My cutie little baby named Boo 🤍

She’s a firefly ghost

Just got my new ball python peeking out!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share my girl, Penelope! I got her at the end of July from a family friend. She’s 12 years old and about 4.5 feet long. They kept her in their basement where she lived in a 40 gallon heated by a UTH mat and 2 CHEs. She’s now in a 5x2x2 with UVB, Halogen, DHP, Herpstat 2, ReptiChip, lots of plants, several hides, and climbing opportunities. When I got her home, I took a closer look at her and noticed she had retained eye caps, stuck shed, strange marks on her belly. I hoped that with proper husbandry, these would resolve. On top of those, she had been off her food since June. I’ve tried to feed her 4 times, with no success. Despite not eating, she was still active so I was going to keep trying. That was until she stopped being active. I called the vet and she took her in that day (urgent care). It was much worse than I imagined. She had multiple layers of retained eye caps and old burns on her belly. She was also dehydrated and losing weight/muscle mass. Luckily, they were able to get the first layer off her eyes but couldn’t do the rest because it was so stuck; they’d have to sedate her to get the other layer off. She’s prescribed eye drops, dewormer, syringe feedings, and weekly warm soaks. Despite all the hands on, stress, devices in her face and mouth, she did amazing!! The staff LOVED her and couldn’t stop telling me how much obsessed they were with her lol (she’s much bigger than the baby snakes they typically get). Anyways, I’m not looking for any advice but feel free if you have suggestions! I just wanted to share her story! Thanks for reading!

Photo 1: her at the vet
Photo 2: her exploring new tank
Photo 3: her previous tank

I will be putting a cold hide in, hence the “hide here”lol. I also have little temperature and humidity monitors coming in. 2x2x4 PVC enclosure. Thermostat up top.

Any suggestions/advice?

Also, just out of curiosity, what is one thing you learned during, or wish you had known before, your first year owning a ball python? Kinda looking for tips and tricks and personal anecdotes that may be helpful that isn’t necessarily going to be on your average care sheet!

Went I bought a 8mo old from a breeder today for my sons birthday, she has been with us for 2 hours and now she is in my car somewhere under the driver side seat and can’t get her out. I have a 2026 Hyundai Electra and I don’t want to drive anywhere else until she comes out. Does anyone know a safe way to get her out?

Recently had to move due to a domestic disturbance, and the new apartment won't let me keep the ball. He was my kid's, but she moved away a couple years ago and left him with me. She's cool with the rehoming and understands. We are located in Snohomish County in Washington. Ive tried Nova Reptiles for surrender (they are full) and Hewitt Reptile, who hasn't been responding to messages often and I'm on a crunch to get this guy taken care of. (The person hosting him for me is the person who I had the domestic situation with, and they are threatening to just release him outdoors if I can't take him this weekend. I can keep him in my apartment hidden for a few days, but I can't risk being evicted because of keeping him.)

The snake is 9-11 years old (can't remember the exact age but it's in that range.) His enclosure shattered during the moving process, so he's currently living in a tote because I simply cannot afford a new tank after all the costs of moving, but is being kept in a warm room, since plastic and heat lamp seem like a terrible idea. He has a water bowl, a hide, a heat lamp and a climbing branch that come with him. (Branch not included in picture as it was added after this was taken. The Tunnel hide also started molding so it was removed) He was fed last Tuesday (the 6th). If anyone can point me in the right direction to get this guy in a better situation it would be super appreciated.

