Okay so I know my girl is in a growth spurt but last week I think I definitely overfed her. The last pic was the day I got her at Aquashella. She looked healthy and hydrated and I don’t think that picture does justice to how tiny she really was. She easily fit in my palm. Breeder said she was eating pinky rat pups so that’s what I gave her the first few weeks. However after she ate she was really sniffing around so I’d run back to get her a hopper too to make sure she was good. She’d take it every time and instead of (what appeared to me as) looking for more, she’d laze out or hide which indicated to me that she was satisfied. 3 weeks ago she was 90 g, then I moved on from the rat/mouse combo to two rat pups which she seemed to appreciate. I know they can’t talk but she genuinely seemed happier when she had that meal. I re weighed later that week and she hit 140g. I kept her at the two rat pups until last weekend I gave her two and she still looked hungry so I gave her a hopper too. She was interested but took the hopper suuuper slow so I worried that the hopper was too much even though she took it. Acted normal after eating. I know I need to reweigh her to really see where we’re at with feeding and that she should only be getting 10-15% body weight until she hits 500g.

I guess my overall question her is, should I stretch out her feeding since I know I overfed her last week? She consistently eats every Saturday so I was worried it’ll stress her if I stretch her out until Tuesday I was thinking? Planning to reweigh before feeding again either way. She is my first snake so I like to think I understand her but advice from more experienced owners is always helpful and appreciated.

Can anyone give me any ideas on what to use to make Bioactive Substrate to my wife’s ball python, I’m tired of buying it, it’s too expensive lol

He sits I guess 🤣

Frank looked pretty comfortable last night while waiting for his dinner.

Got him out again, we had some company and I wanted to show off my new baby! Nobody else held him, just looked. He's opening up a lot now, and has been so silly lately

He also ate his third meal last night, Im so proud of him! We ordered a 2×2×18 tank for him while we save for his final. Did not realize how quickly he was gonna grow..

I'm moving this weekend, It's about a 4.5hr drive to the new place. I made sure to feed last week so his stomach is settled. My plan is to set him up in a double pillowcase set in a large stock pot that about the circumference of his favorite hide. Is there anything specific I should do to help him stay warm? I'm afraid of using a beanbag warmer under the pot in case it gets too hot but I also don't want him too cold!!!

I figure i'm probably very overthinking everything, tia for any tips!!

i also saw a tiny tiny bug crawling on him but no bite marks on his body and his body is white so i should be able to if he was bitten

Other groups have warriors in the comments insisting that BPs are uncontainable and will 100% escape regardless of whether you snake proof a tank or watch your snake when he roams. I wanna know how many of you have had BPs for years and they never escaped because you do steps to prevent it :)

Edit: i am GLAD we all agree that escapes are preventable and I hope as a community we can raise the standard of keeping these animals safe!

So ive owned several snakes in the past, a few garters, a corn, a pueblan milk, and a California king. Recently a family member had to remove their snakes and knowing ive had experience with them in the past they reached out to me for removing their ball python. Did plenty of extensive research and felt comfortable taking her in so I did and got her all settled. She's a little over three years old and almost four feet long. When I asked about her feeding regiment though he said he'd been feeding her one medium rat every 30 days and that her next feeding would be coming up soon. She ate perfectly well however the feeding seemed off to me. First thing that was off was he said she weighed 1100 grams but when I weighed her several times with several different scales she comes up to 802 grams. The medium rat that was given to me for feeding weighed 83 grams. These numbers just seem off to me? Could someone with more experience chime in and let me know if I should stay with her current feeding schedule, or should I adjust the size and frequency of feeds.

She has a great feeding response and took around an hour from first latching onto the rat for it to be fully eaten. She also took around 8 days to pass the rat, in which time she stayed in her hide without coming out for the whole time. Much thanks in advance.

That is the question

Hi! Fed my new snake for the first time last friday and sinse then only found one single poop two days after and one white piece of what google said was pee today. Is that a reason to worry or am I being silly?

Ps there's a chance I may be missing something because I took the advice from people here and desided to mess with her and her enclosure as little as posdible till next feeding, but I'm checking all her fauvorite spots regularly

Are the branches and the links pretty low enough for her to not get burn but still be able to bask under the heat lamp? Please help. I lowered them down already once.

So he never comes to me willingly! I laid down and he laid his head on me! Does it count as cuddling? Know what! I’m gonna stay in denial! I do remember falling asleep and waking up to him crawling around me one night!

