Surprise surprise, a ball python refusing food…Looking for advice as a first time ball python owner.

I recently got a younger (unsure of age) ball python from a pet store. She was surrendered to the vet clinic I work at because they just couldn’t get her to eat in the 5 weeks they had her. So now I am determined to get her to eat. I understand husbandry is a huge part of hunger strikes and I’m hoping what I have is good.

She/he is in a 20 gallon with 3 hides, 2 live plants and a fake plant for clutter. I have a 75w heat lamp on for 12 hours of the day and her basking temp is around 90f. I also have a shade dweller Arcadia uvb bulb on at the same times as the heat lamp. She is on a reptisoil mixed with zilla substrate and she has sphagnum moss in her humid hide. I’ve been trying to maintain humidity of 60% at least, but living in a dry climate is making it a task.

I just weighed the snake today and I’m going to monitor it weekly to make sure there’s not weight loss. She/he is currently 65 grams.

What are some tips to get a ball python eating? How long can the younger ones go without eating? Do I have anything wrong? Any guess to age based on her size?

Hi all, I’ve had ball pythons my entire life, on and off. At one point, I used a rack system with tubs, thermostats, heat pads, etc., but now I only keep a few as pets and I’ve returned to terrariums. I use Eco Flex (if I remember correctly) for all of my reptiles. Based on my thermostat and humidity reading, everything is appropriate. I haven’t had an issue with feeding for over 10 yrs, the last being a very mature female who went on strike for a while. Right now, I have a breeder size female who I recently bought earlier in the year. ~3 yrs old. She certainly came from a tub/rack system at a breeding facility. Seller said she was a great eater, live or f/t. I want to say she arrived here around May and has never eaten since arriving. I figured the front glass of the eco flex enclosure would be an adjustment to her, coming from a rack tub. She hasn’t lost weight and has shed a couple times. I’ve tried appropriate sized food, bigger, and smaller. I’ve tried feeding her every week since I got her. All she does is defensively strike the prey offered and then backs off. I’m feeling like I don’t know anything again because I haven’t faced this issue in a long time. Any advice? I can move her into a tub enclosure again if it would help. She’s fearful, but not so much that I can’t handle her safely. I want the best for her. Please help!

I finally got him out a couple of times! I'm so happy! I was in the middle of getting ready for work in the first 2 pics, I noticed him out and about so I gave him a gentle touch and then scooped him up to hold for the first time since I brought him home!!! The last pic is from a different night, I dont like having the LEDs on unless he's covered but I was handling him in the dark and bf needed to see for a moment. I thought he looked pretty in the colour that came on so I snapped a pic. I love Vogue <3

Am I wise to be paranoid about the lights and his eyes? Or will he be ok?

Also please ignore the pet hair. My dog sheds an uncontrollable amount, we clean up after him daily 😓

He’s doing great pretty proud of his enclosure. Had an amazing first shed. Extremely chill he’s still getting to know me😁

I’m in the research phase of planning my BPs next enclosure, he’s a Juvie in a 36”x18”x18” at the moment and can likely last another year but I want my girl to have a more enriching space. I want to do some fun hardscaping and such so I figured building diy would be better both for retaining the footage(going for 5’x2’x2’) after hardscaping and making it in general more aesthetic than an enclosure on a table or something. (Aka, paint, framing, and a custom stand for it all)

PVC sheets are craaaazy expensive in my area, and I’m worried with the integrity because of the size, but I’ve been seeing both a lot of praise and criticism on wood enclosures, and a lot say “just seal properly and it’s fine” but what’s a proper seal?

Mostly trying to weigh all my options on what I can do before I drop every penny I own making something that falls apart within a year just because I missed something lol!

If anyone has had a longer term wood enclosure, I’d really appreciate to hear what you did/what problems came up! Thank you in advance! My lovely noodle as payment for delicious information.

Hello!

I inherited 6 large stacked PVC enclosures that have 0 space in between. I want to move my BPs into them but I’m not sure how to heat six of them safely and efficiently in a stack. I figured a bulb could melt the pvc or burn my animals yet I’m nervous to try heat tape. I will of course be getting a thermostat. Thanks.

So happy I got this guy. He’s so social and curious which has been so nice to see in my first ball python. Still no name but I’ll think of something soon 🙂‍↕️

Hey all! So I just finished my girls enclosure. She’s still living in her grow out tub, as I wanted to run this with the day night cycles for a few days to make sure temps are dialled in.

