Greetings from Africa!

[FL0OD]

[monk90222]

Welcome to the fourm! We need some pics of Samson!

[Bundu Boy]

Hey thanks for the quick responses, and thanks for the welcome,

I'll get some pics of Samson later on this evening and post them up here.

FYI - Samson is currently about 15", tank size is 15g. Ambient temp in the tank is 80F, I've got a UTH on the left side keeping ground temp at 85F. No temp yet on the right hand side , I'll measure that later. Ambient humidity is 60%. I've got a digital and dial thermometer and a dial hydrometer to keep tabs on the environment.

Medium is a sphagnum moss and mulch mix. I've got 2 hides (one on the left over the UTH and other on the right) and a granite rock water pool which is deep enough for Samson to submerge. I've added 2 silk plants for background and a nice piece of driftwood. I've even added a tropical looking background.

Anything missing. Only thing I can think of is a heat source for basking... how important is this?

[rabernet]

I believe you are our second South African member!

You want your warm side to be about 90 and your cool side to be about 80. Since ball pythons are nocturnal, they don't bask. Sounds like you are off to a good start, you've got a nice small enclosure for Samson and your ambient temps aren't too cool.

Congrats!

[Bundu Boy]

Hey Raber

Thanks for the advice.

I'll raise the UTH to increase the temp on the warm side. The cool side may be an issue though. I've just measured it at 75F and this will definately get lower as the room temp goes down in the evenings.

How important is it to have the cool side at 80F if Samson feels it is too cold would he not park off somewhere between the 2 sides to get the cooling he needs?

if need be I can get a smaller UTH for the cool side which would hopefully keep the temp up at around 80F.

Also what side of the tank should the water bowl be on? I'm thinking of putting it in the middle of the tank where it would get some heating from the UTH.

[Bundu Boy]

Thanks for the comments all.

Hey Nick - The digital thermometer is pretty accurate so I'll be using that to be precise. I'll look at getting a digital hydrometer further down the line.

Franky - Great minds think alike.... I''ll be topping my knowledge for sure

[rabernet]

Hey Raber

Thanks for the advice.

I'll raise the UTH to increase the temp on the warm side. The cool side may be an issue though. I've just measured it at 75F and this will definately get lower as the room temp goes down in the evenings.

How important is it to have the cool side at 80F if Samson feels it is too cold would he not park off somewhere between the 2 sides to get the cooling he needs?

if need be I can get a smaller UTH for the cool side which would hopefully keep the temp up at around 80F.

Also what side of the tank should the water bowl be on? I'm thinking of putting it in the middle of the tank where it would get some heating from the UTH.

You really don't want your cool side to drop much less than 77 degrees, as you want to keep your ambient temps in the low 80's if at all possible.

Not sure if you mentioned it or not, but a UTH should be controlled by a thermostat or dimmer, because they could get too warm.

Samson "might" park himself in the warm side if he's too cool, but if your hides are not identical on each side, he may choose a favorite hide (security) over thermo-regulating.

I do keep my water dish in the middle of the warm and cool sides.

Another alternative is to use a plastic tub, rather than a glass enclosure - they tend to hold heat and humidity easier than glass does.

[Bundu Boy]

Oh poop!

Right now Samson has 1 hide, a half coconut, and he takes up about half of it. I actually bought a really nice rock hide today which is a bit bigger on the inside than the coconut.

After just reading faq and seeing your comments I've noted that 2 hides of the same is preferred, or at least 2 hides that fit snug. I've got really nice pebbles outside, how's about if I boil them and then put a few into the hides to decrease the hide space?

Here's the new hide, it'll look super in the tank

[kc261]

if need be I can get a smaller UTH for the cool side which would hopefully keep the temp up at around 80F.

Also what side of the tank should the water bowl be on? I'm thinking of putting it in the middle of the tank where it would get some heating from the UTH.

I ended up with 2 UTHs on my glass tank, exactly as you are suggesting. A large one that covers about 1/3 of the entire bottom of the tank and keeps the warm side warm and also did a reasonable job of keeping the ambient temps up. However, the warm air was not getting under the cool side hide very well. Plus I was having a bit of a trade-off of either the warm side being a bit higher than I wanted or the ambient temps being a bit lower than I wanted. Adding a small UTH under the cool side and keeping it dialed down way low with a rheostat seems to work well.

You will probably end up placing your water bowl where it needs to be based on keeping the humidity where you want it. Move it more towards the warm side to raise humidity, or towards the cool side to lower it.

[frankykeno]

Welcome to BPNet! Congrats on getting your first BP. They really are a lovely snake (I should think so since I have so darn many of them LOL).

We have a nice caresheet here if you care to have a read through that will help you. As far as a basking area, they really just need a proper temperature gradient and underbelly (undertank) heat works best for these ground dwelling snakes. Normally about a 10 degree difference allows for good thermoregulation for the snake...so a cool end around 80-82 degrees and a warm side about 90-92 degrees works pretty well for our collection. Of course hides which you've mentioned as these are very nocturnal, fairly shy snakes that just love to be smooshed inside a nice dark hide.

As lovely as he is, do let him have a good solid week of no fussing about while he settles in, then offer him a meal of whatever he's used to eating and things should tick along quite nicely.