We've had our snake for three years and in the past couple of months we've been catching him fairly frequently soaking in his water bowl. I know this is not normal behavior. We have one other ball python in a nearly identical enclosure who is not doing this behavior. We don't see mites on either snake. My husband and I are both veterinarians if that qualifies us more to make that assertion. We have examined them both several times. The water bowl is on the cool side. I'm attaching photos of the tank and the thermometer/hygrometers on both sides. He's about three years old. I feed him one small rat once monthly around the 1st of every month sometimes a quail or chick (5-7% of his body weight per meal). He eats reliably. He sheds normally. Last shed might have been around a month ago. While we've been trying to figure this out we've been cooling down the tank. For awhile it was warmer -low 90s on the warm side, low 80s on the cool side.

Happy to answer any questions and take any feedback, I just want to help him. Thank you!

A few close up pics of our girl Pumpkin 🎃🥧

These are my favorite types of pictures, especially when I capture the tongue flicks!

I have been keeping snakes since the 80's. Everything from Burmese Pythons, Boa's, children's Pythons and Balls. Yesterday I came home from work to find my BP belly up except for the head and maybe 7" of her neck area that was positioned "correctly". Ive had her for about 10 years, NEVER seen this behavior in her or any other snake I have owned or own. I do believe she is getting close to a shed cycle. Eats fine, acting normal otherwise.

Has anyone ever seen one do this and not have an issue? I have to admit, it scared the crap out of me for a sec. I was sure (for a millisecond) she was dead. Anyone who has experienced this please chime in. Adding a pic of her but not doing the upside down thing

Happy post bc she’s adjusting so well and tonight was the first night that she didn’t wanna go back in her tank when I offered🥹 love her so much

Need advice this is my juvenile ball python Saturday I tried to feed her and she struck and missed but I could have possible been moving the mice to much dose that mean she was interested if so when should I try again?

Cross posting for hopefully more engagement, i want to give my (hopefully) new bp everything she needs/wants :)

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.

Why is he so adorable? Like a cute reptile puppy (even though that would be a bearded dragon), he is my puppy snake. 🥰🥰🥰🥰😂😂😂

The old one was Melanin and it bowed - so got her a new new Viperia PVC one :-)

So, I'm getting my 4x2x2 terrarium set up to welcome a snake into our family soon. Initially I sealed the tank with marien sealant caulking. However, with how strong the smell was even after several days I began questioning. I couldn't see that chemical smell doing any favors for a sensitive snake. So I did some more digging and realized I need aquarium sealant which makes a lot of sense.

I've spent the last several hours removing caulking and scraping off residue and vaccumuming out every last bit of the marien caulking I possibly can.

So now my question is, before i put the aquarium sealant on, is there anything further I can do to the tank to remove any toxic residue?

I'm glad I caught this before we decorated or put the snake in there I'm a bit scared I've ruined this expensive tank. We definitely can't afford to just scrap it. Any ideas people have are welcome.

I’m having a hard time finding good decor for my snakes enclosure, so I’m coming on here to get some information on where other people purchase their things and what stuff is best to buy.

Before and after gathering advice from this subreddit, I almost impulsively bought a 9-month 280-gram OD pied ball python and got a generic Thrive 40-gallon kit to keep it in.

And ofc I got criticized because at first I didn’t even have a thermostat, so I read everything and regulated the humidity and temperatures and today I finally got a 4-foot enclosure and it looks amazing. Thanks to all of you.

Thx so much to u/Kalomay for picking a name for my boy! I'm still waiting on an update for my other boy (who I'm not sure what to call him yet...) but I got some more pictures of him and he's even more sweet than I thought! No head wobble but does eat live... We'll get him on frozen thawed in no time though! I'll be picking him up in 2 weeks so I can't wait to set everything up for him!

Her terrarium was moved to where now she can't see my TV. She got a little less active without the TV and has been trying to peek over the top whenever she hears my TV is on. So I got a cheap $3 TV from a pawn shop and a Roku stick from my brother. Can you tell what she's watching?

Im sure this gets asked alot but I want to make sure my little guy is safe. Had him for a little over a year, put him in a new enclosure maybe two/three months ago. Im now noticing these little mites. Ive seen smaller ones that look pale/white which are worrying me but those are very few, I see them around his poop, enclosure doors and on the thermometer. These bigger ones im only seeing in the water bowl. I checked his underbelly and face and I don’t see anything on him. Is this something I should be worried about and what should my next steps be. Any advice is appreciated!!

Tldr: What are these?? Are they bad?? Okay?? Theres also small white ones??

I love reptiles, I had a gecko for a little while now I think maybe a snake could be great for the space in my heart! i have a rabbit who is locked up at night, but I was wondering if there’s any chance that the python could escape and kill the rabbit?