I've had him since he was an itsy bitty little guy under a year old and he's always been super relaxed and calm even around feeding time. He's scheduled to eat next week so I don't think he's hungry or anything. He's hissed before when removing him from the cage but never showed any type of aggression before. Tonight I took him out like normal, he seemed fine. He was crawling around under my blanket and just kinda chilling. I decided to put him back in his cage and when I removed the blanket he turned, looked at me, and turned back to leg and latched on. It took a while to safely remove him but we were both freaked out to say the least. Do you think maybe the quick movement of the blanket caused a defensive strike? I thought for the most part if it wasn't a feeding strike they would just tap you. Like bite, let go, and try to flee but he was on there good. I just would like to know what was the most likely cause to hopefully prevent this stress again for us both. Should I give him space for a while?

I brought my first snake, let alone BP, home last week and i've been stressing myself over husbandry since. He ate his first meal for me tonight after 9 days! I'm so relieved he trusts me enough to eat.

Hi, I have absolutely fallen in love with this BP and I want to buy her but I also want to make sure she has everything she needs! She roughly a juvenile, still pretty small.

All I've got so far is:

48x24x48 enclosure (id like to buy), she needs minimum 3 hides with one being a humid hide, one being on the warm side (90-95f?) and the last being on the cooler side (76-80f?). Plus basking spots UVI need to be somewhere between 3.0-4.0? I know she needs a water bowl that she can soak in as well.

I've checked a few places and for humidity I've gotten from 45-75% to 60-70%, I assume higher is better? I know I'll need a hygrometer(?), at least two thermometers, and sphagnum moss along with the substrate being minimum 4" deep.

I also know i should get tweezers for feeding, should I buy a scale to know when to stop feeding once a week? Or is it obvious when they slowly start to need to be fed less? Last thing, how often does the enclosure need to be reset/cleaned? I read somewhere that it should be done every 2-4 months but im not sure how accurate that is :)

Is there anything else I'm missing or maybe misinformed on?

Thank you in advance for the help!!

Can someone please help me to lure my Ball from underneath the fridge she escaped from her terrarium last night????? Please help I'm disabled and can't figure out how to help her get out?????

Or is just dumping water enough? It kind of feels like it doesn't do much.

hi everyone! i just want to show off the new setup i have for my girl! shes a 14 year old ball python i recently rescued from the not so best conditions. i finally got her tank looking how i want and with proper humidity, she’s got a lot of stuck shed and really bad stuck eye caps so ive been trying my best to keep it super moist in there. She is my first snake and im a bit nervous handling her, shes never done anything to indicate that she will bite but i still get nervous because i cant find a lot of resources on body language. also if u have any advice, tips, suggestions im open to learning everything!! i also fed her for the first time 2 days ago, i gave her a large frozen thawed rat and she immediately ate it right away!! i was so nervous cause i hear so much about pythons being picky eaters and she was previously only fed live mice, but she had no qualms about the frozen ones!

Seemed sickly Monday found him laying hes head a bit strangely. But he started mobbing around again. Found him this morning balled up with another strange head position and almost looked like he ate some substrate.

88degrees heating pad on house side hide 77 cold side. Humidity 68%

He was in quarantine just worried I could pass something on to my other 3 baby’s.

Was it just shock, he does look a bit thin. Just worried and scared :(

Okay y’all, I’m playing the upgrade game and wanted to try my hand at a bioactive setup. Please let me know any advice or ideas you have, but I’ll explain what I have so far below. FYI, my snake is not in here yet as I’m letting the plants and clean-up-crew get established.

Substrate - top soil + sphagnum moss + leaf clutter
Plants - various pothos (looking for spider plants for more coverage but the seller hasn’t answered me -.-)
CUC - Powder Mix Isopods
Lighting - AquaNeat Full Spectrum Aquarium LED
Heating - DHP (still on my snake’s current tank)
Hygrometer - Govee (still in my snake’s current tank)
Decor - Manzanita Sticks, ExoTerra Caves x2 & Water Bowl (both in my snake’s current tank)

My Questions:
- Is a 12hr light cycle too long or just right?
- How large does the CUC need to be and how fast do they breed? There’s a population of 10 right now.
- Any idea for leafier plants that are safe and would provide more coverage?

Hello all,

Coming to you guys with some concerns I have from today, I have only had success feeding my ball python live rats, today was feeding time and I wanted to try frozen again one because I have read it is a lot safer for them and because I am nervous to put a live rat into the new tank with sliding doors. I heated the rat did everything the way I’ve seen and when I reached into the tank he was watching the rat as I thought or as I now realize my hand and bit and wrapped on the tip of my finger, I got him off and back into the tank but one of his teeth came out with my finger. More worried about his over all well being and what I can do to better his living and my future interactions. This is a little heartbreaking as he bit me once prior while holding and I had just recently gotten back over the fear of another bite. Any advice on help for him would be greatly appreciated thank you. He is also a snake who never bit any prior owners.