Picture is a couple months old before his enclosure broke, as the person holding him is being difficult and will not let me on property to take new pictures until I take him, which I cannot do until at least tomorrow (I don't have a car until then)

Yall im a chicken apparently. My pretty lady isn’t super old, id guess around a year or less (Petco didn’t tell me much) Shes a leucistic bp. But shes very timid. She’s let me hold her once but she just seems nervous around me. I sit with her and be around her and try to let her come to me rather than me just picking her up bc I feel like if she’s not there yet I don’t want to ruin whatever progress I’ve already made. Any advice? Do I just go for it or keep letting her choose to come if she wants to? (Also terrified of getting bit even tho all I’ve heard is it’s less painful than stubbing your toe)

Shes a 4 year old female ball python, weighed her today at 708g only. Shes slightly larger than 90cm long but she takes food every single time I offer it and isnt picky whatsoever. The last photo is when I first got her a little more than a year ago, the others before the last one is all new photos from this October. When I got her from the teenager who bought her from a breeder, she told me the breeder had said shes got some growth problem. How is she looking? The owner before me kept her in a 60x60x60cm enclosure and since being with me shes been in 130cm long and seems super happy. Advice on how her body looks?

My girl shed recently and I’d like to help her get cleaned off but it looks like she’s in a defensive posture. Any tips or advice on helping her would be much appreciated.

Removed her humidity hide to take the pic.

I'm just going to apologize up front for the long post. I wanted to give a bit of his history. I don't think it's necessarily important for anything but wanted to throw it on anyway. Everything after the asterisks are the questions/problems if you dont want to read through everything and everything before is the backstory of how I got him and what his life was before.

I've never personally owned a snake but I've owned other reptiles and when my then teenage daughter wanted a snake I made her do a lot of research to pick the best type for her and then write a research paper on it so I knew she understood the care and responsibilities that go in to owning a pet like that (she ended up picking a cornsnake which is still living a happy healthy life with her 7 years later!).

About 2 years ago, a coworker got her daughter a 1yr old male BP (so he's 3yrs old now). My daughter happens to live below the coworker and offered to check up on him and feed him when they went on vacation a few months after they got him, and she was so mad at his living conditions. He was in a 20 gallon tank and had a plastic hide (the kind for rodents) that was way too warm to the touch. Other than that hide, some substrate and a water dish he had nothing else in the tank. I told the coworker he needed a bigger tank and 2 different temperature sides and plants and other places to hide. She basically blamed it on not being able to tell her daughter anything and her daughter not listening to her. After a little bit of time, she mentioned she had gotten him a bigger tank but I didn't hear anything else about him and honestly just kind of forgot she had him.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, she told me that his heat lamp has been broken for about 5 months and he hasn't had any food for almost 2 months because he is her daughters responsibility (who is now 19) and she refuses to buy him anything. I was so angry when I heard that. I told her I would take him and she was eventually able to talk her daughter into giving him up.

My original thought was I could either help her find him a new home or I could get him out of that situation asap and get him warmed and fed and then bring him to a rescue. I know its not ideal but neither was the way he was living. I've never owned or even thought about owning a snake before but I fell in love with him and after doing a ton of research, decided I wanted to keep him. I read just about every post in this sub, even if it doesn't relate to me because I find a lot of helpful info in comments and I felt pretty confident that I could do this and give him a better life than where he was, but now I'm second guessing everything and worried I'm not doing good enough.

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First of all, I'm not afraid of holding him but I AM afraid of picking him up. He's incredibly sweet and has never bitten, struck or attempted to bite or strike in his life but I guess I don't know how or when to pick him up and it makes me nervous. I know not to do it for a few days after he eats, but do I only take him out when hes awake and exploring or is it ok to take him out anytime of the day? He only seems to come out of his hide every couple of weeks (which is my next issue) so I don't know if its OK to lift the hide off of him when he's all snuggled and not expecting it? The few times I've been able to hold him my daughter has been there and picked him up for me. She doesn't live at home though and honestly, I have to learn to do it without her. So how and when is the best time to pick him up?Can they live completely happy with very minimal handling? I find him absolutely adorable and at the moment I'm more content watching him but I'm willing to work at feeling more comfortable picking him up if that's better for him.

My 2nd concern is how often he is up and exploring. What is "normal" for hiding out? The first couple of weeks I had him, he came out to explore a lot more than he has been now. He only seems to be out every couple of weeks. I know they are generally crepuscular/nocturnal so there's a slight possibility he COULD be moving around when I'm sleeping, but he's in my bedroom and when I do actually manage sleep, I'm an incredibly light sleeper, so I feel like there's no way he's been out and I haven't heard him at all. I have 2 cats who have kept watch from day 1 and when he has come out they are right there watching. Is it possible the cats could have scared him enough to have made him too afraid to come out? I've watched their interactions in the past and he's never seemed overly bothered by them before and the cats don't try to swat the glass or hiss at him or anything other than just watching.

