How important really is husbandry???

[dylan815]

Hello, first off i want to start with saying my husbandry is perfect for all of my animals. I now know how important it is to be precise. From what I have read on here it sounds like most of people problems are because of bad husbandry. I had bad husbandry with my first ball python for years, I still feel bad about it actually. But my question is; why didn't i have any issues for years? He was on an unregulated heat mat with a screen top and no temp or humidity gauges (please no ragging on me, ive since learned). he never showed any signs of respitory issues and never went off feed. Always ate when offered. So did i just have a super hardy BP that could take unregulated heat and low humidity??!!

[SDA]

Balls are actually very hardy. There have been cases of them surviving for over a year with no food and minimal water in sub optimal conditions.

Humans and dogs are very hardy too but would you or if you had a dog, be healthy and thrive in a hole for years barely eating?

Many of the issues are indeed from poor husbandry but some are also from too much husbandry. That is to say being too over reactive to information available as a new owner. I would say just being lucky that you never had any infections on your snake is not any indicator that you had a adequate environment for your snake. You simply lucked out.

My first ball python when I was young suffered from a burn. I was arrogant and lazy and thought that it wouldn't happen but it sure did. My latest had mites when I bought him. I have seen people with the best intentions and those who have multiple reptiles and years of experience get respiratory infections, scale rot, mouth rot, and viral infections. It happens and it all can be traced back to husbandry. That includes diligence. Laziness is just as bad as negligence when it comes to animal care.

Proper husbandry does several things: It helps eliminate the possibility of stress that can lead to a weakened immune system and introduce harmful pathogens or conditions that lead to infection or disease. It creates a calm environment that is stable for a ball python that helps to lead to positive feeding, calmness, and improves taming including getting used to handling. The most important thing husbandry guidelines do is help to eliminate the trial and errors we went through years ago so that new owners get a great start in care and standardizes the care treatments so that when a professional or vet advises or examines a snake they can rule out husbandry as a cause of illness.

So yes, proper husbandry is as important to a ball python as it is to any other living creature. Just because something can survive in bad conditions does not mean they should be in bad conditions or that negligence without incident is a means to ignore thousands of man hours of research through trial and error.

I am not making this as any attack against you, I have made horrible negligent mistakes throughout the years owning pets but those mistakes taught me a lot about how to take care of an animal.

Think of it as insurance. You may never need it but you are sure glad you have it when you do.

[artgecko]

Probably, "yes" lol. I've had some go off food if their rack is slightly off temp... if their humidity is slightly off, etc. I've never had RI issues or scale rot. I think most people experience issues when the snake gets too cold (RI), if they never clean and allow them to sit in wet bedding (scale rot), and burns if the heat mat gets too hot. Feeding with BPs is another matter and some are pickier than others.

The most issues I've had were related to injuries (abscesses) that got infected, which was unrelated to husbandry.

[rlditmars]

Obviously, husbandry is important. I think where there is a lot of confusion is what is "proper" husbandry? Does it even need to be "proper" or can it just be close enough? Like many things in life it is a range of temperatures and humidity coupled with an environment that offers them the basic necessities they would seek out in the wild. There is not only one absolute right way, but there can be many wrong ways. It is hard to point to your reason for success with the earlier animal. You may have had a hardy animal. You may have been lucky. It may have even been that you did not know enough to recognize that everything wasn't alright, but since he kept eating an pooping you assumed all is well.

For me, I like to keep ambient temps between 75 and 80, humidity above 40% and spray them additionally during shed cycles. Offer a warm spot that doesn't get over 89. After that it is mostly trial and error per individual animal. Some I use hides, some I don't. The best thing about having decent husbandry (besides the welfare of the animal) is it allows you to rule out that variable when the animal starts to exhibit changes in behavior.

[Coluber42]

Husbandry is the entire picture of how you care for your animal. It's completely possible to have unregulated heat sources that don't cause burns (I'm NOT recommending that!). It's possible to have conditions that are less than ideal and the animal still basically does fine. As others have said, these are hardy and adaptable creatures.

I do think that people often spend too much energy worrying about precision down to the fraction of a degree or an exact humidity range, and not enough attention on providing a variety of microclimates to choose from with a variety of hides and secure-feeling hangout spots. It matters less if temperatures and humidity fluctuate within a wider (but still safe obviously) range if the animal can go choose a different spot as it needs to; and that's a more natural environment and behavior anyway.

