Quote Originally Posted by gsarchie View Post
Sounds good, but you won't need the heat lamp and it will dry your tank out. Thermostat is a must, good call on that one (most new owners won't buy one initially)! What is the climate like where you live and where are you from? UK, maybe? If so humidity shouldn't be an issue so long as you mist down the substrate a couple of times a week of fashion a cover for the tank aside from just a screen top.

A 55 gallon will be a little big but won't be bad so long as it is full of good hiding places.

As for the snake being new, I would take it once it has been received, look it over to make sure that it is healthy and free of mites, and then put it into the enclosure and leave it be for a week or more. At that point (at least a week later) I would attempt to feed it, and if it eats I'd wait two days before handling it. If you handle it before it is settled and eating it may be harder to get it eating, so wait to handle until it has eaten at least once.

Switching to frozen - some take frozed right away, some never will. I would be more worried about switching to rats than F/T (frozen/thawed) and then switch to F/T after the switch to rats.

Welcome to the forum and welcom the addiction of ball pythons! I look forward to pictures fo your new one and also to sharing with you on the forum!

Thank you for the nice responce. I also thought that I wouldn´t need the extra light but I was told to keep it. I will try to monitor the heat without it. I am also planning to make it look a bit like a jungle. I know its usually not its natural habitat but it looks cool and it gives it loads of hiding places.

Thank you for the advice on how to handle it the first week, after it arrived. Your answer confirms what my intuition told me.

I would like to know. I am planning to go away a week for holiday. Is it absolutely nescecary that I get a babysitter for it or can it stay on its own? I am thinking mostly of the water supply.

I am from Denmark by the way and as far as I understand the humidity here is just fine for ball pythons. Not different from UK anyway.