High humidity ? and other guide lines

[poelinca]

Hello guys and girls, i'm new around ( didn't spotted any "introduce yourself" threds ), i'm Dorin from South Eastern Europe happy new owner of a ball python.

Just brought my first ball python home. He is now in a 14 gallon, will be moved next month to a larger enclosure.

Now the thing that bothers me a bit is that i have high humidity in the house, it rained alot for the past few days so that may be the culpit, but i also have a 210 gallon fish tank in the room witch i asume causes alot of the humid air.
I don't have a digital gauge, just a plain circular one witch may be off. It reads 76%, temp is at 78 and rising ( heat mat under the hiding spot, inside the hiding spot i assume it's more ). From what i've read humidity should be around 50-60, am i going to have problems ?

He/She weights 485 grams ( 17.1 ounces ), didn't checked the length, i'm going to leave it some rest now as he just got home. Also he looks like it's shedding, and the petshop guys told me that too ( he has a water boul in there ). The lady at the petstore told me they tried to feed him a week ago and didn't accepted the food. They also said, they used to feed him once 3 weeks witch i assume it's not good and might be underfed ? how can i check ( i can't feel his ribs, but his skin looks loose a bit, maybe because of shedding ? ).

Thanks, will post some pics a tad later.

[poelinca]

p.s. please excuse my bad english lol

[Kaorte]

The high humidity shouldn't be too much of an issue, but if you'd like to reduce it, try putting a low wattage heat bulb on the tank. It will lower your humidity. I would shoot for 60%.

What are you using as your substrate? You could possibly change substrates in order to help lower the humidity.

You should feed once every 7 days. Every 3 weeks is not enough. Offer food to your snake a week after the day you brought him home.

Pictures please!


PS: your english is fine

[MrLang]

Welcome!

There is an area to introduce yourself in the general forums.

As for the snake, at 500 grams the size tank you have him in is fine. The high humidity is fine as long as it isn't soggy or actually wet on the floor of the tank. PLEASE get a thermostat to control the heat pad if you don't have one already and get a nice thermometer to measure the temps on the surface where the snake sits. As for the food, it is probably not eating because it is new and in shed. There is a caresheet here that you will find helpful.
Good luck

[poelinca]

Thanks a ton for the warm welcome and helpfull info. For sure i'm going to buy a termostat, a proper digital thermometer and humidity sensor ( might just build one with an arduino i have lying around ), and another heat source too.

The terrarium is not really enough as it's a bit tall than wide, space that the snake wont use too much. Will upgrade next month for sure to a 20 gallon long.

The substrate looks like aspen, but can't be sure ( it camed with the enclosure ), will go out tomorrow and buy some new and change it.

Here are the pics











p.s. sorry for the bad quality pics, will post better ones as i go along ( i plan to lurk around here for some time, get to know you all and most importantly learn from you're experience )

[OsirisRa32]

The substrate looks like cypress to me....also make sure you have a close fitting hide on the cool side and one on the hot side...ball pythons like snug close fitting hiding spots....cute snake !

[poelinca]

Hmm, then i might just have to get his new enclosure sooner, i don't think there is enough room to have more than one hiding spot, maybe if you say they need to be a snug fit ( there is but it will look kind of cramped in there ). Will do one out of cardboard for now, till i get the chance to go to the store and buy some cork bark flats.

How often should i change the substrate ?

How old would you say he/she is at 500 grams and by the looks underfed by the pet store people, more than 6 months old ?

p.s. thanks for the heads up

[PitOnTheProwl]

Looks like a shed might be starting from your pics.

They all grow differently so age is not a possible guess. I have an 8 month old albino I hatched that's about 300g and an 9 month old pastel girl that's almost 1100g As I said I hatched out both so I know their exact age.