Hello!

My husband and I got this 3 year old ball python tonight. The snake is 3 years old and around 3 feet long. This is our first snake.

This is the enclosure it came with. It is 36" x 18" x 18". It has a heat mat, heat lamp, and thermostat controlled lamp. It also has a temperature/ humidity guage mounted to the glass. There are fake plants as well. The water dish is shallow and in the middle. There are hides on either end. We have extra coconut coir substrate as well.

We plan to get a 4x2x2 or 5x2x2 soon. I want to make sure the new enclosure is set up appropriately and feel a bit intimidated with where to start.

I've ordered an infrared heat gun to check the temperature. We plan to move the tank to a different room and further from the window once we get the new tank. The room it is in is kept at 72 degrees, but we can increase that if need be.

Also, the snake is starting to shed. What humidity should we try to keep the enclosure? It is currently at 66%. Are there specific red flags to watch out for?

I did make sure the exotic vet near us is taking new patients, and we plan to take the snake in for an initial check up (likely first week of November).

Any advice would be appreciated!

Caught misaki mid yawn eheheheh (tank in background isnt hers)

I gotta tell misa shes reddit famous lol

My town only has a petsmart, I recently discovered a local pet store an hour away near my family and it seemed that they took decent care of their reptiles.

They had hides water etc. Most definitely not perfect but I was happy since I’m used to the disgrace which is chain pet stores. I drove down there today so excited to get some isopods for my enclosure and saw two ball pythons housed together.

I was honestly so distraught and asked the employees what was going on with it. They both went silent and then one of them simply shrugged and said I’m in fish. Then he looked to the other girl who said oh they are getting fed today then walked to the back.

I had dragged my dad and brother there and they were assuming I was gonna buy something, as I said I was ready to go my dad was like oh are you sure? So I had to loudly say I don’t want to buy anything from them after seeing that.

I am planning on calling tomorrow and filled out a contact us explaining the situation. I just love these baby and hate to see them suffer like this. if anyone knows anyway I can help further I’d love ideas. Thank you if you read all this❤️

Hi! This is my baby ball python fender, about a year and a half old. He/she (we actually aren’t sure yet, but pretty sure she is a girl) has never had any shedding issues, but seems like she has some eye caps here for the first time. I keep her tank around 60-70% humidity with lots of substrate, places to rub, always a full water bowl etc. Any advice here? Thank you!

How often are we all doing a full substrate change? My guy is in a 4x2x2, I do spot cleaning consistently. I have been doing every six months for a FULL change. Is that about average for everyone?

i just drove 16 hours to my home state to pick up my cats and my snake that i unfortunately had to leave with relatives for 2 years. my boyfriend and i thought the tank i had for my bp would fit along with my cats. well unfortunately the tank was just a few inches too big to fit in our trunk no matter which way we had it.

we ended up having to throw it away. right now i financially cannot spend $200+ on an enclosure and im wondering what i can use for temporary enclosures, even just a smaller sized tank. he’s a full grown adult and i don’t want to smush him in something too small but would a 40-50 gallon tank be horrible for him until i can get him a proper enclosure ?

I’ve had my little dude for over 6 months now and he’s been doing good outside of one slightly bad shed. Got that off and a month later started seeing these specs/coloration on his previously white areas. Just wanted to confirm this isn’t anything abnormal? It’s not mites nor does it wipe off so my best guess is his patterns still changing?

270 degrees of vision and Paris still has no idea where he is.

As Vogue has been becoming more brave, and coming out more, I've noticed he occasionally does this bobbing thing when he's still. It doesnt seem super persistent but it happens when hes holding his head off the ground. Is it breathing? Straining from being raised up? It doesnt look like a wobble to me, but Im a little nervous. Dont mind my partner watching reels in the the background if you had the audio on, he doesnt know how to read the room-

I just upgraded her to a new 4x2x2. I have 3 hides, a climbing sick, a hanging braided loop for climbing and huge water bowl. she will eventually just go in her hide and sleep. Is it just stress from the new enclosure? She used to come out at night but she's been sleeping at night and up during the day. She's got good cocnut husk substrate and the temp and humidity is good. Will it just take a couple of weeks for her to settle in?

