Not home a lot.

[Zoomonster17]

Hey guys! I just joined this forum. I have been wanting a ball python for a very long time and now that I'm in my career I want to get one. Problem is, I don't know where to start with getting everything and learning about feeding in details. My main concern is that I work 10+ hours 4 days a week and I want to know if he/she will be okay if I'm not interacting with it for those days. I of course would check it everyone morning before work but when I get home it's close to 11pm or midnight and I go straight to bed. Any bit would help! Thank you

[reptilesinabox]

As long as you are checking in on the snake and have all the right levels of humidity, temp, water in bowl on a daily basis you are fine they only eat once a week and they don't need play time like dogs lol.


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[redshepherd]

Totally fine! A ball python sounds great for you. Ball pythons don't require handling at all, if you didn't want to. Handling them is just for our amusement. And over-handling could actually lead to stress and other issues.

start here... follow this caresheet to a T, read it thoroughly, make sure you don't miss anything, and you'll do fine! The enclosure size is actually flexible for when the BP is older and you get the hang of managing their setup https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...s%29-Caresheet

The stickies on this page also have a few setup guides, depending on what type of enclosure you choose to go with.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/foru...2-BP-Husbandry

And don't go cheap on the thermostat!

This site for buying equipment when you're ready: http://www.reptilebasics.com/

[reptilesinabox]

Also welcome to the forum! I just have recently joined back and it's my favorite place to go to read up and expand my knowledge of bps


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[Kcl]

A ball python is more than happy to be left alone. If their home is clean and up to humidity/temps, you could leave them completely alone for a week if you wanted to and it would be perfectly happy. Daily check-ins are good though (although missing a day really wouldn't be a big deal) and clean water every day or every other day is appreciated by the snake. Once they're well established you can also freely change their feeding day for your convenience. Very low maintenance buddies.

[Oxylepy]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that reptiles sound good for you in general.

Including the most active species and heaviest eaters, you'd only need to drop food in daily to every other day.

Getting things set up for your reptile is by a wide margin the hardest part. If you have researched your reptile and have a self maintained enclosure (correct temperatures, correct humidity, correct lighting, timers and/or thermostats) the only things you need to do are feed it, clean up poo, and change water, with the much less common enclosure cleaning (depends on a lot of factors, it will usually be either part of cleaning up poo or a regular activity from weekly to... rarely, depending on the setup).

Again, if you can manage a self maintained enclosure appropriate to the species, you won't have much work to do on your part.

[Zoomonster17]

Okay thank you . Do you have any suggestions with keeping humidity high?

[Zoomonster17]

Thank you everyone! I will look into each suggestion. Do you guys have any tips with keeping humidity levels high? i live in southern California. Also i am set on 2 types of tanks i found, Exo Terra 24" x 18"x 12" MEDIUM LOW or 36" x 18" x 12" LARGE LOW ... I dont know which one? I was thinking about the large low one so i dont have to buy one when it gets bigger and i would just add a bunch of decor in it so it doesnt feel to exposed, but I dont know what do you guys think?

[redshepherd]

Thank you everyone! I will look into each suggestion. Do you guys have any tips with keeping humidity levels high? i live in southern California. Also i am set on 2 types of tanks i found, Exo Terra 24" x 18"x 12" MEDIUM LOW or 36" x 18" x 12" LARGE LOW ... I dont know which one? I was thinking about the large low one so i dont have to buy one when it gets bigger and i would just add a bunch of decor in it so it doesnt feel to exposed, but I dont know what do you guys think?

It says in the caresheet I linked you. Glass tanks with a screen top are also hard to keep humidity up, unless you want to constantly cover it with foil/a wet towel.

If you read through it, lots of your questions will be answered.

[Zoomonster17]

Yes i was reading through it. My questions wasn't very clear when I asked sorry, lol. What i meant to ask was with humidity do you guys recommend having a mister along with the towel or foil ideas? or just personally spraying the cage every so often? Very good links btw!