Crow's Intro Thread

[Tbcrow]

Hello to all, I figured the best way to make a first post was to dive right in, so here we go. Note, this is actually worth the read, I'm pseudo interesting, occasionally.

I've always loved snakes. Correction, I've always loved things that give other people the heeby jeebies. If I can make my friends crawl up a wall, I'm fairly pleased. I, like so many others, have invested a significant portion of the last 6 years in World of Warcraft. A fellow guild member from Ohio kept rubbing that she had a snake in my face (without realizing she was), and made me desire one exclusively. My current living arrangement's didn't provide for me to have roaming animals, so I figured why not on a snake.

My biggest problem, I'm notoriously impatient. I have been reading for about a month. Anything I can find about Ball Pythons, snakes, building terrarium ideas, I absolutely devoured. Finally I looked online and saw that the local Reptile Expo was coming to Raleigh the first weekend in September. Okay cool, gives me plenty of time to prep. I go to Pet Smart (I know I know) and buy the essentials, water bowl, tank, hides, quality heating pad, thermometer/hydrometer.



So I bring all of this awesomeness back home and setup. Now my friend from Ohio is a big fan of slate bottoms to her tanks. It allows for easy clean up, makes a nice warming surface for sunlight, and just looks better than a box of aspen to me. I went to Lowes and bought a few boxes of 4x4 slate pieces. These worked alright, but I pulled them out within 30 minutes. Half of them are now planned Christmas presents, drink coasters ahoy. There is a point here, it's cheaper to buy 9 slate tiles for 3$ and have coasters than to buy 4 for 20$, just for those who are interested.



Slate attempt #1 left me extremely unimpressed. Ohio Lady, this will be the re-occurring nickname, persisted. She promised that if I went darker, and went larger, I would be much more impressed. Trip #2 to Lowes yielded fantastic results, and I am nothing but satisfied. The tile warms nicely with the under tank heater, without ever feeling hot to the touch, and it just looks damn good. This was all fine and dandy, except for one thing, I didn't have a snake.

There is me, I'm sitting on the end of bed staring at this tank (an awesome one I might add), that was sitting there lonely and unused. Sure it made a great corner decoration, but once someone has pressed their greasy nose to the glass and realized nothing is in it, you've lost them forever. I started researching vendors for the Raleigh Expo. I wanted to know what they would be bringing and what kind of prices they offered. Quite a few of the vendors are in North Carolina, and 1 was well within an acceptable driving distance that caught my eye. I packed up the girlfriend, called ahead to make sure it was a real store, and went along my merry way. Upon arriving I was not entirely enthused, this place felt down right seedy. I'll omit the name, simply because I don't feel places should be judged upon the look, or maybe I just don't know what is trashy or not.



D-Day, excitement time, inspection! The storage bin was about what I could call the tank. It had 4 items in it, repti carpet, a large water bowl, and 2 snakes. That's it. The color of the first snake didn't seem right to me. He looked, faded, but it wasn't a morph or a shed coming on type faded, I can't really lay my finger on it. Normally when your gut tells you something though, it's for a good reason. Snake #2 though, was perfect. Great color, super responsive and friendly, not stressed at all, I couldn't hear him breathing and he certainly didn't look like he had any respiratory distress. At some point from the time I had left the house to the time I had gotten to the store I had decided I didn't want a baby. I wanted something a little older, a little more hardy, with some mileage under those scales. Mr. Snake was right at 1.5 years old, looked more than happy to see me, and honestly I'd have felt damn guilty leaving him in that sad excuse of a store while he was still healthy.

Car ride, one word, hilarious. Nothing beats plopping a snake in a bag down and informing your significant other that she gets to be the snake warmer for the ride home. It was 104 degrees outside today, so either all 3 of us we're going to sweat our collective skins off, or I was going to run the AC and she would have to deal. Eventually she agreed, and amid much shrieks and "oh my god it's moving"'s, we made it home without much in the way of an event.



The most difficult part about the ride home was deciding on a name. I am HUGE on naming animals something that isn't entirely cliche, isn't flimsy (sam, bub, spot, ect), and something that means something to you. While I was growing up, Disney was in it's prime. They were cranking out more animated cartoons than parents wallets could handle, and with the advent of CGI/Toy Story and a slower production schedule, allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief. My #1 all time favorite movie is Robin Hood, but I felt naming a snake Hiss was just sort of week. Besides, who wants a coward that gets tied in knots by a cat, he's a Lion, but he's still a cat. It clicked, Jungle Book, Kaa, it must be, thus it was. Kaa halfway ate the kid, this Mr. Snake was starting out with a gangster name off the bat, maybe one day I could feed him small children too.



