Introduction and newbie questions

[noodlestsc]

Hi All,

First time posting here, but have been lurking for a good few weeks as I researched the heck out of caring for my new ball python (first time owner). I just bought a 2 year old male normal and if you can understand the reason why I named him Jake then you have an idea of my age bracket (hint: old school WWF). I bring up that just so you know that I'm not a youngin new to the world of taking care of animals; furry, reptile, amphibian (just new to snakes), etc.

I have two newbie questions and even though there are tons of first timer threads here I can't seem to find the answer to these while browsing here and elsewhere.

1. My new guy like I said is 2 years old, about 32" long and about 1.25" in diameter in the thickest part. He looks to be in great shape and healthy, his body doesn't look like he's starving but what got me is that the person I bought him from said she feeds him multiple pinkys each feeding. I can't think that's right for his size and I'm gearing up to do my first feeding. Now I took him home 2 days ago and before that he hasn't eaten in 2 weeks. I want to offer and get some food in his belly soon so without stressing him out to handle and weigh him what do you think a good sized meal for his body diameter would be? I ask this because I've heard that you can comfortably feed a meal at least as large as the widest part even a little larger, but the standard size diagrams I've found here and elsewhere only give the length of the mice/rats, not the girth (or is the length number what I use?). He was on live feedings with the previous owner so I'm going to continue that for the first few times until he's comfy in his new residence.

2. I took the previous owner's entire setup and set it up exactly the way they had it. Right now they had a uth on the side of the tank with the warm side hide wall up against it and they had a purple heat lamp on top. It is a glass tank with mesh top (I have covered the top partially with a towel). Ambient temp read with a digital handheld therm/hygrometer sitting on the substrate in the warm side at about 77-78 degrees. Humidity is fine. It's warmer in the hide reading 81. Cool side is lower at 75. I know I need to get the temps up. I am bringing my temp gun home from work with me today and have my probe thermometer and a thermostat on the way. My question after all of this is are balls hardy enough for the lower temps while I work this out? He seems ok and I have to assume that they can handle some temperature drop otherwise they would have been long extinct off the planet.

Here are some pictures:

[MrKai]

Questions someone is going to ask. How much does he weigh In grams. You judge the size of the snake in weight by grams. Not length. Feed him rats. Get him off mice if possible. And how are you heating the enclosure. Your high side, basking temp, heated area should be like 90degrees.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[MixtSpice]

What size tank is that? A 20 gallon?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[noodlestsc]

What size tank is that? A 20 gallon?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

Yes 20gal.

[MixtSpice]

Yes 20gal.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=201740

Check this out, I did this and it helped immensely.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[MixtSpice]

But yes, I would think your bp would be fine if he stayed over on the hot side while you get things set up

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[noodlestsc]

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=201740

Check this out, I did this and it helped immensely.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

That is a perfect link and definitely helps. And thanks for the confidence that he'll be ok until I get it set up correctly. He'll only be a little cool until tomorrow night when my thermometer and thermostat arrive.

Chris

[WintersSerpentine]

Here is a good feeder chart.
My Hypo Grææis on small rats and she is comparable in size to your dude. Between fuzzy and pup until 300-400 grams. 400-800 I usually stick to weanlings and smalls.

Remember, make sure the prey is about the same size or a little bigger than the widest part on your BP's belly. You measured him at 1.25 diameter and that makes me think you'll need a small rat.

Good luck from us!

[noodlestsc]

Here is a good feeder chart.
My Hypo Grææis on small rats and she is comparable in size to your dude. Between fuzzy and pup until 300-400 grams. 400-800 I usually stick to weanlings and smalls.

Remember, make sure the prey is about the same size or a little bigger than the widest part on your BP's belly. You measured him at 1.25 diameter and that makes me think you'll need a small rat.

Good luck from us!

Thanks for the input, it is exactly what I was looking for. Just like that image the other charts similar to it showed the length only so I had no idea which one would be similar in diameter. (I guess I also could have gone to the store and physically looked) I do plan on weighing him before the second feed but I just want to offer and get him a good meal as soon as possible after he settles in since it's been over 2 weeks now.

[noodlestsc]

Just wanted to give a quick update. I brought my temp gun home and it looks like I have got the tank heat controlled now with the hot side to 88-93 (temp varies slightly depending where I gunned it) and the cool side/ambient around 78-80. What helped was putting my spare uth under the tank (not stuck to the glass yet just because I don't have a themostat until tonight) instead of using the side mounted one the previous owner was using (I removed that one now). Keeping a dry towel covering a good portion of the tank screen has been keeping the humidity at 62-65% (but I bet the fact that it's a little humid in my area right now helps that) I did put a night bulb on very low through a dimmer last night in case the ambient temp dropped a little. This morning the temps were still consistent. Tonight I will be mounting the themostat and uth to the underside and will be mounting the permanent thermometer/hygrometer inside the tank.

My Ball seemed to be more "happy" as I noticed he did do some more basking both inside and outside of his hide instead of constantly roaming around the tank last night.


And as for the feeding, it looks like I may be trying f/t sooner then later. The 2 pet stores near me didn't have any live feeders. I do have a specialized reptile pet store fairly close though but I haven't tried them. Figured it couldn't hurt to try so I picked up a frozen small rat and a 3 pack of hopper mice (they didn't have anything in between). Figured I'll compare the small rat to my Ball and worse case if it looks too big I'll feed the hoppers. Hopefully he takes them f/t as the previous owner was feeding live. If that's a success then I'll switch to online ordering for the discount