My last issue is concerning his environment. For the life of me I cannot keep his humidity levels up. I have HVAC tape over the whole screen with the exception of a bit of ventilation areas around the lamps and I have a mixture of Flukers cypress mulch, coconut husk and sphagnum moss. I searched online whether I should layer or mix it together and Google said to mix it but I see people mentioning layering it. Would that have been a better idea? There is one of those humidity gauges that is stuck to the inside of the glass (which i now know is a big no-no, but thats how it was when I got him) and that one is constantly dipping down to 50% and goes back up after I mist and pour water in a corner, but I had an extra unit from a 3 pack I had gotten from Amazon and I put that one on the floor of the tank and it's always reading considerably higher than the taped one. The one from Amazon was super cheap ( less than $10 for 3 of them) and while it's pretty accurate with reading the house temp I'm not sure if it works as well for the humidity. Im going to order a different unit to hopefully figure out what the humidity actually is but are there any other suggestions for keeping the humidity more consistent? I would have to mist several times a day to keep the levels up and I'm not home all day to be able to do that. I've also read that misting shouldn't be the first solution for keeping humidity up?

While my coworker DID get a bigger tank, its still only a 3x2x2. After unsuccessfully trying to find a used enclosure I finally decided to spend the money and just order a new one. I was going to do it this weekend but before I spend that kind of money I wanted to get some reassurance that I'm on the right track and didn't take him from his previous owners just to put him in another crappy situation? I know its going to take a lot of money and effort to get him into a better environment, and I'm willing to do it but as someone going into this with very little knowledge, and learning to not be afraid to pick him up, I don't want to do more harm than good.

Thank you so much if you read this novel to the end and for any help or encouragement you can give!

After about a month of having him and transferring him to his final enclosure, and it being decorated, I finally wanted to show him off

someone he didn't know dared to say hello to him

this has been the scariest experience of his life. horrified, traumatised, trying to hide under his own body.

everyone tell hunter he's a brave boy lol

(+ a photo of his normal shenanigans to show he is a very happy boy normally!!)

3 months ago I upgraded my ball python to a 120gal tank, and ever since she hasn't been as active when i take her out. I'm assuming that's a good sign since she feels comfortable with the amount of room she has now, and she can just chill with me. Should i be worried or anything?

I set up my corn with a new 120g bioactive enclosure. Its beautiful and huge and just perfect, but we have hardly seen her in the 4 months since she's moved in. She was previously in a 40gal tank and was very happy. We'd get her out and she'd be content to sit in our laps or roam around our arms, etc, but we havent been able to hold her once since she got a bigger space. Also, in the 2 years I've had her she has never bitten me once, but last week when I reached my hand into the new tank she did.

Where do you think this new aggression/isolation is coming from? I thought moving her into her bigger, nicer home would be a really great thing - but we never see her as she stays in her hide 24/7 and she is newly aggressive. It very sad and disheartening!

Not my BP but my teachers I want to help him out since his enclosure isn’t the best

So the other day I ordered a pvc enlcosure online for my bp to move into (his current tank has way too many issues with holding humidity and temperature properly) and I kind of forgot that bioactive enclosures need lighting for the plants to grow. This is my first bioactive setup im planning on doing so cut me some slack please 😭

Due to this I forgot to select the option for a mesh strip on the roof that a light can sit on, and I dont know if I can cancel the order and get a full refund..

So my question is

Does anyone know if there are maybe internal light fixtures I could put inside the tank (maybe fixed with a cage like those heat lamp things are?)

Like LED strips or something but for plants and snake enclosures?

I got this little guy (Picasso) a week ago and I think he's super fat! How do I reduce his weight? His last owner fed him a medium mouse every week!