Proud new momma with a few questions!

[Ashton87]

Hi All!

After 25 years of wanting and 3 months of research I am proud to say a sweet 18m female butter lesser has joined the family! Before bringing her home I spent 2 weeks preparing her enclosure, making sure she had the best possible environment. I brought her home Wednesday (6/11) and introduced her to her home she explored for maybe all of 3 minutes before discovering her hide and since then I have only seen her poke her head out once. Is she ok? Is that normal? I have let her be since placing her in the enclosure only looking in to make sure her water is clean and the temps are good. I don't plan to handle her officially until I feed her and that will only be to transfer her after that I plan to wait at least 48 hours before trying to become acquainted! Her breeder said she eats 2-3 fuzzies every Wednesday, do I keep that schedule or do I feed her sooner because of the transition?

thank so much in advanced!!

[Prahanien]

Try to keep her feeding schedule. Remember, she just changed homes, so she may not even eat. Resist the urge to offer food daily, and instead just offer every Wednesday so as to not stress her more.

As for the hiding, she's fine! Again, she just changed homes and is probably still a bit scared. It's only been two days. Give her a couple weeks and she should be fine. Continue to change her water though, just in case.

She's just new, that's all!

[theoremofgoats]

First of all, hiding is a good thing! Ball pythons are shy little things and feel most secure when they're hiding so that's completely normal. My ball python only wanders around right before he sheds, for a drink, and on feeding days, haha. Definitely keep the schedule, don't try to feed right away as your snake may refuse out of stress, and don't handle your ball python until it's feeding regularly.

[Ashton87]

Keep her feeding schedule, got it! 😁 I plan to change her water every two to three days just to keep it fresh. Awkward question but do ball pythons or snakes in general not use the bathroom daily? Her breeder told me I only had to really clean her enclosure every month And spot clean weekly... Is that correct?

[Prahanien]

Yup! a BP will go when it has to go. It could be several feedings before it'll poop. Spot cleaning when needed is perfect, and a deep cleaning monthly will be great too!

[frostysBP]

One note it's better to feed on her same encloser. If thebreeder said she was eating 2-3 fuzzy a week it's probably time to up her food size. Do you know how much she weights?Enjoy and welcome to the addiction

Sent from my LGL15G using Tapatalk

[Ashton87]

im not sure, I asked about her weight and he said he didn't measure his ball pythons. She came from his first ball python clutch and normally breeds retics and carpet pythons. her last 4 feeds on the log he kept says she ate 3 fuzzies each time. How will I know to and what would I up her to? So you recommend feeding her in her enclosure? I have a 13 gallon empty tank that used to house my sons chameleon which it out grew so I was planning to use that for feeds or is that not necessary? I just uploaded a picture of her that I took upon transferring her to her enclosure, I'd post one below this response but i don't know how to😳

[Ashton87]

Thank you!!

FrostyBP is it better to feed her in her enclosure? Or did you mean to say not to? I have a 13g take that was used for my sons chameleon who recently acquired a larger terrarium that I was planning on using for her feeds. I do not know how she weighs, I did inquire about her weight and current length but Beau (breeder) said he has not weighed her but that I could use a kitchen scale to do so? How would I know when to up her feed size and what would I up it to? I would post a picture with this reply however I do not know how to 😳 I have uploaded two pictures of her and her enclosure in my images if you wouldn't mind taking a look and giving me your opinions 😁

[theoremofgoats]

It's really not necessary to transfer the snake for feeding; in fact, I'm willing to bet that the transfer would probably more stressful and make a refusal more likely.

When it comes to feeding, I usually go by the 13-15% of body weight rule. I have a 400 gram BP that just started small rats. If you're not sure how much yours weighs right now and 3 fuzzies is enough, you could start with weaned mice-actually, I'd recommend moving up to rat fuzzies because eventually you will want your BP on rats, and these snakes kind of get hooked on mice. They get chunky and will need the extra size of the prey to be healthy.

[Ashton87]

Sorry for the double post! The first reply didn't seem to post. Haha

How do you recommend weighing her? I read in a care book that what you feed then needs to be smaller than their body circumfrence. Also how will I know she is satisfied and do I offer her just one at a time?