confused now

[lonewolf81]

hey yall, ive been reading alot of different post here and now i think im even more confused than when i started . so heres some of the things i hope yall can help me with .

1st - why does everyone say to leave your snake alone for a cpl weeks and to not feed it when u first get it . ours seems to have no prob being held and crawling all over us, we fed a frozen the night (feb 19th) we brought it home cause the guy at the shop said it didnt eat last time cause of the shed. and then it ate again on (feb 23) both times seemed very hungry and grabbed the fuzzy very quickly.

2nd - is it a absolute must to not bother after eating ours dont seem to mind it either.

3rd - the whole heating and lighting thing has us confused cause different people say different things. we have a 55 gal with an big uth on one side and use a white heat lamp during the day and the red at night. the screen top has been mostly covered my alum foil (like i read in one of the post) and we are currently using the old green astro turf think we are gonna switch to cypress though. have 3 hides , 2 10 in water dishes . our accurite is currently reading 92.5 under the lamp side and 82.0 on the uth side. with only 35% humidity which was higher earlier today. does this seem like a good set up so far , other than the hum?


our little one seems to not be stressed about the size of tank or anything it will lay out in the open as well as its hides . im not sure but it seems like we got a very unusal snake

anyone have anything to help us out ?


p.s. sorry for the wierdness of this post just kinda typing everything in my mind right now lol.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

hey yall, ive been reading alot of different post here and now i think im even more confused than when i started . so heres some of the things i hope yall can help me with .

1st - why does everyone say to leave your snake alone for a cpl weeks and to not feed it when u first get it . ours seems to have no prob being held and crawling all over us, we fed a frozen the night (feb 19th) we brought it home cause the guy at the shop said it didnt eat last time cause of the shed. and then it ate again on (feb 23) both times seemed very hungry and grabbed the fuzzy very quickly.

2nd - is it a absolute must to not bother after eating ours dont seem to mind it either.

3rd - the whole heating and lighting thing has us confused cause different people say different things. we have a 55 gal with an big uth on one side and use a white heat lamp during the day and the red at night. the screen top has been mostly covered my alum foil (like i read in one of the post) and we are currently using the old green astro turf think we are gonna switch to cypress though. have 3 hides , 2 10 in water dishes . our accurite is currently reading 92.5 under the lamp side and 82.0 on the uth side. with only 35% humidity which was higher earlier today. does this seem like a good set up so far , other than the hum?


our little one seems to not be stressed about the size of tank or anything it will lay out in the open as well as its hides . im not sure but it seems like we got a very unusal snake

anyone have anything to help us out ?


p.s. sorry for the wierdness of this post just kinda typing everything in my mind right now lol.

The reason why people recommend to leave a BP alone for the first week is because they are very shy by nature and moving to a new home can add addtional stress that can cause them to refuse to eat their first meal, it depends on each individual but letting a BP settling down is best

Now the not handling for 48 hours is very important, after eating they are digesting their prey and any handling before that time frame can cause him to regurgitate his prey which is bad even more so for young BP, so just wait at least 48 hours after feeding to handle him.

Does not sound like a good setup to me 55 gallons is too big for a BP even an adult, it can stress them and again cause them to go off feed.
As for the temps they should be 80-84 on the cool side, 90-94 on the warm side and humidity should be 50%-60%.

If your BP is stress because of his enclosure size you might want to downsize, or make it less open (Crumble newspaper, fake plants etc)
Make sure both hides are tight and identical so he does not chose between security and termo-regulation

[frankykeno]

Welcome to BPNet. You don't have an "unusual" snake. The simple fact is you've had this snake about 6 days. Snakes don't always immediately react or show stress as you might expect to see it. It can be a very slow, very subtle process and very cumulative. It can also be a sudden refusal or health issue raising it's ugly head. In other words what might work in the short term may end up with causing problems down the road. The reason certain husbandry methods are recommended here and used by most is because they work and have been proven to work on a great number of ball pythons over many years of experience with them.

[lonewolf81]

well i went and added a bunch of greenery to try and break up the space in the tank makes it seem alot smaller , thanks for the replies so far

[lonewolf81]

got a question about the temps, because it seems some people say that there should be like a 10 deg drop at night and others say there shouldnt be, whats the best to do , we dont plan on breeding or anything if that has anything to do with it .

[Freakie_frog]

Welcome to the sight!
The other thing about having a big tank is that the humidity and the temp are going to be next to impossiable to control and keep constant. GA has give some really good advice

[Stewart_Reptiles]

got a question about the temps, because it seems some people say that there should be like a 10 deg drop at night and others say there shouldnt be, whats the best to do , we dont plan on breeding or anything if that has anything to do with it .

Not temps drop, just keep the same temps I mentioned above 24/7 all year long.

[lonewolf81]

ok cool , will do

[elevatethis]

1st - why does everyone say to leave your snake alone for a cpl weeks and to not feed it when u first get it . ours seems to have no prob being held and crawling all over us, we fed a frozen the night (feb 19th) we brought it home cause the guy at the shop said it didnt eat last time cause of the shed. and then it ate again on (feb 23) both times seemed very hungry and grabbed the fuzzy very quickly.

Every snake is different, and based on the cumulative experience here, a good rule of thumb that represents most situations is that it is better to give them a period of time to settle in before they are handled, fed, etc. Does this apply to EVERY snake, no, but the rationale behind this is more like "better safe than sorry," know what I mean?

2nd - is it a absolute must to not bother after eating ours dont seem to mind it either.

Handling, any time, can be stressful for a ball python. It can be especially stressful right after a meal when they instinctively feel the need to retreat to somewhere hidden and warm to digest their meal. The stress can result in a regurgitation of the prey, and cause damage to their digestive tract. Again, a good rule of thumb that is "better safe than sorry."

3rd - the whole heating and lighting thing has us confused cause different people say different things. we have a 55 gal with an big uth on one side and use a white heat lamp during the day and the red at night. the screen top has been mostly covered my alum foil (like i read in one of the post) and we are currently using the old green astro turf think we are gonna switch to cypress though. have 3 hides , 2 10 in water dishes . our accurite is currently reading 92.5 under the lamp side and 82.0 on the uth side. with only 35% humidity which was higher earlier today. does this seem like a good set up so far , other than the hum?

Sounds great! Unfortunately, being winter, your humidity is going to be hard to control in a glass tank. It won't be the end of the world, but just pay attention to your snake's shed cycles and make sure you mist them during those cycles so they can shed properly.

Hope that helps. Welcome to the site.