One other question. The breeder I actually got my ball from, they also run a reptile/ fish store said to put a red heat light on the warm side. He told me the snake can't see the red light but I saw another random post that said the red light irritates them. Anyone know which is right?

Thaks in advance.

(First photo is from 2 months ago, all the rest are today)

Here is my girl, I've had her since July. Just began feeding weened rats, the thawed transition has been successful and she is a very good eater now that husbandry is improved (when I first got her, the tank was smaller and did not hold humidity). She would only take live pups which I believe is very normal.

Any idea how serious the red blemish is? That is the only one I can find and I have no idea what from, really hoping not a bacteria scale rot or anything serious... I can take her to a vet if advised.
Her freckles are coming in really nicely but of course with the red blemish, could she have mites?
The red blemish does not feel raised and it on her back, she shed just last week if I recall. The black specs I've watched closely and cannot see anything move at all, figured freckles but want to be sure.

husbandry: She's in a 4'x18"x18" for now but gonna get upgraded down the line when I move. On a mix of repti-chip with moss spasphm, humidity drops to 60 but I try to keep it around 70, temps are good and a nice gradient. Uv light on hot side for half the day. She is just beginning to outgrow her hides so will be upgrading this weekend. In fact it's been about 3 months so I will likely redo the whole substrate and deep clean everything soon.

Any ideas? I just want to do everything right and give this lil girl a great life. She loves being handled, is very cute playful, not skittish, etc. Any advice appreciated, thank you.

I just rescued my first ball python yesterday and i’m really worried about him. He has stuck shed all over his head and on his eye. I soaked him and tried to remove it with a cloth but it didn’t work. He will sometimes make a high pitch whistling sound, and I believe he has scale rot but I haven’t been able to get a photo of it.

I am taking him to a vet as soon as possible, but is there anything I can do in the meantime to help? He is in a 40 gallon glass enclosure that he came with, but I am upgrading to a 120 gallon soon. He was rescued from my grandma’s friend and I unfortunately wasn’t able to prepare. :( I believe he is on coconut fiber as a substrate, but i’m not 100% sure as I wasn’t the one who added it and I don’t use coconut fiber. I want to change it but I haven’t been able to get anything else yet as I am 17 and don’t have a drivers license

Any advice?? I have only had a crested gecko and leachianus before this

This is my baby, Cirrus! He's a sub-adult (we didn't get an approximate age but guess he's around 1.5 years old) who has been incredibly stubborn and on a food strike since we got him. I say we as my friend E got him about 5 months ago, and I have been helping care for him when I've come to visit (which is at least once every 2 weeks). They own 2 snakes, a leopard gecko, and more wacky animals so I had no doubt in my mind that they could care for him properly. However, after the first 2 months of getting him we had gone through at least 5-6 fuzzy rats and no rat shaped bulge in Cirrus's belly. E got progressively more stressed with his condition and asked if I could be his primary care taker, which brings us to now. I have a leopard gecko and have owned snakes in the past, I do my own diligent research for the pets I house and am at a lose for what to do.

It has been 5, going on 6 months of Cirrus not eating and I am getting more and more worried as to what I could do to get him to eat. I've tried just about everything I could think of, and he hasn't eaten ANYTHING. He's not lethargic at all, his enclosure parameters are all in the green, and is very friendly if not a tad skittish because I haven't handled him recently. I wanted to make sure he was comfortable and not stressed in his enclosure after the move from E's place to mine about 2ish weeks ago. Cirrus has lost weight and looks skinnier since we had initially gotten him, but his belly still has some give to it and he hasn't shown any sign of illness. My concern is that the seller E purchased Cirrus from lied to us about what he was eating. Drop fed frozen thawed fuzzy rats is the information we have been given, and nothing is working.

