Reversing Stress in BP

[cchardwick]

Well as you can imagine everyone has a different opinion when it comes to the perfect setup and the perfect husbandry. We tend to share our experiences, what has worked for us, or we simply repeat what everyone says on the internet over and over, most of which is pretty inaccurate or downright wrong, not that I'm saying that anything suggested above is completely wrong.

I watched a YouTube video of a girl who raises Anacondas, a notoriously aggressive snake that gets extremely large. She actually tamed them all down by handing each and every snake every single day. Most professional breeders were blown away by how docile her snakes are. Personally from what I've seen I think daily handling for short sessions is extremely helpful to tame snakes down.

As far as your setup, personally I would get rid of that wooden half circle hide, I've never seen a ball python totally comfortable with a hide like that. It's better to get a hide with just one opening, Personally I would go with a hide like the one below, just go to Amazon.com and search for 'snake hide'. I would get the XL size as he will out grow it pretty fast as he gets bigger.

If I were you I'd also switch from cedar mulch to something like Reptichip, a coconut husk substrate. It absorbs moisture much faster and will keep your humidity higher for a longer time. And since you have a screen top I would cover probably 90% of it (or all of it) to keep the humidity in, just make sure you have enough room for air to get in, they don't really need that much air. Most people will use an enclosed plastic tote with a few holes melted in the sides. You'll be fighting humidity with a screen top unless you live in a very humid climate, then you don't have to worry about it LOL.

Is that a hot rock in there? I would take that out ASAP if it is. Those suckers can fail and when they do they get stuck on high and burn snake bellies.

I used to use glass aquariums for my snakes and they seemed like they were always stressed out. I finally got an ARS rack with tubs and they immediately mellowed out. They really need to be enclosed on all sides. Most people will say that your tank is too big, but I have tiny ball python hatchlings in 70 series tubs (meant for full size BPs) and they do great since the tubs are grey and the snake is totally enclosed on all sides. In reality your tank isn't the problem, even if you had a smaller tank it would be 'invisible' to the snake. It's really the enclosed hide that they need.

Personally I wouldn't worry about keeping your humidity 'perfect'. I'm not sure you can really have a humidity that's too high. I prefer to keep my snakes in probably close to 100% humidity and let it drop as the substrate dries out. The biggest thing is to not let it get too low, especially when they go into shed.

If you use an under tank heater I would set it at 88F, probably don't want it to go much above 90F. Some old books say to keep the temps higher, a lot of people just repeat what they read, but breeders are now recommending 88F since higher temps can make the males sterile. If it's running too high I'd set it at 80F and then measure the temp after a day or so, then increase a degree or two every day until you get the right temp. They need a hot spot to properly digest their food. With a setup like that you may want a hide over the hotspot and one on the cool end.

I feed my snakes twice a week believe it or not. Some people feed once a week and some even once a month. The more you feed them the faster they will grow and the bigger they will get. Some of my snakes that are less than a year old are already bigger than some two year olds!

These are just my suggestions and ramblings, keep looking up info out there. Lots of people are raising snakes lots of different ways with different degrees of success, I'm finding that a lot of it is just trial and error, you have to keep changing things up and see what works.

[KingWheatley]

As far as your setup, personally I would get rid of that wooden half circle hide, I've never seen a ball python totally comfortable with a hide like that. It's better to get a hide with just one opening, Personally I would go with a hide like the one below, just go to Amazon.com and search for 'snake hide'. I would get the XL size as he will out grow it pretty fast as he gets bigger.

I just keep it in there to clutter it up, now. He doesn't use it anymore.

If I were you I'd also switch from cedar mulch to something like Reptichip, a coconut husk substrate.

It's definitely not ceder. It's Aspen. Ceder is bad for snakes, isn't it?

Is that a hot rock in there?

No. That's a hide.

Breeders are now recommending 88F since higher temps can make the males sterile.... They need a hot spot to properly digest their food. With a setup like that you may want a hide over the hotspot and one on the cool end.

I'm not a breeder. I'm not going to breed him, so it shouldn't bother me or anyone else if he is sterile. Also, the rock hide is over the UTH. When the UTH turns off, the lamp turns on because the UTH will stay off until it gets almost 70 degrees F. The rock will heat up so he can snuggle up to that until the UTH turns back on. The rock hide is on the warm side, the weird stack of rock thing is a hide as well. That's on the cool end and has one small entrance that he uses.

I feed my snakes twice a week believe it or not. Some people feed once a week and some even once a month. The more you feed them the faster they will grow and the bigger they will get. Some of my snakes that are less than a year old are already bigger than some two year olds!

I worry about obesity, as that can be uncomfortable for him and detrimental to his health. Every 5 days works for me, and he seems fine with it as well.

[QUOTE=cchardwick;2470118]These are just my suggestions and ramblings, keep looking up info out there. Lots of people are raising snakes lots of different ways with different degrees of success, I'm finding that a lot of it is just trial and error, you have to keep changing things up and see what works./QUOTE]

I've found recently that there are wrong ways to do it, but there is no one right way. lol