriving.
Also python keepers aren't scared of temps below 80, we are worried about temps below 75 for a prolonged period of time (can cause RI's)

[kitedemon]

From your photo it looks like a second hide migh be in order. Generally speaking 2 hides the same one hot one cold. I also personally think that in a set up similar to yours a touch of cover might be good too like a fake plant perhaps.

This aside if she is eating and regulating and sheds fine and has been doing so for a while there isn't really a problem. Ball pythons are fairly communicative with issues they stop eating. Now what that issue is is another story...

Climbing, in its self is no problem the magority of mine will one more than the others. There are written accounts of in Togo finding them in low tree branches (P. De Vosjoli). I think that a snake that is hiding 100% of the time is not normal either I expect to see mine every now and again usually in the late night but sometimes in the early morning (about 2 hours before sunrise) not everyday but some days (usually before feeding day they are all out )

The gauages you have in the photo, are they humidor gauges? I have been on a personal quest for accuracy lately (OCD) and in a post Sunday I think someone recommended them after some poking around and reading specs I'd actually say a decent humidor analogue guage is many time superior to cheap digital ones! They can be calibrated and set to correct. The cheap humidor digitals also have a finer degree of arror than cheap digital (1% humidy up or down and 1ºF up or down) When you look at regular digital 5% (some are 10%) and 2ºF (some are 2ºC which is 5.4º!!!) up or down allowable by the manufacturer. If they are humidor gauages they are likely better than most digitals. (don't take my say so check your specs!)

[blushingball419]

yeah I did replace those analog ones, what the shots don't show is the digital thermometer probe on the far right to check the hot spot and a digital hygrometer/thermometer in the center about 2 inches above the substrate. We did get her another hide, it was one that looked like a tree with a hollow in it and it had plastic leaves and branches......she completely ignored it lol

I'll probably get her another of the same rock hides that is on the hot side, but she doesn't hide much anyways. I think that if I got her a hide for the cool side she would just ignore it anyways and go on her branch

Well, that's good that you got a digital thermometer/hygrometer and that you're at least offering her a cool side hide. Yeah, she does seem pretty happy up there, but I wanted to mention it just in case That is an awesome branch... better not show my girl or she might get jealous haha I agree with JLC though, if she's eating and shedding well and seems content, then I wouldn't change a thing

[pixie6710]

my baby bp's seem to think their branches r swingsets cuz they will clime up, hang upside down then slide to the bottom, fall off and do it all over again. i have the bottom of their tanks padded now so they dont get hurt.

[thedarkwolf25]

The ambient is almost always 85, it does get a little lower if it gets cold but I always maintain a hotspot of 90-92 so she can warm up if she wants to. Heating setup is 1 150W infared lamp, one 50W infared lamp and a 50-60 gallon Repti-Therm UTH on the right side. I'll move the lamps around as necessary to keep the ambient and the hotspot where they need to be. We did have a cold side hide for her but she completely ignored it and stayed on the branch anyways.

The exposed probe is so that I can measure the hot spot temps with a digital thermometer (I forget the brand) and the ambient is measured with a Fluker's digital thermometer/hygrometer.

I do want to get some plants to put in there so the tank isn't so bare looking, just not sure what kind to use, all the ones that Petsmart sells seem so sparse.

[blushingball419]

I usually go for the more vine-like plants since they generally come pretty long, and you can move them around and shape them however you want. Dollar stores usually have some decent fake plants actually, and they're a lot cheaper than the pet stores.

[thedarkwolf25]

I usually go for the more vine-like plants since they generally come pretty long, and you can move them around and shape them however you want. Dollar stores usually have some decent fake plants actually, and they're a lot cheaper than the pet stores.

Oh! good idea! We go to Dollar Tree alot for cheap snacks and such, they might have some cheap houseplants. But a question, is there anything I should look for? I don't want to get any type of plastic that might hurt her or make her sick.

[MitsuMike]

Heating setup is 1 150W infared lam

And there is problem in itself