my Normal Ball.

[Gage]

hey guys, im new here and to keeping snakes, (been around them for my hole 15yrs of life) and my first snake i just got 3 days ago, and obviously, its a Ball Python (dont know the sex as i really dont wanna put it through the hole probing process as i dont know a lot about it. but here he is, the healthiest one ive seen for sale around my area, though i didnt look very hard, but he is very healthy and acclimated to his new house almost immediately, otherwise i wouldnt be taking him out yet

but anyways, what better first post then to post a picture! (btw, hes on my wrist right now, all tiny 22" of him, there so cute when they are really little.)

hes on my knee in this pic, ill get more ASAP.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...ture002-12.jpg

is he a good weight for 22" btw? im not sure how thick he should be as ive read pretty varying info.

[dr del]

Hi,

Very cute.

And to the site.


dr del

[blackcrystal22]

Tell us about your husbandry and since your new here, check out this caresheet about taking care of balls! It has a lot of good information in it.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=59

Make sure to give him a week without handling even if he seems accumulated to his new home. It'll get him comfortable and ready to eat in about a week and eating is most important when a snake first comes home to show a distressful situation.

Also, I'm sure his weight is fine. He looks full from what I can tell. :]

[Gage]

thanx for the info, ill leave him alone from now on for a while until a couple days after i feed him.

as far as husbandry, what do you need to know? i have a thermometer, a Hygrometer, i keep the temp at 28-30 Celsius during the day and 24 at night, with an undertank heater and a heatlight on one side and nothing on the other, its a 20g high tank btw, and the humidity is at 60-70% at all times, as far as inside the hide box i dunno exactly what it is, but it will obviously be more humid in the hide box then the tank itself. i have a large water dish and a hide box on the warm side and the cold side of the aquarium. anything else you guys need to know? am i doing anything wrong?


just curious as to how much to much handling is? and also, how thick is an average grown Ball Python?

[blackcrystal22]

thanx for the info, ill leave him alone from now on for a while until a couple days after i feed him.

as far as husbandry, what do you need to know? i have a thermometer, a Hygrometer, i keep the temp at 28-30 Celsius during the day and 24 at night, with an undertank heater and a heatlight on one side and nothing on the other, its a 20g high tank btw, and the humidity is at 60-70% at all times, as far as inside the hide box i dunno exactly what it is, but it will obviously be more humid in the hide box then the tank itself. i have a large water dish and a hide box on the warm side and the cold side of the aquarium. anything else you guys need to know? am i doing anything wrong?

So far not bad.
Don't be too offended by our corrections. We just love pointing out things in husbandry and making it perfect!
Well first thing, how are you controlling the UTH? A thermostat is needed to regulate the temperatures. Also, no night drop is needed and can be dangerous when not breeding. Also, since your measuring in Celsius I'll tell you Celsius. Your warm side temperatures should be between 32-35 degrees C and the cool side 27-30 degrees C. Get those temps up! 24 at night could be dangerous for your snake!
What type of UTH are you using?

Also, a large water bowl isn't necessary. But also doesn't matter that much other than it takes up space. Ball pythons have very little need to soak and if they ever do, that is done outside the cage. :]

Make sure your hides are small and snug for him, and are NOT log hides! Log hides are very insecure and can be stressful.

Substrate should not be cedar, pine, or sand.. other than that though your probably fine.

Humidity is alright, but try to keep it more at 60 and up it to 70% when hes going to shed.

What size tank is he in? A 20 gallon is probably much too large for him at his size and he would fit nicely in a 10-15g. Larger isn't better, it can cause them a lot of stress.

Hope I could help! :]

Edit:
Too much handling is:
-Either more than once a day - time periods of an hour or more.
-Handling within 48 hours of a meal.
-Handling for times more than 10 minutes when the snake is brand new.

An average size ball python at adulthood depends. As all snakes grow at different rates, there is no set size for age. I don't really know for sure, but a large adult female would probably be 3 inches thick? Something along those lines. Someone else can chime in on that one.

