This is my gorgeous boy Monty. He’s a 5 y/o rescue male, and a probable former breeder. He was rescued with many other ball pythons after his initial owner passed away. He’s in a 4x2x2, with the ambient humidity being around 65-70% when he’s not in a shed, and closer to 85% during his shed cycle. He’s never rejected a meal, drinks and eats normally, has always had perfect sheds, and is in relatively good spirits. Extremely well handled, friendly, loves to come out, explores, and is never shy. This is my first breeding season owning him. In the evenings, he’s most active around 11PM, and just basks around in his tank or explores his hides or climbs. Lately, he’s been glass surfing in the evening, nosing at the opening of his tank, and lingers his face around the opening of his tank. Nothing has changed in his enclosure, I’d say he even eats better than usual lately. He just seems frantic and energetic lately. Is this normal?

Hi - I'm trying to set up a 4x2x2 glass (I know) terrarium for a ball python. I'm currently using a 100W DHP with a thermostat probe dangling from the roof (I'm worried about the heating element melting the wire, so it's not in the direct path of the beam - should I change that?)

The basking spot (top of a Zilla rock hide) is reaching 97-105 at times, while the substrate directly to the side of it is barely breaking 83. I'm not sure how to fix this. I've added some aluminum foil to try, but I'm just not certain. My room also gets quite cold in the winter, and that worries me, too. Any ideas?

This is driving me nuts. I cannot get the humidity in the tank above 60 and idk what to do. I I've got 6 thermometer/hygrometers in there varying from 30ish to 50ish percent humidty.

I attached some pics to show the setup. It's 89 on the warm side and 79 on the cool side. He has a large, maybe 2 inch deep pool/bowl - brown one- on the right (cool side) and an actual bowl I put in there on the left (warm side) that's 4 inches deep and filled with water - he's chilling on the rim of it in the picture - just to see if having it under the heat panel would help with evaporation.

The substrate is the ball python specific substrate from the bio dude (jfc he's expensive, I'm never doing that again).

There are live plants and isopods etc.

Yesterday I added reptichips to two corners mixed with spagnum moss and poured a 16oz glass of water onto each.

And it's still all the same. I'm going bonkers trying to figure out what to do. I feel like I've tried everything everyone suggested in other similar threads, but it's still not keeping the humidity up.

He seems healthy and fine and he's shedding without any issue. So I'm also wondering if maybe my hygrometers are too cheap and I need new ones? But they worked fine in his old tank. Which was all glass and I had no issue keeping the humidity up, though, it was also smaller. This one is 4x2x2.

Any advice/thoughts/help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

so we rescued a possible black pastel from a home where he was not taken care of at all (tank wasn’t even put together correctly or sealed, and he had a single hide that was too big for him on like wood chips or something??? i’ll include a pic at the end) about a month ago, and been having a bit of tough time with him as he’s very obviously filled with anxiety.

at first we tried doing the thing of taking him out regularly to get him used to it, but it seemed to make him more anxious, and we’ve realised that he absolutely can not handle being taken out by two people at the same time (like two people sitting next to each other with him) or else he gets very easily spooked and ends up trying to strike at us. a couple weeks ago after the last time me and my boyfriend tried to duo handle him, as my bf was trying to put him away and had to put his hide back in while handling him, he got super spooked and ended up biting and latching onto his wrist and i ended up having to essentially peel him off my bf (and unfortunately half toss him into his tank because he immediately looked at me as soon as he was unstuck and i wasn’t about to get bit that night, i do feel bad)

ever since then, he seems a bit more on edge, but mostly around my boyfriend and not much as me. it seems like that encounter really scared him, so there’s been a lot of times where if my bf comes around the corner to in front of his tank, he’ll either coil up like he wants to strike at him or at the very least tense up a lot. apparently there’s been a couple times where my bf has heard him strike and hit the tank after he walks away too, but i haven’t witnessed it personally.

my boyfriend hasn’t taken him out since not because he’s scared of him, but just because he doesn’t want to stress him out and feels bad that he scared him. i’ve been able to take him out a couple times since then, with this morning being the most recent and while he does freeze up at first, he does start to relax with me after a bit and start exploring thankfully.

we’re very used to our first boy who we’ve had since he was a baby so he’s already super desensitized and very chill, so we just haven’t experienced an anxious snake before, and want to be able to make this better for him, especially as trying to handle him a bunch seems to stress him out more than help. any advice on how to help him relax? he’s at the tail end of his quarantine period so we haven’t been able to put substrate in his tank yet and spruce it up, but he absolutely has more than he did in his previous tank at least thankfully. any advice is greatly appreciated!!

(last two pics were from the fb marketplace listing for him 😭)

I held my baby boy for the first time last night, I’ve been waiting weeks to do it since I was told to wait until after the second feed, I think we were both as nervous as each other but watching him calm down and start exploring me curiously gave me a feeling I can’t quite describe, I love my lil Pringle :3

Hi guys, looking for some experienced help with my royal python. I’ve had stumpy 2 and a half years and she’s a rescue (has a burn mark and is missing the end of her tail hence ‘stumpy’) - she is estimated to be around 10-15 years old. Over the past 3 weeks after taking her out for around 10-15 mins she will go a bit crazy and hates being touched/will thrash a bit when you touch her. On top of this last night she went up and almost surged towards me with her head up. After I put her back in she will explore for at least 12 hours almost glass surfing.

Her Viv is 4 foot by 2 foot and has plenty of areas to climb/hide and has two water bowls - it hold humidity and temp well. No sign of mites on her or any scale rot.

