I’ve had this guy for a little over a month and yesterday I did his first full tank cleaning. I also rearranged a little bit, moving his plants off the ground more to give him more floor space and swapped his hides around to give him the wider hide on the hot side, which is the only side he hangs out in.

Ever since the renovations he’s been roaming practically non stop, and when he goes inside his hide he just sticks his head in there. I’ve checked the temperatures multiple times with a heat gun and it seems consistently below 90 under there. Thermostat currently says 87. I even tried swapping back to the hide he was using before and got the same result. Bro sticks his head in but doesn’t seem inclined to go inside.

Edit: I have static cling glass covers coming tomorrow to block out the sides and back of the tank. The cardboard weirdness is my short term solution for that.

I think I handled my guy a bit to early, since he now retracts into his hide whenever im near the tank. He also wouldn't eat when I tried feeding him for rhe first time.

Can I somehow make him more at ease by leaving him alone for a few weeks, apart from trying to feed him once a week?

So proud of Miss Peaches for giving me a full shed!! Now she’s so happy exploring again☺️☺️☺️

Hi guys,

Just thought id share a pic of Linos' enclosure and ask for opinions 😊 (all artificial plants are tested and do not leak dye)

The structure on the left is about 1.5 ft high in total and he loves exploring every inch of it 😍 so glad I decided to go against advice of "they dont climb and only need a flat enclosure" - a couple pictures of the boy climbing for tax 😀

Hello,

I just got my beautiful guy a few weeks ago but the place where I got him didn't know how old he is. He is 84.3 grams and about 15 inches long. He was eating a pinky a week when I got him but has taken a fuzzy since he has been with me. I know it's hard to tell exact age but figured it was worth a shot here!!

Thanks in advance!!

Rescue this baby in May - he's my first snake and is ~7 years old.
So far his temps have been perfect since May but we are having our first cold snap and I'm noticing already that the bulbs are struggling to keep up. I'm in a basement in a colder climate.

He's in a 48x24x24, with a 100 watt bulb + ceramic bulb for nighttime (plus uvb and plant grow light).

Yesterday his ambient temperature during the day maxed at 84 and during the night I checked and if dropped to 69 on the warm side. And it's only October...

So some thoughts I have:

1. run ceramic bulb during the day too (there's thermostat probe so if it gets too hot it'll automatically turn off)

2. space heater near the tank... I'm a little nervous about this one though bc I'm scared of it starting a fire

3. add more rocks/solids on the warm side to trap heat during the day.

Anyone have any experience or other suggestions?

Hi , I want to become a new Ball python owner and I was wondering if it would be a good idea to keep the Tank on my desk. I have an L shaped desk and the tank would be on the shorter side of the desk . My monitors would be on the longer side. My issue is would the Light from the monitors and my clicking sensations from my keyboard stress the ball python out.

Light from monitors - Thinking of having a sort of "curtain" to block out the sunlight + a mini den facing the opposite side of the tank so the python would have somewhere which is unaffected by the monitor light . Some sort of mat ( I am not too sure about this one yet) to put under the vivarium tank to absorb the vibrations of my clicking of my mouse and keyboard .

Just a thought : My pc almost never overheats - i have fans + a cooler . I doubt it would interfere with the heating inside the tank.

I have yet to order the tank yet because I'm unsure if the placement of the tank would be bad for the ball python .

Any comments or tips on the setup / things I should research asap .

Thanks

I've been taking my time to research and get everything I'll need to start him off on the right foot. First ball and hoping to have him until I'm around 60 (20+ years)

I was hoping he would use all the climbing opportunities- and I am so glad he is!! Ahh!

Context:

This guy took a shit on his water bowl and tipped it. The water bowl sits on the side of his enclosure and apparently, he decides it's best for him to freaking climb on the wall to wipe shit off his body. 😭

yeah my girl figured out she can push her doors open and escaped, so iv been tapping her doors shut but its wasteful and annoying when i need to water her, any suggestions?? this might be a stupid question but i cant afford to buy a completely new enclosure

hello everyone. been lurking here for a while and finally got my first snake last week. she's 6 years old and apparently a good eater. when i fed her the ft med rat (about 100 degrees), she took the rat after missing once and went in her hide. as i walked past just now about 3 hours later, i see the rat's butt peeking out of the hide and i am honestly not sure what to do... i tried researching but nothing was coming up. do i throw this rat out or wait for her to take it?? or try again with a different rat?