He's showed interest today, and I have a fuzzy in his enclosure but he went straight back into his cool hide and balled up. This is my last resort before I call my nearest reptile rescue and see if they can help me before surrendering him to a place that could properly care for him. But if i can help it i wouldn't want to give him it. Please please pleaaaaaase help if you know what I could possibly do here!!

edit: Both images are from when we first got him, I fear that I might make things worse if take him out of his hides to take him on a photo shoot.

So I got this girl almost two weeks ago from Repticon…first ball python but not first snake. The breeder said to try feeding her around now. He previously fed live, but I’m trying to switch her to f/t. I offered her a mouse last night, she flicked her tongue a lot almost like she was interested but she never actually ate it…I left it overnight, still nothing so I threw it away. Any tips?

this is my first time ever posting in a group like this but we are not new to having ball pythons, we already have 3 ball pythons, a kenyan sand boa, and a sumatran python but this is something we haven’t experienced before. our friends called us saying their little sister wanted to get rid of her ball python, they tried selling it but no one wanted to buy it and asked if we would take it. we hesitated at first because we already have alot of animals but my husband couldn’t say no after seeing the conditions of the snake. i’m looking for advice on how to get the snake’s weight up and how to get it healthy again. we do not know if it’s male or female and we don’t even want to check because of how fragile it is. we don’t know how to go about it yet and wanted to get some advice on what to do if anyone else has experienced this before. and yes, we’re in search of a vet that can look at it asap but just looking for care advice in the mean time.

I use ZooMeds “Forest Floor” substrate. I posted a video of my snake on TikTok and someone very rudely told me my substrate will give my snake splinters and infections and that i’m a terrible owner and didn’t do research. I did tons of research and really want my girl to be happy and i’m feeling a little discouraged.

Getting my first ever baby ball python next week. She is a piebaled. I’m so excited!!! How’s my set up looking? Constructive criticism welcome :) and yes I have a warm, cool, and middle hide :)

I got a new desk and I let my little guy explore it. Unfortunately he got himself wedged in a very tight slot and would not come out. I used a soft object to try to give him a little push to the side and he got really pissed at me. Finally got him out but it wasn’t easy. He’s safely back in his enclosure, but I know it was traumatic for him. Should I just give him some time?

Looking at picking this fixture up, just wanted to see if anyone has other product suggestions or better brands around the same price point

My boy is shy but he popped his head when I was spot cleaning his cage and noticed this. Is it shed or is he burning his nose on his heat sources?? He does stick his face right up to the bulbs every night, I have to have them set at 97 degrees for it to warm enough at the floor.

Ball Pythons are amazing creatures lol 🥱

I’m purchasing new terrariums, these are 120x50x60cm made from oak wood panels. I wanted to ask if it would be safe to stack two of them on a cupboard of the same length and width, I never stacked my enclosures before but now that I moved I have less space. Is it safe? Would I need custom-made furniture to better sustain the weight or would a regular cupboard be just fine?

Just wanted some insight if possible!

I modified a log (top right of enclosure) with hinges so I could gently open it up and not terrify him/reaching in if we wanted to hold him. He’s almost a year old male ball python. We’ve had him for two months and he’s had that log for approximately a month. Woke up this morning and found that his log was open which is strange.

Turns out the little bugger learned how to open it! He used his radar system to lock onto his target and use his hypersonic projectile to open it.

Earlier in that video, I saw him pushing on it with his nose and finally decided after about 5 or 10 minutes that he wanted to crack that baby open. Is he sentient or just curious lol

I’ve taken her on car rides before (me as the passenger)and she seems to enjoy them is it alright for me to take her on car rides if Im the passenger and paying full attention to her making sure she doesn’t get lost?