Questions.

[Mighty Monty]

Like always, i'm going to apologize if these have already been asked and answered, i just like having people knowing the cirumstances from my perspective and find it easier to get information this way.

So when i first got my ball, he was only a couple months old, very small. I had to travel a few hours to my home with it, and of course in the first couple of weeks i guess you're suppose to give it time to get use to it's surroundings, well i held it every day, and never had problems, it was awesome, he seemed to love getting out, always curious, good eating habits, etc. I then came back to my hometown after moving out of my previous home, and when i got here, first week or so i held him, he was fine and everything.

A little while after i started to notice he wouldn't come out as much ( when i first got him he was all over the place ) I know they hide out for long periods of time, but i never see him anymore, and when i do he's very aggresive, it's been almost a month now, and i haven't held him because of how he's been acting. He also just went through a very hard shedding time that took him almost 3 weeks. I'm kind of starting to see him more, so i'm a little relieved. I had problems with the humidity for quite awhile and just recently put tubaware with damp moss that he just loves and won't come out.

So my questions are, ( and i read in the how much do you handle your snake ) After him being so aggresive, should i be worried about handling him? and does any of this behavior sound irregular? Also i have been finding this yellow foam looking stuff ever since i've had him, that's like in balls, sometimes theres alot, sometimes theres none, it's just every once in awhile, what is this stuff? He has good droppings, is eating fine, and everything seems to be alright, but i was just worried about the above listed things.

So sorry if this was just rambling! i guess love the guy to death and want to be able to get him back to being a nice little guy that he was when i first had him, and just make sure everything is ok!

i'll try and get pictures of him and his habitat, see if there's anything wrong with it that you guys can see, but i'm pretty bad with uploading images and computers!

THANK YOU FOR ANYTHING YOU GUYS CAN GET FROM THIS AND INFORM ME ON!

I know in the past this site has been amazing.

k i'm done sorry ;x

[xdeus]

Hopefully I can answer some of your questions. First off, agression in Ball Pythons is commonly due to stress. Some are just more ornery than others, but I would definitely look at his environment to see if there is anything that may be causing him undue stress. How are his temps monitored and regulated? How big is he compared to his enclosure? How are you heating his cage? Is he around any disturbances such as a TV or stereo?

If everything is okay, then try to work with him. Handle him for a few minutes during the night... let him sleep during the day.

As far as the yellow foam looking stuff... it sounds like it might be urates. Urates are the solid waste product that is discarded instead of or along with urine. It's essentialy uric acid produced by the kidneys and isn't anything to be concerned with.

[frankykeno]

Snakes produce three types of waste product....feces (poop) which to me pretty much looks like small cat turds (or not so small, depends on the snake lol), typical liquid type urine and urates which Lawrence explained to you are just a part of their urination process. The urates come out pretty soft and "puffy" then hardened up and dry out fairly quickly. One of the many joys of snakekeeping is learning how to chip a urate out of the edge/rim of a snake hide. I swear some snakes drop their urates in the MOST inconvenient spot they can find.

As far as the change of behaviour/aggression it sounds like it's stress related. Remember that snakes react to change rather poorly and it can take time and become sort of cumulative. Your snake went through a move, humidity issues, a long bad shed and so forth. It stands to reason it's probably had enough and is now feeling defensive and out of sorts.

Personally, I'd just make sure everything in it's environment is stable and your temps/humidity are bang on, nice hides, etc. and just feed it and gently start to reintroduce yourself to it's world in a few weeks. If you need to wear gloves by all means do so until it calms back down. Just be calm, gentle but firm in your handling (not hesitant....I swear snakes sense hesitation and nervousness in humans), try to make it a calm experience for you and your snake. Repeated short, calm handling experiences usually result in the snake getting the point that nothing is about to hurt it. Some never adjust to much handling but most BP's accept a reasonable amount but there is never a guarantee that way.

Everything about ball pythons seems to be about patience...lots of patience.

[Mighty Monty]

Awesome, thank you so much!

One more quick question, i have it in my basement, and in most of the areas of our basement it's cold, i couldn't get the temps to stay etc. So i put it in our boiler room, it's nice and warm in there, always the same temp. I moved him in there almost 3 days of being back home, i have now been home almost a month and a half. Alot of times there are noises in there, things clicking on and off, only once in awhile is there something loud in there, a day that is. It's not constantly loud in there, but like i said, it's a boiler room so there are alot of things working in there. Will these noises be a problem for him? i guess i should of asked this much earlier, and if they are at first, do you think he can get use to them, or should i move him to a different spot? My problem is we have cats, and they love, LOVE their animals, or in this case reptile. So other than my room i have nowhere to put him except for in there, however i sleep in a very cold room. WHAT CAN I DO?! I'm hoping it's ok to keep him in the boiler room. It's a pretty chill area, but like i said, it does have some things that can get loud every once in awhile, but i would imagine he's gotten use to it.

Maybe it's stupid, but out in the wild i would imagine there would probably be loud noises every once in awhile? etc, can they tell the difference?