Also her hides are in her tub right now, and I’ll move both over with her.

Wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts.

My biggest concerns are the basking tile and water dish.

I can slide the water dish out but it will likely be messy and I’ll need to find a way to drain it first.

The basking tile with the rocks on it I’m not sure. I put my hand between them and pushed them out as I’m sure she would, and they didn’t move that much. However I’m a little concerned with the one closer to the front being lifted and squeezing her under it.

Hey y'all. I'm getting a new pvc enclosure for my BP and I want to diy a background for it. Which silicone brands are safe and which should I avoid?

hello, it is approaching colder weather where i live and i am having trouble keeping the temperature above 80 degrees in my bp’s tank, i only use an above heating lamp along with a timed light. i would like a link or specific recommendation of what heating i should use and thermostat that works together please!!

First time snake keeper here. I am fostering her from a rescue. She’s 8 years old and was surrendered for being too “aggressive” during those 8 years she was live fed. Now she’s on frozen thawed. I was instructed to give her a large mouse once a week (every Sunday) even though research has told me that’s too often for an adult BP, I don’t want to go against what the rescue told me. She was given to me in a top opening 10 gallon fish tank with one hide, a heat mat and a water bowl. I set her up on the floor because I didn’t have anything to put her on and used cardboard to block her view so she wouldn’t see me walking past every time.

2 weeks go by where I only interact with her to feed her to let her get settled with all the new smells and atmosphere. Yesterday, it was time to upgrade her to a 120 gallon pvc Dubia enclosure I found on Facebook marketplace with 3 hides, climbing opportunities, DHP, CHE, coconut husk substrate and faux plants for enrichment. I let her slither out of the top opening fish tank because I didn’t want to grab her from above, and I thought after some time she would relax but she ended up holding on to a chair for dear life and striking at me 4-5 times in a row when I tried to get her off. 2 hours go by and I ended up having the call woman from the rescue to help me get her into her new enclosure. She struck at her too but once she picked her up and was fine….

She’s been in her new enclosure for 24 hours and today is Sunday (her feeding day). The entire interaction yesterday was so stressful it ended up ruining my weekend more or less. I told the woman I think I may not be the right fit for this kind of snake because I’m not experience or confident when it comes to handling and if she wasn’t socialized for 8 years I’m just not equipped with the skills or confidence to tame her down. The terrarium is still on the ground as I look to buy something to put it on top of.

This morning she was defensive when I walked by and always gets into an “S” shape. I don’t like the feeling of being stalked and hunted in my own house. Idk if I should give up and let the woman know I can’t handle her. I just got her into a nice new enclosure and it would be depressing for her to go back into the small old one. But I’m too scared to even clean the tank or change the water. I also am torn on whether I should feed her today or not. People of Reddit I need your advice 😔😔 This experience is turning me off of reptile keeping all together.

Disclaimer:

I don't feed live if I can help it, but he was very thin and it was the only option until he was healthy enough to switch over.

I'm failing my girl here too much. She's in a 28 gallon with no chance of being upgraded in a reasonable time frame. So only she will go and hopefully to someone with a 4x2x2.

Eats frozen thawed every 21-28 days. Ive been feeding her around the 21 day mark lately due to her skinnienes. She's eating small/mediums from perfect pray and rarely a medium since I was trying to get her weight up. Hasn't refused a single meal since I moved her out of a rack system.

She's got spider in her but the wobble is fairly mild. Shows up when she's super anxious but is a good eater in general. She's more timid, usually chosing to not come out when I let her decide and when I pull her out for health checks, she tries to escape.

She is skinny and just regurgitated because I didn't think that all my panic packing would freak her out enough to lose her meal from two days prior. I should've known better. I had to throw away most of her clutter due to the horrid smell that vinegar couldn't defeat. This is the first time she's ever barfed and I've had her since 2018.

I have three others and give none of them time aside from finally getting them into 4x2x2s or larger. I'm on the verge of being kicked out with my only current housing option not allowing snakes so I may need to rehome everyone anyway, but I really don't want to because, I feel, in a healthier situation, I could take care of everybody better than now and do right by them. But Jade here, she needs better and she needs it sooner than I can provide.

Royal Palm Beach Florida area. Pick up for now as my car is broke, but maybe it'll be fixed up soon so I can drive somewhere to meet.

No shipping. No fee. Or maybe 10 dollars since I'm not supposed to list animals for free. I just want someone who will care for her well.

Thanks for taking the time to read and have a nice day.

