please help me I found a snake

[Lizardlicks]

Where abouts in Idaho do you live? I'm over in Spokane, if you're near the area I can suggest some local places to get mice for him. None that I know of sell appropriately sized rats frozen, and the ones that sell live only have the rats stocked occasionally (they sell quick, either as pets or as food) so you might be limited to mice. You can order frozen prekilled rats online though. He's likely very stressed from his roaming adventure outside in the cold, and stressed BPs are notorious for being finicky eaters, so you probably want to give him a couple days to get settled in after you get his set up squared away. Then you can start by offering him a prey item that's about the thickness of his body. Oh, get a pair of feeding tongs or a hemostat to feed him with, as you don't want to put your hand into a snake's cage when feeding where he could mistake it as part of the mouse. If you have the cash after everything else, you should pick up a heat gun too. You'll use it to double check your temps in the enclosure, and you can use it like I do to check to temp of a heated up f/t food item.

You can try offering live or frozen/thawed, but there is a proper way for each. I would personally try live for the first couple of feedings to make sure he's got a few good meals in him, then try making the switch to f/t. If you get live, make sure you stand by and watch so you can intervene if the mouse or rat decides to take a bite out of your snake. If he doesn't act interested, remove the prey, DO NOT leave it in with the snake. That's a sure fire way to come back to a chewed up snake

When you want to try f/t let it defrost slowly, then heat it up to live temps when you're ready to feed. I way I do it is I put mine in a cup of cool water in the morning, then run it under the hot tap water in the evening before I feed them. Live rats and mice have a body heat of around 101F. My hot water comes out of the tap at around 115-120F, I leave my rat pups under it long enough for them to temp at around 109F with the temp gun, and then by the time I get them up stairs and ready for eating they've cooled off another couple of degrees so their just a little warmer. Others will use a hair dryer or a heat lamp. Some forum members swear by heating the rats/mice up in the room so the snake can small it and get hungry. You might also find you need to wiggle the prey around at the end of the tongs to make it do the "zombie mouse dance" to entice a snake to eat.

[KMG]

yes but since it's her only snake I have a feeling she isn't going to want her room up at 80 degrees lol.

I know I don't but a small space heater and a utility room or closet could be an easy option.



Op, I think we need to make sure this is a ball python before you start spending money and effort on it. You must know somebody that could snap a pic and email it to you. You have a laptop with webcam?

[shaneswife828]

I know I don't but a small space heater and a utility room or closet could be an easy option.



Op, I think we need to make sure this is a ball python before you start spending money and effort on it. You must know somebody that could snap a pic and email it to you. You have a laptop with webcam?

beautiful blood in your profile pic.

[AliceE]

Thank again everyone!

I am smack in western idaho in Boise, there is a petco here. I do have a friend who can take a picture I think but its late on a school night it will have to be later this week. I dont have a laptop just a desktop the family shares. Would the pet store employees know? I could bring him there and ask them, but I am 99% certain it is a ball python with his coloring and heat pits (I looked up what they are called). I dont mind feeding him mice I think I would like to try frozen ones first though. Mom said she would bring me to petco tomorrow if I need to go after school

[200xth]

From a vet tech stand point pine and cedar both are bad for almost all animals. For rodents we recommended care fresh, aspen, or shredded newspaper(yesterdays news works as well). for ball pythons and the likes we recommended coconut fiber, reptile carpet, birch bark, newspaper,paper towels, aspen, and such. Pine and cedar have oils in them that are harmful. They can cause respiratory issues, skin and scale issues, and worse. I have snakes come in with damaged ventral scales do to the pine bedding their owner was using. After switching from the pine the problem stopped. Any "good" reptile owner will tell you to avoid pine at all cost as well as cedar. I have a feeling more people will agree with me rather than disagree. A quick google search will tell you that both cedar and pine are not good substrate for any animal whether it be mammalian or reptilian.

I have 21 snakes on pine. There are people on here ("good" people, too) who have kept snakes on pine for much longer than you or I.

[amozo]

I hope the snake will be ok. You are doing very well for someone who is afraid of snakes. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see a pic of the little guy/girl.


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[Skiploder]

From a vet tech stand point pine and cedar both are bad for almost all animals. For rodents we recommended care fresh, aspen, or shredded newspaper(yesterdays news works as well). for ball pythons and the likes we recommended coconut fiber, reptile carpet, birch bark, newspaper,paper towels, aspen, and such. Pine and cedar have oils in them that are harmful. They can cause respiratory issues, skin and scale issues, and worse. I have snakes come in with damaged ventral scales do to the pine bedding their owner was using. After switching from the pine the problem stopped. Any "good" reptile owner will tell you to avoid pine at all cost as well as cedar. I have a feeling more people will agree with me rather than disagree. A quick google search will tell you that both cedar and pine are not good substrate for any animal whether it be mammalian or reptilian.

Pine is fine. Even for an "emancipated" ball python.

The fact that you recommended reptile carpet is cute.

[Albert Clark]

I am sure he looks just like the pictures when I google ball python, but he is the black and gold one, not one of the other colors. he even has the little holes by where his nose is along his mouth. (what are those?) he is black with gold blotches on his sides and a bit of a gold stripe down his back near the tail. he has a gold stripe going through each eye too.

Sounds like a bp to me! Main thing now is rewarming and rehydration! Secondary would be decreasing stress levels and monitoring for any signs of illness and or severe cold exposure. Good job AliceE.

[Lizardlicks]

Yeah, petco is only going to sell frozen mice. They don't have f/t rat pups, only small medium and large adult f/t rats, they won't sell you the live ones as feeders, or if they think you're going to use it as a feeder, and even if you buy them sneakily, they're still way more expensive than what you would pay for a feeder mouse/rat elsewhere because they're intended as pets. Search around and see if there are any local reptile stores. This place is in Boise, idk how close to you it is, but they might carry better live and frozen feeders than petco. Probably more knowledgeable and can identify the snake too. If you feel you want to keep the snake long term, you can order bulk f/t rats online from lots of different places and usually for much cheaper, but it takes a couple weeks for orders to ship, so stock up locally until then. I get my rats from Big Cheese, and so far I haven't been disappointed in quality.

[AnnaK231]

Alice, please keep us updated. I'm very interested to see a BP who survived the temps in Idaho. They don't really need much if it's a ball python. They do sometimes get stressed if they are in a big open cage. That (and some BP's like to climb) is the main reason people add lots of fake plants and whatnot. As long as you have two hides (preferably the same) on each end they can be whatever type you want. Well, more so whatever the snake wants. If the snake is comfy in a black plastic one, choose the black plastic one.

if you do get a heat mat (UTH) make sure it's outside of the enclosure and on a THERMOSTAT. Not a thermometer. If Uth's aren't regulated they like to burn your snakes.

Newspaper (not the shiny add type) and paper towel is just fine for substrate.

Give him/her fresh water and make sure the cage is humid enough for it. Start looking into vets around the area that deal with exotics. Petsmart/petco are fine to get a frozen feeder from. Size wise, the food should be no bigger than the snakes fattest belly section. A "pointy" spine is an indicator of underweight (and possible dehydration).

Let us know how it goes!