First problem arose within 30 minutes, the genius had never had a hide, ever. He got stuck in short order trying to back out with three coils overlapping through the door. I quickly reconsidered the living arrangements. This cage was built with the purpose of a munchkin, dummy me never expected a snake of 1.5 years. I guiltily removed all of his furniture, except for the water bowl, and he happily curled up beside the heating pad area and went right to sleep. Tomorrow I will have to procure a much larger hide environment, that even the snakes mommy called special could enter and exit properly.



Problem number two is how he was raised. The pet store in question live fed. Every Tuesday for the last 1.5 years this boyo has been getting a living, breathing, and moving mouse. When I inspected him he had 0 scaring, so this lead me to believe this kid was at least good at it. I've read nightmare stories about Ball Python's having terrible aim, and hurting themselves from a poor rear strike. In addition to this, I had already decided on not doing 100% live feeding. Pre-Killing isn't my thing either, so I was going to use heavily stunned mice, to stack the odds majorly in Kaa's favor. He gets something that is alive, and I don't have to worry about a mouse chewing his face off. Now I'm going to have to slowly wean him off of live mice, which looks to be a long, painful road.



The last a probably most concerning issue for me. I've Googled eye caps, and I cannot find one that looks like this. This leads me to believe that either all eye caps look different, or he has an old injury on his right eye. I've tested his vision from that side, and he reacts to my hand movements when they are only in that eye's line of site, so I'm fairly certain he isn't blind on his right. I was going to maintain a 60% humidity till his next shed, to see if that could help solve the issue.



Finally, here I sit, with the biggest concern of all. I'm at work during third shift. It's a shame not to be home on the first night, and I hope he turns down the escape artist feelings for just a night at least.

Thanks! Will
www.willshuck.net

[llovelace]

Welcome to BP.net

I like your tank, but while the trees are pretty to look at, they do nothing for letting him feel secure.

Get 2 hides snug fitting for him.

He does have a stuck eye cap, keep the humidity at 50 -60%, and when he's going into shed, raise it 65-70%.
You could provide him a humidity hide during shed also.

Loose the analog instruments, and get a digital thermometer/hygrometer, wallyworld or lowes sells an accurite brand (garden dept)

What type heat pad are you using?
Is it on a thermostat?

[Tbcrow]

I like your tank, but while the trees are pretty to look at, they do nothing for letting him feel secure.

After I pulled them out the more I realized the tree's were getting dumped to fish tank duty. The S/O only agreed to a snake if she could get a fish tank, so I suppose I'm stuck there.

What type heat pad are you using?
Is it on a thermostat?

Since I'm at work, naturally I cannot remember. The pad is on a heat sensor, when it peaks 95, it turns off until it cools back down. According to my surface thermometer (laser reader) the slate never tops 92. There are advantages to being a certified electrician.

[Jessica Loesch]

x2 with what ilovelace said.

Just a few things.

It seems like you have read a LOT about ball pythons and their care, but it seems like you also have invested time in taking on other's opinions.

Without being biased sounding, a few things.

Feeding live is not bad. Yes there are horror stories, but those people don't monitor their feedings. Just remember that Of course, feeding frozen/thawed is the easiest safest option and sometimes the cheapest, but nothing wrong with live.

Secondly, you mentioned the pet store in question didn't have hides. Was the snake in a rack system by chance? If so, there is really no need if they are nice and dark. Either way, I'm guessing that isn't what you mean. Many petstores don't know how to take care of their animals all the proper way.

Third - you might want to black out 3 sides of your tank. It will make him feel more secure.


Grats on your snake, and I love the name.


PS - I played WoW for 4 years, and have since quit for quite a while. I was pretty upset when they changed Naxx and made it easy for anyone to do. I Was in a top raiding guild and everyone caught up to us easily after all our hard work. I was off and on after that. And now, I'm pretty much done, but I miss it quite a bit.

[Tbcrow]

Feeding live is not bad. Yes there are horror stories, but those people don't monitor their feedings. Just remember that Of course, feeding frozen/thawed is the easiest safest option and sometimes the cheapest, but nothing wrong with live.

If I had to pick I would prefer live feeding. Ironically I was worried about being crucified on a forum for being more of a naturalist. Internets are srz biznes.

Secondly, you mentioned the pet store in question didn't have hides. Was the snake in a rack system by chance? If so, there is really no need if they are nice and dark. Either way, I'm guessing that isn't what you mean. Many petstores don't know how to take care of their animals all the proper way.

It was a rack system, but with full lighting. Maybe I'm wrong in my criticism, but it just seemed wrong, and cheap.

Third - you might want to black out 3 sides of your tank. It will make him feel more secure.

Fantastic idea, I have 2 sides I know I would like to black out at least. One of the sides is great for daylight entry, which is my goal. The room in question stays around 80-82 degrees, so I was just going to use a bit of natural lighting.

PS - I played WoW for 4 years, and have since quit for quite a while. I was pretty upset when they changed Naxx and made it easy for anyone to do. I Was in a top raiding guild and everyone caught up to us easily after all our hard work. I was off and on after that. And now, I'm pretty much done, but I miss it quite a bit.

