My first ball python set up

[Gingerbreadman]

I was having some private messages with another forum member and ending up sending a long message and thought I could post it here as well to possible help others and get corrections on anything that might have a better solution to what I did.


I use one thermostat with two outputs. I placed the temp probe in the tank under the substrate on the hot side. I put a reptile carpet (I got on sale for like $6 from defroster and smith.com) down first then the temp probe then the substrate. The temp prob controls the power for on or off for the thermostat. Ultra therm heat pads a little more expensive but also max out at around 100 degrees supposedly (a nice fail safe if your thermostat breaks and fails on). I also use a 60w ceramic bulb (from pet smart who price matched chewy.com taking 50% off the petsmart price. The reason I used the repticarpet is to help prevent water from standing on the glass above the heat pad which I read can lead to cracking if allowed to happen repeatedly. Also it adds a barrier between the glass and heat pad. I set my thermostat to turn off at 90 degrees and turn on at 87. I plugged a power strip into my thermostat and plugged my heat lamp and uth into the power strip. This allows the thermostat to control the ceramic bulb and uth (although it is only measuring the belly heat). I have a thermometer about 6-8 inches from the bottom of the tank on hot side it only gets to 91degrees at hottest, typically stay around 90. Belly heat has the thermostat and I had a thermometer also (I have since taken it out) bother read the same so once I trusted the thermostat I repurposed the thermometer. It read between 87-90 degrees. The cool side has a thermometer about 6 inches off the bottom as well temps hang out between 78-82. I have the ultra therm tank heater taped to the bottom of the tank (I used electric tape). I also cut the black foam poster board and used this on the back and two sides of the tank sealing it with electric tape. Wherever you use clips just cut out access for them. I cut plexiglass glass for the top and placed it over the mesh screen top inside the frame, I trimmed out areas for the clips. I then placed a flexible piece of black vinyl material(this was given to me by the local reptile store they had huge roles of it) over the plexiglass. I use a reptile cypress bark on top of the repticarpet, and then soak saphaguam(not the spelling) moss in water treated with reptisafe (another petsmart price matched chewy.com) item. I clean the cage every two-three weeks thouroughly (replace all the substrate, wash the repticarpet, use reptile safe disenfectant on the emptied tank, and all the normal cleaning). I do normal cleaning every 4-5 days. I look for poop and scoop that out and remove a little substrate with it. I resoak the moss, I spray the mulch with water mist, I wipe out his water bowl and two plastics hides with reptile disenfectant. I rinse his water bowl every other day and put fresh bottles spring water (treated with repti safe). I feed him on sundays, although this last week I also fed him on Wednesday, he was very hungry I assume because he took the dead rat fuzzie the fastest he has taken one so far. So I am going to move him up to a rat pup this Sunday and see how that goes. The soaking of the moss every 4-5 days has really helped with the humidity ( it starts around 75 percent and drops to about 55 percent over that time). I am getting ready to recut a full piece of plexiglass (and router the hole for the heat lamp) and then seal the front and back sides with silicone, leaving a small 1/2 inch gap on the sides of the tank for air flow. Kayla cage is in a room that gets daylight (put his tank is not pointed at the window). I use an inkbird thermostat and humidity controller as well as a digital humidity thermometer combo , to measure humidity the inkbird and humidity meter read within 3% of each other, I have plans in the future to hook up a water system or maybe misting setup or fountain and control humidity that way (overkill maybe a lot of fun and additional cool looks definitely, a fun and exciting way to introduce my daughter to electricity, electrical controls and automation, priceless).

I also found while I am doing a full clean out of the tank it is nice to give him another place to hang (if my daughter isn't holding him or if it's during the day. So I have a plastic tub with licking lids (sterilite from Walmart, about 32"x16"x6"). I drilled 6 (1/4") holes in each of the long sides, and 2 (1/4") holes on each of the short sides. I also used a small rasp to file the edges of each hole and make them smooth. I use a repticarpet and sphagum moss in the tub. I transfer his two plastic hides and water dish during the full clean outs into the tub. I have ordered some new hides and water dish for his tank (a rock lair , a cave, and a rock water dish), so his plastic hides and water bowl will become tub accessories permantly. I also ordered 2 (4" x 12 ") flexwatt tapes and have plans to close in his stand and set up shelves underneath it to put the tub (and another one , I am considering the vpi axanthic or pewter, or silver streak banana) underneath it, for a possible future addition. Also I have some coco bark on the way to change my tank substrate to on the next full clean out.

[SDA]

Sounds like you did a lot of good research on your husbandry. If I may offer some small critiques that may help with the long term care from my own trial and error over the years:

Thermostats are inexpensive so I recommend getting one for each of your heat sources because as the weather changes and temperatures fluctuate, you may need to control the CHE independent of the control you have on the UTH. If you want to save up and get the best, a herpstat 2 allows you to control two heat sources independent of each other and actually allows dimming control which is ideal for the CHE.

You must must must secure down a thermostat probe. You snake WILL rip that thing out if not secured! I know mine tries his hardest to pull down the probe I have for the CHE and if I didn't have that anchored so well he would. He also tries his best to pull up the thermometer probes every night so if you have the thermostat probe in the tank it needs to be glued down or it will move and that is bad for temp control and why it is recommended to be outside the enclosure even in a glass tank.

The probe would of course be best if placed in a sandwich between the outside of the glass and the ultra therm so ultratherm > probe > glass and a piece of styrofoam between the bottom of the tank and the ultratherm so stand/table > styrofoam > ultratherm > probe > glass. Also, utlratherms can reach over 110 F so don't read the advertisement that it doesn't get hot, they get hot!

Now if you can't for some reason place the probe between the UTH and glass and have to place it inside you need to put it on the glass inside the tank then secure it with epoxy, silicone, or hot glue... never even use tape inside the tank!. You need the probe as close to the UTH as you can get to get the best and most accurate reading.

Just a tip for the repticarpet... get some velco (you can get this almost anywhere) and use the side (rough hook side) to secure down the carpet better. You can still pull the carpet up but this will keep it from shifting and prevent your snake from digging under the carpet. You secure down the velcro with hot glue or silicone. Velcro wont hurt your snake ever but it's a great way to keep that carpet down. Now the thing is you don't need carpet at all as that stuff will eventually get stained and messy but if you do want it that's fine. No need to velcro it down but I have done that in the past and it works great. Just never tape it (rule #1 is always no tape inside the tank)


Last suggestion is never to have a waterfall feature. The reason why is for several reasons: your snake will poop in it one day and cleaning that out will be near impossible. They get dirty even without snake poop and offer no benefit to humidity or quality of life and end up just being a waste of time and money.


Other than that looks like you have a great start to keeping your snake happy.

[Sunnieskys]

Just gonna reiterate what SDA said. NO TAPE in the enclosure ever

[Gingerbreadman]

Thank you thank you for the advice. I took all the tape out from the tank about a week after I put it all together after seeing some YouTube videos of snakes getting stuck by the tape. I guess my thought process measuring the surface where the snake is for temp presents more danger than it is worth, I will move the probe to between the glass and ultra therm. As I stated above in my post I have no tape in the tank or tub. And I am saving up for a herpstat 4.