New Baby with a Few Q's

[Zach933]

I went to my first reptile show this weekend in hopes of picking up a normal hatchling. One guy had a few females and 1 male, so I looked him over and didn't find anything wrong, so I paid $35 for him and took him home. He's about 14" long, unsure of weight as of now. Some of the questions I have are:
-In the first photo, what is on his head? It looks like a scab or a dead scale, but I'm not sure.
-How do I keep humidity in a vented, plastic cage?
-Is it okay to feed him a fuzzy mouse as a first meal from me?

[SlitherinSisters]

First of all welcome to the site and the addiction!

He looks good, I can't tell how thick he is, but you want to feed him something that is about as thick as he is. I'm not good with mouse sizes, but he looks like he could eat a rat fuzzy no problem. I believe that would be about the size of a weanling mouse or small mouse.

Are you using a plastic tub for an enclosure? You shouldn't have any problems keeping humidity up in a tub. If you need more humidity or less humidity you can add more holes to the tub or cover them up.

There are some great care sheets on this site and if you have any other questions feel free to post a thread in the husbandry section! There are lots of helpful people on the site.

[DellaF]

Welcome! Cute little guy! If you are new to Ball Pythons please read caresheets for him. I'm new to Ball Pythons and I have learned a lot on this site. Lot's of people to help you out here also.

[NoLaHeRpEr]

Looks to me like he'd be able to handle more than a fuzzy. Normally, my young BPs took hoppers, but as mentioned above, it's based on his size. I normally feed mine something that's about 1 1/4 the size of the of the snakes jaws at the feeders fattest point....If that makes sense to you. Lol.

[dragonboy4578]

Very nice looking bp....

[Zach933]

Thanks for the responses. I've read dozens of caresheets and have spent hours on this site learning about balls. I figured he'd be able to take the fuzzy, but I wanted to make sure. As for the cage, it is a clear, hard plastic reptile cage. About 20" long, 12" deep, and 6" tall. It is vented all around the top of it and on the lid. I think I'll try covering about 2/3 of the vents and see what that does. Also, he won't go into his hides. I'm using a butter container and a terracota pot, but I think they're too big. Would this hinder him from going in them?
Thanks,
Zach

[DZ Reptiles]

Welcome to the site.

The size off the hide really does matter when it comes to BPs. They like it to be "snug"

[RichieBoo]

Welcome to the site looks like a nice ball u got there good luck..

[angllady2]

About the hides, also remember it will take a week or so for him to settle in and get comfortable in his new surroundings, so be patient with him.

I recently got a young female who was rack raised and had never been provided a hide. Since I do have a rack system, but I use taller tubs than most people I use hides. For the first few days, I think she was convinced the hide was going to eat her. She couldn't stay far enough away from it. For the next several days she slept on top of or behind the hide. Finally, by gently placing the hide over top of her after each feeding, she discovered these hide things are pretty cool.

Now she is just like my others, she lives under her hide happily, and frequently pokes her head out to be sure she isn't missing something important.

Gale

[LizardPants]

You're doing the right thing by coming here and asking questions, thanks for that!

It sounds like you're using a 'critter keeper' type of enclosure? That might be a little on the large side. A rubbermaid shoe box will do (and you can save a bit of money too), you should find plenty of examples on here of how to set it up. Use a UTH or flexwatt, and don't skimp on the thermostat.