They changed the way the game works a little. The top guilds get the serious achievements for blasting through new content. Once it gets nerfed you lose some of the bonuses of clearing it at current content level, like Titles or mounts.

Thank you for the feedback

[Jessica Loesch]

Hey anytime. By the way, ball pythons do not need lighting really in any form. So I wouldn't worry about that too much, but then again it probably won't be negative if you don't cover it up either! More about what you want at this point

A rack system with lighting instead? Ew.

[CoolioTiffany]

He looks beautiful! And welcome to the forum .

I would definitely get him two identical, tight fitting hides with only one entrance. Exo-Terra hides are my absolute favorite for Ball pythons, and I'm sure they probably sell them at any local reptile store or pet store. Here's what they look like
http://www.reptilelifestyle.co.uk/im...leCaveHide.jpg
http://www.aquatic-mania.co.uk/compo...835f6fe3e0.jpg

That is definitely an eye cap over his eye. It would be best to stick him in a warm damp pillow case to move around in. This may get his eye cap off. Although if it does not work, you may need to soak him in warm water for about 20-30 minutes and try to get the eye cap off yourself. I would like to say to be VERY gentle. I've taken off eye caps before myself, starting from the front of the eye going back (just like they would do when in a normal shedding process). I usually take my index finger or thumb and gently stroke the eye cap back. Or you can wait until his next shed. Just make sure you raise his humidity a bit higher so he's able to shed in all one piece.

Also, it's usually best to not have anything high up that the snake can climb on. Balls aren't the best climbers as they are terrestrial and pose a higher risk of getting hurt if they fall from a branch or off a high object in the enclosure.

And one more thing, rack systems are actually an awesome space saving technique as well as a great way to keep snakes. The racks are installed with flexwatt or heat tape for a heat source and are controlled by a thermostat. A lot of the good ones are definitely not cheap but well worth the money for something that will stand up and last for years!

So far everything looks fantastic though!

[Rickys_Reptiles]

Just going to throw this out there, but your tank needs better substrate. At the moment your chances of retaining any humidity are pretty low. You really should attempt to cover the top of the tank with something (plastic is good). Make sure to leave some room for air to get in, perhaps a gap on each end of the tank. As well, you need to use a paper, or wood substrate.

The problem with the floor you have is 2 fold

1) Because it will always be wet if you spray it down regularly, its only going to be a matter of time till your snake gets some type of scale rot or infection. This is going to happen because the snake will constantly be laying in a pool of water.

2) you need substrate that will absorb water, and slowly dry out. This is what creates the proper humidity. (and will also prevent eye caps etc)

Nice snake, enjoy and welcome to this forum! great advice can e found here!

We have a video about substrate on our site under the resources section. If you want a quick lesson, hop on by. you can find it HERE

[dr del]

Hi,

It's alread been covered but another point on the slate bedding.

Snakes do have liquid pee as well as the solid urates.

That will tend to get under and down the side of the slates and start to smell.

I made the same mistake when I started ( I used gravel - horrible idea ) you want somthing that can either be spot cleaned like aspen or easily replaced like paper towel of newspaper.

And to the site and the addiction.


dr del

[Tbcrow]

Well, it was a long night for me. I wandered in this morning around 7am to find Mr. Kaa out like a light.



First thing on the list was the store. I got two new hides, looked at some blackout paper, and went ahead and grabbed some aspen to line the edges and break up the tank a little. I filled underneath and all of the cracks between tiles with the aspen, this should help with cleanup and whenever I need to spike the humidity. The black out paper didn't please me, so I'm either going to have to make something, or just settle with it.



I also ran by Walmart and found an electronic meter that I was pleased with, and plunked it right in. That's the hottest portion of the day for me on the cool side. When it finally leveled out it was right at 83 degrees and 51% humidity.




A note on my climate. I am not having to generate artificial humidity, that's the humidity that is in the air in my house currently. We live in an older 5 bedroom house, and the AC doesn't quite kick like it used to. Granted, it's 107 degrees outside today, so it's probably working it's tail off.



The wet pillowcase treatment went alright, but without much success. I had already noticed that being in an overall more humid environment had helped his eye cap greatly. It had already lost the dryness to it, and his eye looked smooth and moist. The pillowcase didn't serve to remove it though, and honestly I felt I had traumatized him enough for 2 days. I placed Mr. Kaa back in the cage where he promptly, albeit arrogantly, curled up on the warm side and passed out.



1.5 years and a solid 25" long. Overall I'm pleased, and the current cage will give him room to grow. I'd say in a half a year I'll be looking for a much larger tank to house him permanently, and this tank will probably get rotated to it's original duty, semi aquatic environment.

Does anyone have a clue on the genetics here? I'm no expert and guessing only serves to make me look like a fool. Is he plain jane run of the mill, or is the irregular pattern pretty normal?