Ball Python or Corn Snake?

[Kiara1125]

Welcome to the forum!

If you're using a glass tank, you will probably have difficulty with humidity no matter where you live (unless your house is fairly warm and humid). If you're using a pvc enclosure or plastic tub setup, you'll have less trouble with humidity.

Aspen is fine, but a single log won't be enough. The semi-circle logs aren't good hides for ball pythons. You can definitely use one in the enclosure if you want, but you also need two good hides that the ball python can fit in very snugly (as in, it looks like the snake will barely fit). You can use plastic bowls with a hole cut in the side for hides, they don't have to be anything fancy. And you'll have to change them out as he/she gets bigger, so they're always snug.

I haven't had a problem with them being picky, except for one of our male ball pythons, who has gone off food (it's more of a sexual maturity thing for him, he just reached the size and age where he's a brat ). As long as the setup is good (temps, humidity, decent hides), you shouldn't have a huge problem. Just leave him/her alone until he/she has eaten for you once or twice. I don't know if we were just lucky, but when we got our boys from the breeder, they were on live, and they all ate frozen/thawed rats the first time we offered food. I had made sure their setup was pretty close to perfect, and we didn't handle them until they had eaten (actually until two days after they had eaten, so they had time to digest). While there are picky ball pythons out there (some that will only eat live, will only eat mice, will only eat white rats, etc.), that's not the norm (at least in my experience).

Most adult males seem to go off feed for a few months during winter, but I'm not sure that's true with females. Keep in mind that they're from Africa, and anything under 75F is cold to them. Going off food for the winter is part of their breeding cycle. It's not so much that it's cold, but that it's the time of year where they don't think food is as important.

I hope that helps!

Thanks! My house stays at least 78F all year long, so hopefully it will work out well. I'll have a hygrometer in the tank, so that will be taken care of. Thanks for the snug hiding spot tips! I think I'll go cheap as the ball grows and then have some realistic decor whenever it's an adult. I am used to carefully monitoring the humidity, since I have a crestie and I had a beardie for 9 years - so I'm definitely ready for a snake. Do you think I should keep a 1' long baby into a 10g to start with or immediately jump it to a 20gL? Also, do you have a problem with females being egg bound? I wouldn't mind having a female, I'm just afraid of this. Both my crestie and beardie are/were males. One more question - you said that you waited 2 days after they ate before handling them. I'm wondering how the week thing works. My friend will feed his snake and then not touch him for a week, but I've heard of other people leaving snakes alone for a few days, feeding them, then leaving them alone for the rest of the week. So, how does that work?

Other than that,those are the rest of my questions. Thank you very much for covering so much to begin with!