[Gage]

32-35??? thats different then what i was reading, but ill get on that, and no temp drop? i was under the assumption that was dangerous LOL as far as controlling the UTH...im not, it seems to keep it at a decent temp as far as the ground temp goes, and with you saying 32-35, it seems to be at that exactly! i dunno what type of UTH it is, all i know is it sticks to the bottom of the tank (the outside) and you plug er in lol.

i just have the water bowl for humidity purposes.

the hide boxes are pretty small, and i put some of the substrate in there to make it cosy

the substrate came in a brick, you add water, and it expands like mad!

the 20g has the same foot print as a 15g, 24"x12", is that to large?

and wow, i gotta cut back the handling on this little fellow a lot, i had him out for about 5hrs today.

so the only thing i dont really understand is why the temp drop is dangerous. i mean, it drops in the wild and they are ok, and what makes it less dangerous when they are breeding?

i dont take offense at all, i want the best for him to! just those couple things that i dont understand much.

[blackcrystal22]

32-35??? thats different then what i was reading, but ill get on that, and no temp drop? i was under the assumption that was dangerous LOL as far as controlling the UTH...im not, it seems to keep it at a decent temp as far as the ground temp goes, and with you saying 32-35, it seems to be at that exactly! i dunno what type of UTH it is, all i know is it sticks to the bottom of the tank (the outside) and you plug er in lol.

i just have the water bowl for humidity purposes.

the hide boxes are pretty small, and i put some of the substrate in there to make it cosy

the substrate came in a brick, you add water, and it expands like mad!

the 20g has the same foot print as a 15g, 24"x12", is that to large?

and wow, i gotta cut back the handling on this little fellow a lot, i had him out for about 5hrs today.

so the only thing i dont really understand is why the temp drop is dangerous. i mean, it drops in the wild and they are ok, and what makes it less dangerous when they are breeding?

i dont take offense at all, i want the best for him to! just those couple things that i dont understand much.

Temperature drops are only necessary when getting them into a breeding 'mode' and often times breeders won't do it anyway.
Any temperature under 75 degrees F/ 24 degrees C can be dangerous to their health.
You also have to consider that ball pythons are from Africa, out in the wild, things are warmer than what we are used to here. Those are the temperatures that are needed for healthy digestion and thermoregulation, and if you have a light that does need to be turned of at night (24 hour light cycles can be stressful) and if it drops the temperature a little bit, then that is alright, as long as it doesn't get much lower.
Even when breeding the temps are not dropped that low, only by a few degrees.
I know what your talking about for substrate, and that stuff is fine. Make sure in the future (if you ever change substrate) to watch out for anything dusty!
Once he gets accumulated to his home, you can handle him more, as I'm sure your just very excited since he's your new pet, I can understand.

The cage is fine, you'll have to switch to a 20gallon 'long' when he's an adult though. :]

[Gage]

ok, thanx, im to used to my Iguana and Leopard gecko, when you can just turn off the heat lamp at night lol, its just nice to have a reptile that i can actually handle lol my leopard freaks out and the 5' Iguana...well...we wont get into that one. so why do i keep reading to drop the temp at night to 70-75? ill get a red heat light today so i can just leave it on, or maybe ill get one of those other heat things that throw off no light (cant remember what there called). thanx again for the info, ill pic up something better then a white heat light today

btw, this isnt by far my first pet, just to let ya know, im really into the fish hobby (have approx 15 tanks ) this is my first snake to take care of on my own though, thats why i was a little scepticle, especially starting with a ball python, but ive been drooling over this guy for about 2.5 months now considering i work at the petland (i know...) that i got this guy from.

but about the handling, even a few months from now i can only hold him an hour a day???

[littleindiangirl]

so why do i keep reading to drop the temp at night to 70-75?

Because generally, most advice around the old internet sites and in books is outdated. Sometimes being published as little as 5-10 years ago. The recent explosion in hobbyist breeders and keepers around the world in the last decade has and IS leading to new discoveries every year. We have learned a lot about ball pythons and snakes in general in the last 10 years.


Ball pythons don't need a night time drop, and have been successfully kept and bred with no temperature drop. While I don't think it's all too bad to have a few degrees of drop in air temps (75 F lowest)

I don't think it's entirely necessary to keep a heat lamp on all night if you are still providing the belly heat from the UTH with the hot spot. (91-95 F) I think if the night time air temps only go as low as 75 F, your okay with shutting off the lamp. Any lower than 75 F and I would keep the infrared light on.

[Gage]

thanx a ton, i kinda thought of that after but at the same time i woulda thought that they would update in the info on the net as well, oh well, but the air does drop to around 73 ish so ill put either a ceramic or infrared heat light on there for him, what temp should i aim for? 85?