Soon-to-be new BP owner...

[xFenrir]

I've read general information on choosing a healthy Ball, their housing needs and feeding, but any tips and/or tricks to taking care of this type of snake? For instance, the best type of heating pads/lights/etc., best type of food, a good feeding schedule to start off with; anything that will make my new Ball more comfortable and keep him/her happy and healthy. I'm going to be a first-time snake owner and I want to make sure I'm as prepared as possible before I bring him/her home!!

NOTE: It will be a juvenile BP, not an adult.

[anatess]

There's really no such thing as "best" way. There's a proven way and there's the "that makes me uncomfortable" way. Equipment type depends upon how much money you want to spend. You can get a really good set-up for a ball python using a sterilite container, an under tank heater, a thermostat, a water bowl, and paper towels.

Or you can go "Out of Africa" with a 10 gallon tank, apsen substrate, 2 hides, water bowl, under tank heater, thermostat, and tons of decorations.

Zoomed UTH's are good but so is a DIY flexwatt which is cheaper.

If you're on a budget you can go with the ReptiTemp 500R thermostat. But, if you got a little bit more money you can go with a DIY Ranco... if you got more money, then you can go with a plug-and-play Helix.

The $12 Acurite thermometer/hygrometer with probe from Walmart is also good but if you got more money a temp gun is good too.

So, really, it's all up to you and how much you want to spend on stuff. Read through the stickies on the General Husbandry or the DIY section and you'll get a good idea of what people around here do.

[mommanessy247]

lol anatess..."out of africa"
this is my set up (just to give an example xfenrir...)
visionarium from creativepet.com covered on 3 sides by a paper background. this terrarium is all glass except for the plastic top and bottom and has 2 sliding glass front doors.
i'm running a 10.5" x 11" hagen exo terra heat wave desert under tank heat pad with a repti-temp 500r thermostat.
i use a temp gun from tempgun.com to check surface temperatures on the warm side and cool side.
i use an accu-rite digital thermometer/hygrometer to monitor humidity inside the terrarium. this comes with a cord & probe that monitors temps also but i just cut that cord off since i use the temp gun.
(i had to check with the company's technical support team to make sure that cutting the cord off would not interfere with the device being able to monitor humidity and with my particular model there is a sensor inside the unit that measures the humidity so the cord was more of a nuisance then a neccessity.)
i currently have the warm side covered with moist cypress blend mulch from home depot (this has pine in it so it's really not recommended but this is a temporary solution until i can get my hands on something else.) i have the cool side covered with newspaper since having moist mulch all throughout the terrarium was creating excessively high humidity.
i have 2 small hide boxes from reptilebasics.com, 1 on the warm side & 1 on the cool side. these should be JUST big enough so that when your snake is curled up in it, it is touching on all sides. my girl sometimes ends up with the hide box resting ontop of her rather then around her but she doesnt seem to mind, she still thinks she's "hiding".
finally, i have 2 medium flukers corner bowls for water, again 1 on each side next to the hide boxes.
as far as feeding/handling goes...i just recently discovered that this cannot be put on a strict schedule as these snakes will randomly decided whether or not they'll eat. typically though, you wanna have a young snake on a once a week feeding schedule and adults either once a week or once every 2 weeks.
you should avoid touching your snake for 2-3 days after it has eaten to let it digest.
handling can be done up to 2 times a week for no more then 20 minutes. i just do 15 minutes 2 times a week. this handling does not bring the snake any pleasure, they do not really like being handled but they learn to tolerate it.
then there's the feeding live, pre-killed or frozen/thawed issue.
everyone's preferences are different and every snake is different as far as whether or not they'll accept pre-killed/frozen thawed. ultimately that whole thing is up to you and your snake's preferences. live feedings however should ALWAYS being very very closely supervised to prevent injuries to the snake. if the snake does not kill the mouse/rat within 20 minutes or so, the rat/mouse should be removed and offered again the next week.
the size of the prey offered should be about the same size as the thickest part of the snake's body.
i think that's it...
everything else you'll learn by reading as many threads as possible on all different kinds of issues. that's what i did. i learned 80% of what i know just by being here.