Very Thin Ball Python

[MissDizzyBee]

Try searching for a rescue in your area. I'm in seattle and we have a rather large reptile rescue org.

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[Skittles1101]

Good luck, I wasn't trying to be mean about it, just giving my advice. UTHs not monitored by a dimmer or thermostat can seriously burn your snake.

[Adam Chandler]

To get a general idea of what the care requirements are for a Ball Python I'd recommend checking out the BP.net care sheet:http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet It has a ton of useful information.

Basically you need that 10 gallon tank to have a cool side and a warm side. The floor of the cool side should have a surface temperature of about 78-83 and the warm side 88-92. I would recommend doing away with the light just using the Under Tank Heater (UTH). UTH's are great for Ball Pythons because Ball python's don't bask, they just need surface heat in order to keep themselves warm and digest food, but when UTH's are plugged into the wall they tend to get too hot (about 130 degrees) You need something to control the heat output of that UTH in order to not burn the belly of you BP. I would recommend a thermostat such as one here:http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermostats

In order to take a accurate measurement of the surface temperature of the floor of his enclosure I you are going to need a thermometer with a probe restring on the surface(found at most pet stores, but generally not very accurate) or the best way to measure the surface temperatures of your BP's enclosure is a IR thermometer, such as this one:www.tempgun.com/

Also you are going to want to provide your Ball Python with an identical hide on both the cool side and on the warm side. Identical because Ball Pythons are very security minded, if they have two different hides they will always choose the one they feel most secure in and stay there, even if the temperature becomes uncomfortable for them.

For a prey item you are going to want to feed him a mouse or rat that is about the same thickness or slightly thicker than the thickest part of your Ball Python.

Let me know if there is anything you don't understand or any part of your question that I missed. Also, yes I a picture of the Ball Python with a object to reference size would help for determining the right size of prey. Do you have any idea how old the BP is? Or, do you have a kitchen scale you could use to see how many grams it is?

[Nalababi]

Thank you Agent for the help. I will go and buy a thermostat and tempgun. He is about a year old and very thin. Where can I email you a pic? My husband took this with his Iphone before he left and emailed it early this a.m. so there isn't any size reference. Can I give him more fuzzies to fatten him up right away ?

[ballpythonluvr]

Good for you for taking care of this poor baby and also for making an effort to get the things you need to take care of the snake. I'm sure that this snake will do very well under your care.

[Bones]

I understand that everyone here is trying to help her, but it just kind of bothers me to read the whole "do you have this, that, what are the exact temperatures, blah blah blah" stuff. It's not like she went out and bought this snake without doing any research. She found a snake that someone left behind and was nice enough to try to take care of it. So of course, she isn't going to have the exact perfect, coveted set-up right away. Maybe instead of automatically asking those types of questions to a person who has never owned a snake and is rescuing one from a negligent owner, we should suggest the proper things to do instead of assuming that they're going to have everything correct right away. If they've never had a snake, they're not going to know exactly what to do or that it even needs to have thermometers, thermostats, etc. Hence the reason why she came here.

Nalababi, you came to the right place to ask for advice and everyone here is giving you great advice. I pretty much don't have anything to add other than what everyone else has told you. Feeding him multiple prey items in one feeding isn't recommended. Go with what Agent told you and feed it prey that is no larger than the widest part of his body. Since he's been eating well, I'm sure if you feed him once a week or every 5 days or so, he'll be in good shape in no time.

[Adam Chandler]

Thank you Agent for the help. I will go and buy a thermostat and tempgun. He is about a year old and very thin. Where can I email you a pic? My husband took this with his Iphone before he left and emailed it early this a.m. so there isn't any size reference. Can I give him more fuzzies to fatten him up right away ?

I'd recommend posting a pic in this thread so others can advise you also.

To post the pictures in this thread you just log in, on the bar right under the BP.net logo click the “Gallery” tab, under the gallery tab click on “My Images” and there will be a tab that you can click that says “Upload Image” http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/upload.php
Once you have the image uploaded to your BP.net gallery you can then put them in a forum post by going to the pic in your gallery and right clicking and selecting "copy image location" and entering the image location information in the post using this BBC code:
[ URL="paste you image location here"][IMG]Also post your image location here[/IMG][/URL]
(with no space between [ and URL )

And another way you could do it is to upload the pictures to an online photo hosting site like photobucket and use the IMG BBC code with the image location to post them on the forum.

Can I give him more fuzzies to fatten him up right away ?

If you have already have some fuzzies go you can go ahead and feed them to him if he'll take them. If you are going to go out to get some to his food look for a prey item that is about as thick as (or a little bit thicker) than your BP's thickest part.

BP's can tolerate long periods of not eating, so you shouldn't be too concerned about fattening him up right away. My recommendation is just getting him back on track with a regular weekly feeding schedule that includes appropriately size prey item(s). Before you know it he'll be up to nice healthy weight.

[Homegrownscales]

For now for the thermostat you cod go to ace hardware and get a plug in lamp dimmer. You'll need a digital thermometer too. You can get them at any walmart or like store get an indoor outdoor thermometer. You also may be able to find one that reads humidity as well. I use a few of them in my house. The plug in lamp dimmer isn't perfect but at least the uth won't be full strength. You should get it up and running with the dimmer on it and them adjust until the hotside temps are 92.f and holding steady. Then leave the dimmer where it is. It's not expensive It's lime 10$ and will save you a world of trouble from a burn. Good luck with him!

[angllady2]

Now, one thing I want to point out here. Please don't stuff that poor thing with food just yet. If it is as severely underfed as you say, it will need time to digest it's food. If you feed it too much too fast you run a very real risk of regurge and/or death from overeating.

As tiny as he is and as hard as it may be, only feed him one or two SMALL meals every 4 or 5 days. NO sooner. And for now don't offer bigger prey. Stick to fuzzies for now. If you overload his system when he's so weak, the shock alone could kill him.

Go ahead and provide him the best enclosure you can, get him nice and warm, make sure he has access to fresh water at all times, feed him slowly until he starts plumping up a bit, then worry about giving him bigger prey. If he can barely swallow a fuzzy, DO NOT offer bigger.

It will take time, so don't rush him. I'd stay with one or two fuzzies every 4 or 5 days for at least a month. Then you can slowly move up prey size.

Please come here if you need help or have questions, this community is a great resource. And lastly: A huge to you for rescuing this poor thing and trying your best to help him out.

Gale

[Elise.m]

I've skimmed through the posts in this thread, did anyone mention that the snake should not be held for 2 days after eating?

Since you guys fed him recently, you have a couple days to get things situated while he's digesting. When you get a BP dumped on you like that, and you have no experience with BPs, I could imagine it's overwhelming. While BPs are somewhat fragile, some of them can be resilient.

If you keep him (I hope you do, don't let anyone here tell you otherwise if you want to keep him) just keep in mind the first few months of owning a BP are unpredictable, stressful, and so rewarding in the end. Most everyone goes through the "OMG MY SNAKE IS GOING TO DIE!" phase... We quickly realize we're over reacting