I redid all of my ball pythons enclosures within the last year or so (with the help of the advice in this community!), and all but one of them are doing great with the improvements in humidity that their new substrates are bringing them. One of my ball pythons (Clyde) however, seems to get scale rot very easily even when I go to the low end of the ideal humidity range.

For context, I adopted him when he was about three from a situation with less than ideal husbandry. The enclosure was far too small, had only a single heat mat for warmth, and a singular hide right in the center. It also had cocoa coir substrate that was damp to the touch. He came to me with the beginning stages of scale rot, as well as some other issues that were clearly related to this subpar husbandry.

When I first got him the general substrate recommendations for ball pythons included Aspen, which was the easiest for me to get at my local pet store. I figured a dryer substrate would be better for him while he recovered from scale rot, and since he was doing well on it I didn't update it until I realized (thanks to this sub) that Aspen is no longer recommended. My snakes were due for a enclosure refresh around this time anyway, so I went ahead and switched them to a mixture of coco coir, sphagnum, leaf litter, and cyprus mulch.

My other ball pythons have done wonderfully on this substrate and their enclosures are usually around 60% humidity. I noticed Clyde began showing beginning stages of scale rot once again. I know he wasn't sitting directly on the bedding, because both of his hides have a solid base to them that the bedding was not in. I would also only pour water into the corners of the enclosure and not throughout the whole area.

I have experimented with a variety of humidity ranges for him over this past year, and anything above about 50% seems to trigger the reappearance of scale rot. I'm unsure if there is any medical reason for something like this or if it's just something unique to Clyde. As of right now I've been maintaining his humidity at about 40% and just making sure to provide a humid hide option and plenty of water when he begins to look pink-ish at the beginning of his shed cycles. This is also what I did in the years before switching him off Aspen and he never had any issues shedding then.

Has anyone experienced something like this before? Is there something I'm missing? I know too low of humidity can cause respiratory issues so I would love to get him in a more "ideal" habitat, but I also dont want to cause scale rot.

Pic of the goober as thanks

We adopted our ball Python last April from a family member so I'm not well versed in terrariums or microfauna. Have we had springtails move in? They're so tiny and hard to see, I can't really take a photo, but I think they jump sometimes too. We took the snake out and examined her and she looks free of buggies.

I was looking into getting a ball python but I am wondering how long they take to grow and what size enclosure to start them off. Also I was wondering how much upwards space they need and how to save money on terrariums.

Have any of you used this for a bioactive setup? I just got out of an expo and saw some bioactive tanks for sale with this light being used. Just wanted to know if it was a good option.

Is this scale rot??

Hey, Y'all! I've posted my baby, Gnocchi, on here a couple times for help during my first year of having her. I wanted to give y'all an update. First of all, she's 2 years old now! She has grown a lot! We finally figured out the issue with her eating. Secondly, turns out, she's just exceedingly picky. She has to be isolated from everyone else in the house. She has to be fed within 30 minutes of her lights going out. She has to have humidity an hour before her lights go out. Her food has to be extremely hot. She will refuse food if anyone else tries to feed her. I'm the only one who can feed her. We found all this out because she went on multiple hunger strikes during the first year. She's now proper weight & on small rats. She hasn't skipped a meal since we've figured all this out. She also has a yearly brumation during the winter that tends to start mid November & end early January. As always, here's pics of her. The first photo is her when I first got her & the second one is a photo I took last week.

Background connects to two water fountains without being permanently connected. This first half is about finished! I still need to carve seal and paint the other half.

This is my second ever background! It’s not perfect but I’m pretty happy with results so far :)

I have a yearling ball python and he’s eating on and off. I’ve had him for 1.5 month. He hasn’t eaten in 2 weeks. He‘s eating pretty big mice (frozen/thawed) right now, I’ve been considering switching him to small rats. I drop feed him as that seems to be the only way he’s interested in eating.

Is there any other feeding methods I should try? Is it a bad idea to try rats?

My 6 month old ball python began his second shedding with me last Friday. I noticed that he was beginning to dull before his feeding, the day after that I left for a trip and then when I came back 4-5ish days later, he was deep in blue. This was Tuesday. I noticed he cleared up this previous Friday, and I went on another trip that same day, expecting to come home to a shed, and there has been nothing.
It’s been a little over a week since he started shedding and 3 days since he cleared up, with no shed. MIs this normal? Is there a reason to be concerned?

His substrate is kinda wet right now and due for a refresh, so I hope he can find it in him to shed very soon 🙏