But the amount of space, provision of species-appropriate hides or burrows or tubes or plants or whatever, clean water, enrichment, exercise, day/night cycle, etc, also falls under the category of husbandry. It all contributes to the animal's health and quality of life.

[hollowlaughter]

I see it as important since a lot of owners buy animals on impulse and then are immediately misled by the stores in terms of the materials they purchase to make the animals home and THEN have an animal that refuses to eat or otherwise behaves abnormally.

Sorta like what we learn in the art field. Learn and perfect your basics first, then you can fudge it (anatomy, etc).

Having husbandry within certain ranges helps us eliminate things that would be causing issues like food refusal by either nipping the problem in the bud at owner level (animal is more easily stressed and thus more demanding) or then eliminating an entire range of alterations that need to be made once that owner comes online seeking what'd been advise that'd required a trip to the vet two decades ago. Never mind that the changes that enclosure alterations make can take several weeks to start being truly effective for an animal and thus remove their stressors or otherwise start effecting their husbandry (such as raising temps to remove an animal from semi-brumation, etc).

Like I know my animal prefers his cool side, confirmed by both me and my breeder. So while I know I should aim for roughly 89F on his hotspot/warm side, I let his temps often sit a little lower over there so he's more liable to use it while the heat pad sits at the temp it needs for him to digest, still. This also allows me to run my CHE at a lower setting, extending the device's life. This is knowing the "basics" then tailoring them for a specific animal's individual needs (in this case, trying to allow him to use the warm side of his enclosure more).

But if he started showing concerns like food refusal, I'd bump everything back to caresheet ranges first before seeking help.

Plus there's likely a component with a species that is often bought more based on looks than hardiness/personality that there are likely to be more individual animals with more exacting needs and more finicky nerves, thus the need for more precise husbandry. You can't immediately discern if rotten nerves are a source of your BP's issues, but they are often most certainly a contributor due to stress.

[thebrowntroutdude]

Yeah I pretty much agree with everything that has been said. The only thing I would add is "good husbandry" is different from snake to snake of even the same species. For example, some ball pythons are particularly active, and do better with more space. A keeper in touch with the the querks of any given individual can notice these " qerks", and provide better husbandry. It isn't that the snake would become sick if he has less space, but there is something to be said, I think, for providing the best possible enviroment. (Although one should always be careful of giving snakes too much attention. If your snake soaks once it doesn't mean he wants an entire pool )

[cletus]

I think it's incredibly important. As was stated above though, I agree that stressing over fractions of degrees is unnecessary. Keep your husbandry correct and consistent for the animal in question and things will be alright. Also I think it's important to be in tune with your animal's behavior because that's what will tell you when something is wrong. I've def been guilty of checking temps 30 times a day and obsessing over every little detail. I think it's easy to forget these are animals that normally live outside and some environmental fluctuation is ok.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

With this species? VERY they are not forgiven like other species such as milsnakes or cornsnakes and it can lead from anything to stress, aggression, fast and health issues, and if the owner is a new owner and is not able to read their animal on the top of it and is not a problem solver it can turn into a disaster.

[wolfy-hound]

It's very important!

For each owner like you, who had no issues with your pet, there are probably fifty who now think ball pythons die for no reason, or refuse to eat and starve themselves to death. Because when they did everything wrong, their animals got sick, refused to eat, or just plain rolled over and died.

Ball pythons can survive a lot, some times.

Early lack of husbandry can lead to long term problems later on too. I've seen plenty of starved reptiles kept with no heat etc... that once rescued to good care and good food end up dying suddenly anyway.

I've heard so many people who hear I have ball pythons and immediately say "Oh I had one once! It never wanted to eat and it died" or "I took great care of it but it died." and similar stories. Most of them when pressed for details reveal they stuck the snake into a ten gallon tank, maybe with a UTH, maybe with a lightbulb on top, maybe with zero heat... never with a thermostat, never using even a thermometer to check temps... and the animals "just died for no reason". It's extremely common unfortunately.

I'm glad that you had good luck with your pet and I'm even more glad to find that you've learned so much about proper care for them now. I hope you have many years in the hobby ahead of you!