Temperament? Can't decide if I should get a BP!

[Sauzo]

Ball pythons are great but I call them "pet rocks". I mean I love my little high white pied girl but for the most part, if she isn't hungry, you wont see her until night time when she sometimes wanders around and that's mostly when its close to her feeding time. If I take her out during the day, she is fine but more of a lounge snake, really just liking to sit on me and look around. Now I also got a large BCI girl who is much more active. She is out most of the time and only uses her hide when shes shedding. She loves to come out and wander around or go outside. I personally loves boas but I had to have me a high white pied ball python. I actually just bought me a EBV Redgroup/Tom Burke pure lispstickline sunglow boa and cant wait for her to be shipped. As for temperament, my ball python has never tried to bite me and my old ball python never tried either in over 10 years of owning her. My BCI girl did headbutt my hand when she was a baby because I scared her but since then almost 2 years and she hasn't shown any aggression at all, not even cage aggression. Only down side to boas is you need a large cage compared to what you can keep a ball python in. You cant go wrong with a ball python as a pet.

[hazzaram]

Ball pythons are great but I call them "pet rocks". I mean I love my little high white pied girl but for the most part, if she isn't hungry, you wont see her until night time when she sometimes wanders around and that's mostly when its close to her feeding time. If I take her out during the day, she is fine but more of a lounge snake, really just liking to sit on me and look around. Now I also got a large BCI girl who is much more active. She is out most of the time and only uses her hide when shes shedding. She loves to come out and wander around or go outside. I personally loves boas but I had to have me a high white pied ball python. I actually just bought me a EBV Redgroup/Tom Burke pure lispstickline sunglow boa and cant wait for her to be shipped. As for temperament, my ball python has never tried to bite me and my old ball python never tried either in over 10 years of owning her. My BCI girl did headbutt my hand when she was a baby because I scared her but since then almost 2 years and she hasn't shown any aggression at all, not even cage aggression. Only down side to boas is you need a large cage compared to what you can keep a ball python in. You cant go wrong with a ball python as a pet.

My corn was pretty much a 'pet rock', too XD She hid in her plants constantly but when I did take her out she was very active. As in, she wouldn't sit still EVER. I've heard about BP's being more chill when held, most not moving around too much. That is totally fine with me.

I've decided to start setting up my tank now to see if I can get it right. I want it set up first and established, so I can then go to the breeder and see if there's one that I mesh with. I'm more about the snakes personality than their morph.

All the responses I'm getting here just makes me want one more! haha

[hazzaram]

Hiii and

The probe under the UTH between it and the tank is for a thermostat, which is pretty necessary and will regulate your UTH. While the one under the substrate is sort of a double check for what the temps are on that side of the glass.

I love my baby BP (6 months old ish) but the other guys are right it does take quite a bit to keep the husbandry OK sometimes. I enjoy her quite a bit and she is much more chill than any corns I have held (but I have never owned one so maybe they were just uncomfortable with me IDK). Mine is currently in a 20 gallon long, but will need to be upgraded either to a suitable rack or a min of a 40 gal tank eventually. But some babies are too uncomfortable in big tanks to just start out that way. Sorry if too much info for meow and my . Welcome to the BP bug!

No, that was great! Thank you.

Upgrading is something I'm not very worried about. I have a spare 30g and spare 50g that just need locking lids and can easily become a snake home as it grows!

You could say I have an animal bug, haha. Lots of extra supplies around!

[hazzaram]

Sorry for all the questions, guys! I have another one, though.

Is a heat lamp necessary or is a uth good enough?? The reason I ask, I was looking through the setup guide here for a 20g tank and in the tutorial the poster has a uth AND a heat lamp.

Do I need both?

In my experience with my hermies, the heat lamp sucks humidity up like nobody's business and makes it really hard to regulate it...

[salt]

Sorry for all the questions, guys! I have another one, though.

Is a heat lamp necessary or is a uth good enough?? The reason I ask, I was looking through the setup guide here for a 20g tank and in the tutorial the poster has a uth AND a heat lamp.

Do I need both?

In my experience with my hermies, the heat lamp sucks humidity up like nobody's business and makes it really hard to regulate it...

That depends on the temperature of your house. If the room your snake is in is around 80 degrees year round then you wont need supplemental heat, if not you'll need an additional heat source to keep your enclosures ambient temperature right. You are correct about the humidity thing. To help with that most people who use tanks cover almost all of the screen top. Also there are some good substrates (cypress mulch, eco earth, etc) for holding humidity if you still have problems with it.

[hazzaram]

So instead of aspen I can just use eco earth?

What kind of bulb do I need? I'm on my way to work now and it's right next to the pet store so I can pick it up.

Right now I have a Moonglow in the lamp that was used with my crabs. I think I may need one then. My room is pretty chilly.

[hazzaram]

I went to Petsmart just to hold one for the first time and make sure I like them... it was amazing!!! I fell in love

[That_One_New_Guy]

Another new owner of a BP. My tips to you are use eco earth and a mix of cypress mulch. Gives the tank a nice natural look and keep the humidity up. Cover part of the top with tin foil wrapped cardboard. That also helps with humidity.

[anicatgirl]

I use a red heat lamp (so visible to me, not visible to the snake) for 24 hr heat for ambient. Cause my husband doesn't want our apartment at 82 all the time... It is on the top of the mesh lid, then the rest except for some air gaps is covered with foil. And I have a Reptifogger which reeeeally helps regulate my humidity

[Sauzo]

I use CHEs for both my BP and my baby sunglow boa. I have a UTH on my BP but it doesn't really do much as I use about 1" deep aspen since my BP likes to burrow in it. Remember, UTH don't heat air, only the bottom of the glass so when taking temps, the most important one is the bottom of the glass since if your BP digs down, you don't want it burning itself on the glass. I personally hate Eco Earth because its messy, needs to be kept wet or it dries out and gets dusty. It looks nice but I think a lot of people use it as a stop gap for humidity issues when really all you need is a good top to the cage and humidity will be fine. I use aspen and I get from 50-60% humidity and that's in a 30 gallon and 40 gallon breeder tanks. I'm sure you will love BPs, they are great. I love boas though as they seem to be more of an outgoing and inquisitive and not as shy as a BP but I love Dot my little baby high white pied girl so like I said, you cant go wrong with a BP.

Oh also forgot to mention, you don't NEED a UTH if you keep the ambient temps warm enough. A lot of people use both CHEs(or RHP in the case of PVC cages) and a UTH but me and a few others have been using just RHPs in PVC cages and they work fine.