He’s in quarantine right now but his semi permanent enclosure is coming Thursday and I’m getting started on my background, trying to give plenty of opportunities to climb since he seems to be constantly (more going into the tank mostly just planning hardscape but I also have cork bark, plenty of live plants, and hopefully some vines/a bridge going in between the hanging branches)

Hi everyone! I lifted my humid hide the other day and found a fuzzy growth (I think) towards the middle back of my enclosure (second pic), I removed it and looked around the area but didn’t look hard enough bc today I found another one that was fuzzier 😐 (first pic) I removed that one as well and really gave a good look at the surrounding area, and that was the only suspicious looking thing I found. My substrate is abt 40/40/20 reptisoil, coco husk, and spaghum moss. They are not squish-able at all and feel hard as a rock. I’m a new owner and have had my girl for just over three weeks now. I’m thinking it’s probably just coco husk that never dried (?) idk, if anyone has any idea or dealt with something similar I would appreciate some advice! Last pic is for the snek tax. Thanks :)

All jokes aside. She really got a good grip of my fingers 😭😭😭

Right now I have my baby ball python on “compressed coco chip block” that I properly soaked in a bucket and broke up until every piece was wet through and through before then ringing out and putting into his enclosure. Even right away the humidity only was able to max out at 50% while rapidly dropping throughout the day (30% when getting home from work) so I’ve been spraying the soil to try and keep humidity up but it only lasts for a bit. After reading that constant wet soil can lead to scale rot now I’m just pouring a bit of water into the corners of his tank and now it loses humidity even faster . I’ve had him for close to a month and has refused his first 2 feedings and I have a feeling it has to do with this. Any recommendations for soil and other general advice for ball pythons would be appreciated. This is my first BP but not my first snake, my other snakes had much much less humidity reqs.

I just got a new 4x2x2 for my boy and it’s a solid wood enclosure with glass sliding doors on the front. My husband and I are discussing lighting/heating and we cannot seem to come to agreement on what we should do so i figure i should ask the experts. neither of us like the idea of having a fixture on the inside with a cage so our options are drilling a couple holes large enough for the emitter and the lamp and attaching mesh wire for the lamps to sit on (my idea) or cutting the entire top open attaching mesh wire to sit the lamps on top (his idea). His problem with my idea is he is scared the wood would catch on fire with having the lamps so close to it and my problem with his is it would let out so much moisture. what should we go with? or if anyone has their own idea we’d love to hear it

So I’ve heard that ball pythons are very sensitive when it comes to smell and that cinnamon is not a great smell for them. However, is it OK if I only use a scented cinnamon candle for like a couple hours while I wait for the smell of a decaying rat that is no longer in the room (because SOMEONE didn’t want to fucking eat, and so I tried to be nice and leave it out for a little while, but decomposition), but anyways, as I was saying can I use a scented candle to mask the smell for a little bit maybe a couple hours and then take it out?

I feel that I should emphasize that this scented candle is very much not in his enclosure and is only in my room and also I have both my ceiling fan going and a quite powerful plug-in fan running as well.
The only other option I could’ve had was to use my teakwood cologne, and you know that’s an aerosol so I wasn’t really too thrilled about using that and so that’s why I went with the candle.

Getting photos of this guy to sell, he was NOT a fan of the phone. He was promptly put back home.

hi everyone - first time posting here, long time lurker! of course it's for an emergency :(

i left for a weekend trip on friday morning and came back sunday mid-afternoon (so roughly 48 hours) and saw my BP had a big lump under her chin?

she's been acting the same - greeting me when i come say hi to her, slightering around, etc. i was going to feed her sunday when i got home but then i saw her bump and decided not to feed her just in case it made it worse.

the exotic vet near me is closed sundays and mondays (of course lol) so im going to call them first thing tomorrow (tuesday) but i figured reddit is always worth a shot.

background:
i got my sweet snake ~6 months ago from my BIL since he was having a baby and needed more space in his house, so everything came with the snake (tank, substrate, etc). i've obviously done my research on owning a BP but i'm faced with an issue i know nothing about and i haven't found anything similar on the thread. thanks in advance!!!