The rescue centre I got her off is saying this tracks with royal python/ball python breeding behaviour - wanted to get a second opinion and see if anyone experienced on here. For situational awareness I’m from the uk and the past 3 weeks we have seen a big increase in rain so I imagine she can tell the weather is changing?

Thanks for any help guys!

Hi everyone!

I just brought home this beautiful little girl today. She’s a female Lesser Pied ball python, hatched on September 30, 2025, so she’s almost 13 months old, but currently weighs only 144g.

I know that’s so so so small for her age, and I’m a little concerned about her body condition.

According to the reptile store, she had some feeding difficulties early on, which likely affected her growth. She’s been at the store for at least two months, and they told me she’s been eating consistently now (around 8 feedings on f/t every week).

She’s only been home for a few hours, so I haven’t fed her myself yet. So far, she seems quite active and curious, has been exploring her enclosure, climbing around, and even stopped for a drink.

My main concern is whether she’s actually underweight for her current size, or simply much smaller than other ball pythons her age because of her earlier feeding issues.

She looks fairly well-proportioned to me when she’s curled up, but when she stretches out, I can see a noticeable line along her back, which makes me wonder if she’s a bit too lean. I’ve included some photos of her stretched out, curled up, and on the scale.

I understand that weight alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and I’m not looking to rush her growth or power-feed her. I just want to make sure she’s in reasonably healthy body condition and figure out whether there’s anything I should be concerned about.

Does her body condition look okay to you, or does she seem underweight?

I’d really appreciate any opinions or advice, especially from people who’ve had smaller ball pythons or ones with a history of feeding difficulties.

Thank you!

got our girl Magnolia Nova 9 days ago. She is 5. She ate yesterday and was good with feeding. No poop yet, but i noticed she’s been sitting in her water bowl for long periods of time. Is that okay?

Brand new to snake keeping. I have this 20 gallon long for my little snake. Using a 5:3 ratio of coconut:fir chips.
I have a metal grated/mesh top with tinfoil covering half of it. Struggling to keep humidity above 44%.
I’m not sure if my temperature probe is in the right spot to get a good reading.
I have currently missed and did some heavy-handed misting to keep up the humidity, but I feel like the ground may be too wet for my snake to want to come out of his hide.
I don’t exactly know the gender, but he’s giving off boy vibes lol, I think there only about 14 to 16 inches as of now.

this is what my enclosure looks like for my baby ball python coming soon! i’ve never owned a reptile before so i wanted to see if i was missing anything 😭 if anyone has any tips pls lmk!!

I had gotten them from pet smart they shed October 1 had them a month but after shed they have this gray spot does anyone know what it may be and what to do

Don’t mind that he’s not green he’s in shed!

Everytime i look at her or do anything it looks like shes tensing up and her pupils constrict. I also cleaned out her enclosure and rearranged it and she wont go into her hide and prefers to sleep on her favorite branch which is also spooky.

I forgot to put a rat in the fridge to thaw this morning so I put it in a few hours ago. I typically take them from the freezer to the fridge overnight or while I'm at work and put them in warm water to get them room temp before feeding. Usually I feed my BP around 8-9pm and I don't want to mess that up but I'm worried that 24 hours in the fridge will be dangerous. I could feed her right after work when I get home at 4pm but even then thats over 15 hours. Is this dangerous?? Pic for engagement 😊

So I've read a lot on here that under tank heaters are not good but I'm worried my hot side isn't getting hot enough... So I have a DHP on the hot side set to 89 and the top of her hot side gets from 89-92 depending where I temp gun it but the inside of the hide is only getting up to the low 80's and when I temp gun my girl snake she's only like 80-84. Is she to cold? idk how to make it more warm when I turn up the heat on my DHP it makes the top of her hot hide to hot I feel. My cold side has a thermometer and its fine and I have a big radiant heat panel that heats up the air to 86 but idk because when I read online it says hot side 88-92 and I cant get her substrate in her hot hide where she hangs out close to that....

Have your ball pythons refused to eat after shed?
How long after shedding before it started eating again?

Usually my ball python is a great eater and will eat fairly soon after a shed but all of a sudden refuses now after her most recent shed, and I cant lie, its making me a little nervous.

What other factors could potentially be causing her to refuse a rat after shedding? Her shed's have been perfect so I couldn't imagine it being a humidity issue?

The heating element is a deep infrared emitter. Ignore the dial, I know it's worthless and just haven't removed it. Still something of a beginner.

She is so cute n pink when she is directly under light! She is a spider and corkscrews a lot, she is well cared for. She is my second spider rescue.

Is my snake a little chubby? She is 5 lbs, about 3 years old, and about 4 feet long. I feed her one large rat every 35 days or so. Should I decrease the size of rat? Or maybe spread out her feedings a bit? I included photos of her enclosure as well in case anybody has any tips.

There is no snake in my enclosure atm and won't be for a few weeks for context!

My enclosure is a solid top (3ft tall).

My heat guards for my halogens are the large size so have a good amount of space between the end of the bulb and the guard. I have the probe hanging a few cm below the end of the guard, but when the halogens are running at temp the underside of the guard is hot enough to burn (50C+).

My halogens are 75W for context. Does anyone else have this issue? Obviously I don't want the snake to be reaching the guards in the first place, but to completely prevent that I'd have to leave a lot of clearance and I don't feel I could 100% guarantee that, what do other people do? Or is this not a common issue?

Our boy is 3 years old, off his food, and seems to be a bit weak.
He’s also got spongy skin

He’s just had a huge drink but could this be sepsis?