I NEED SERIOUS HELP! with my new ball python

[The Serpent Merchant]

does the heating pad have a thermostat? how thick is the layer of aspen?

what type of heat bulb are you using? (white, red, infrared,backlight)

What type of thermometers do you have?

You shouldn't drop the temperatures at night, you should always maintain a thermal gradient with a hot side temperature of 88-92 degrees, and a cool side temperature of 78-82 degrees.

[skyelovesyou]

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMG_2331.jpg

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMAG0144.jpg

http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=IMAG0143.jpg

[skyelovesyou]

yeah the woman owned 43 snakes and said it worked with hers im not completly sure. and i turn the light off cause its sooo bright and i cant sleep lol and its just a white light.

[The Serpent Merchant]

ok, you need to get an Infrared heat bulb then, they can and should be left on 24/7... if the temperatures drop too low your BP can get very sick.

What about the heating pad? does it have a thermostat? and what type of thermometers are you using?> these are very important questions... without a thermostat a heating pad can get hot enough to kill your snake within a week... and if you don't have probed digital thermometers you will have no way of monitoring it's temperature.

[skyelovesyou]

my heating pad does not have a thermometer and i have the ones from petsmart the reptile heat cage thermometer and humdity gauge and i just bought a black light for night

[AK907]

i use aspen shavings for substrate and his temps are 86 now cause the light is off i have an undertank heat. and his humidity is 55 also he is feeding on frozen fuzzies he hasnt ate for me yet since i just got him since i am waiting for friday.

Definitely need a thermostat for your UTH and what kind of light are you using? How are you measuring your temps and where exactly are you measuring them?

What kind of fuzzies? Mice? Rats? Most hatchling balls can easily eat rat fuzzies as soon as they come out of the egg, so if he is 6 months old he should be on much larger. Chain pet stores are notorious for "maintenance feeding" their balls, which is basically underfeeding them so they don't grow. Your ball should be eating 10-15% of its body weight every 5-7 days. A small food processing scale is invaluable for new keepers. It will help you learn appropriate feeding and where you can track its growth/weight which can be very valuable if your snake ever becomes sick. If you don't have one you can pick up a cheap digital food scale at Wal-Mart for about $15 and they work great.

As Slim said, the shirt trick might work for puppies, but it will NOT work for your ball. Chances are your snake is just extremely stressed and not used to being handled. Listen to the folks here and read up on the care sheets the folks here provided and you should be just find.

Don't let your ball frighten ya. Most of the time defensive strikes are just a bluff or at most a nip. The worst part about a bite from a young ball like yours is waiting to get bit. It's the unknown that is the scariest part. At worst you can expect a bite to draw a drop or three of blood, but never enough to require a band-aid. After your first actual bite you will laugh because you were scared of nothing.

My biggest piece of advice I can give you though is NEVER listen to the employees at Petsmart. Very, very few of them have any knowledge outside of the care sheet they provide (which everyone here will tell you inaccurate) and they are trained only to up sell products that you don't need to make the company more money. You did the right thing by coming here for advice.

[satomi325]

Sounds like your little guy is really stressed. This is typical stressed out behavior. Ball pythons have two types of striking. Defensive striking and food striking. They don't strike because they are aggressive.

Try covering the back and sides of your tank w/ something solid like black construction paper or something similar. This will provide your snake with more security. Ball Pythons don't do well with really open space. I also suggest exchanging your log hide for a rock/cave/plastic bowl hide or one that has all sides covered. The log hide has two openings, which doesn't provide enough security. Ball pythons like having the ability to touch all sides of a hide, so a cave/rock/plastic bowl hide with one opening is ideal. The log hides tend to mold over time as well. They're also difficult to sanitize if your snake poops or pees on it. If you're tight on money, you can get small plastic bowls from the dollar store and cut an entrance to it.

[Slim]

Just took a look at the photos of your set up. In addition to the great advice you've already recieved, I would urge you to cover three sides of your tank with dark construction paper, butcher paper or black foam core.

This will give your snake a greater sense of security and will help it calm down.

EDIT: satomi325 beat me to it!

[AK907]

my heating pad does not have a thermometer and i have the ones from petsmart the reptile heat cage thermometer and humdity gauge and i just bought a black light for night

I'm guessing it is one of those little analog dial thermometers, right? Those are junk. You can pick up an Accu-rite digital thermometer at Wal-Mart that will be far more accurate.

And a thermostat is a device which controls the temps of your heat mat. An unregulated heat mat can exceed 130 degrees, which is more than enough to burn and even kill your snake. Unlike higher animals, they will not always move away from heat and will literally cook themselves. I've seen the damage that unregulated heat mats can do first hand and it is very sad. If you're on a budget, Hydrofarm makes a cheap thermostat that works ok. Amazon.com sells them for about $30. Either way your heat mat must be regulated.

[The Serpent Merchant]

What size tank is that? I think you are going to have a very hard time maintaining a thermal gradient in that... BP's are terrestrial snakes which means that they need floor space not height.

You should get one of these, they cost $12 at walmart and measure 2 temperatures and humidity... the ones at petsmart are known to be terribly inaccurate



You need to unplug the heating pad until you get a thermostat,

here are 2 good thermostats, don't waste your money on the crap sold in pet stores, these work much better

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

http://spyderrobotics.com/