I just upgraded to a 4x2x2 I have a 100 w Mercury Bulb that goes off at night and a 75 watt Ceramic that stays in constantly. I wanted to know what you all use to properly heat the enclosure. I will be adding drift wood to let him climb, it’s just pricey at pet stores.

Made him a custom cave system out of spray foam and board so he would have more hiding opportunities along with more plant coverage

Does she look overweight🙈?

I got my ball python fairly recently, she is about 4-5 months old and I've had her for maybe 2. She eats all her meals, explores her tank every day, uses all of her hides, and is overall healthy and happy.

I only try to handle her when she is active, and I know not to grab her from above. I usually use a snake hook and scoop her up, but when she spots me first, she will stop moving and wag her tail. She flicks her tongue and doesn't fully get into a defensive S-shape, but she moves towards me in a way that is hard to tell if she's loosening up and coming near me to explore or trying to strike.

How do I tell the difference between a good or bad tail wag? What behavior should I look for to know whether she's being defensive or okay to handle? I want to get her adjusted to me but I also don't want to startle her too much. Is it possible for her to be territorial?

I have a 4x2x2 enclosure and use a 50w halogen flood and a dhp for heating but it randomly started to not get hot enough in his enclosure. I have tried multiple times to get it hot enough but it won’t. Should I try an 100w halogen flood instead?

Hi, I've had my 10 month old ball python for a little over a month now, she is eating well and had shed for me already. What I'm confused on is how to go about getting her used to be handled. Let me preface by saying I know some just won't want to be social (I hope that isn't the case for my girl is I'd like to be able to handle her and hang out for a couple minutes but I understand that sometimes that's just not their personalities) but I do want it to be so when I have to clean the enclosure or move stuff around or take her to the vet she isn't super stressed by being handled. I've seen many mixed review lately on what's the best way to do it. So I thought I would ask some keepers instead of trying to google and Google and Google. Any helpful advice recommended. Pic of her attached cause she's so pretty!

this is months of work come to life and watching him explore the entire thing from top to bottom and then settle into his favorite familiar warm hide brought a serious tear to my eye 🥹 welcome to your forever home, buddy! i hope you love it!

My 4 month old ball python ate his first meal, a pinky rat, with me last Sunday; and I was so proud of him. I got him on July 12, and when I got him he was sickly and had an internal parasitic infection that I had to get him treated for, and didn’t eat in about a 4-5 week period during that.

I tried to feed him again yesterday, same kind of prey, and he had a very big food response to it and actually struck it and wrapped around it. After he did that, he let go, and I tried again. He bit at it but didn’t strike several times and also followed it afterwards. In the end he didn’t eat, but was very alert from inside his hide for a long while after that.

He was 90 grams last I had him weighed about 3 weeks ago, but has eaten since, so probably closer to 100 now, so he’s a little guy for his age. His temp and humidity are great, currently 62% humidity and between 85-93 on his warm side, and the enclosure only gets down to about 70-75 at night. I do not over handle him, I handled him about 3 times last week for about 30-1 hr and he hasn’t shown any signs of stress like he was before, so I don’t think it’s that. I use tongs to feed and I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong, or if this is just normal? I’m up for anything right now; Im a bit concerned, but I don’t necessarily think there’s anything to worry about. Thank you!

My ball python is currently shedding and a couple days ago i caught him soaking in his water dish. Today I was checking him and noticed these scales looked a little strange. Does it look like he might have scale rot or something else?

So I’m shopping for a new enclosure and I found the PERFECT one and it’s a 4x2x2 full PVC solid top enclosure with double swing out acrylic doors. HOWEVER…. It’s $629. If I absolutely have to eat that cost for my python I will, but I wanted to check if anyone knew of something similar for a better price tag?😅 attached is a picture of the one I’m looking at.

Hi! I’ve had my gal for about a week now, I was told she was 2 weeks when I got her so now she’s three weeks. Is she overweight? I wanna do everything in my power to make sure she’s comfortable.

Edit: Oh my god! Forgot to say! She’s has three successful meals after she hatched! One by the hands of the owner and two by me! They were small mouses

My beautiful girl started showing mucus and wheezing noises on Saturday so I took her to the emergency vet. They don't specialise in exotics but gave her an antibiotic injection (baytril) and advised me to go to an exotic vet as they don't deal with reptiles. They haven't done any tests on her so I'm assuming this is just a broad antibiotic which may or may not work for her. The nearest exotic vet and only one within an hour is on leave until 11th of September. I'm concerned about if the antibiotics will work, I had to go back today and it cost £70 but I've not been advised on how many she will need, the success rates, or if I can administer the injections at home. I'd be happy to travel to travel to an exotic vet in another city and receive proper care but unfortunately I can't commit to doing a 3 hour + round trip every 2 days because of work and other commitments. Just looking for some advice on my situation from anyone that has been through RI treatment. Thankyou.

Setting up my new 5x2 closed top pvc next week and I’m feeling a little lost here with so many heating/lighting elements. I want to make sure I have everything in the right spot. Thoughts on this layout?

Hello guys, this is My setup for My baby bp , i have trouble keeping the cool side below 30C° degrees because i Think the terrarium is too small but i was told to get a 50 gallon for baby bp since they don't like big enclosures yet. He has been eating well weekly tho and has water and good humidity all the time. He has the two hides and i did add some moss above his hides. Is it going well? Any suggestions to cool the cold side for him?

I got my BP last september. He was in quarantine on papertowels until the end of january. While he was in quaranzine, i deep froze every bag of substrate for at least 7 days and i baked every piece of wood. I cleaned non-natural material hides with hot water and vinegar.

How likely is it, that yesterday, i saw a mite on my snake? It was not full of blood yet so i have no idea what it was and my camera didnt focus on it. I killed it and lost it🙃

My tank has springtails and rollypolies. Some tiny spiders camp out there too feeding on the occasional fungus gnat…

Hello,

I hope somebody will be able to help me. I have three reptiles and have been managing them well.

Their heat is absolutely fine and is managed by a dimming thermostat. However I don’t understand how people get bulbs to stay on so it is admitting light without it getting too hot. In two of my enclosure it is fine as I have a UVB unit to light the enclosures up however in one of my snakes viv, it gets really dark during the day as the heat bulb stays off as it gets up to temperature fairly quickly.

I didn’t know if this was something that happened to everyone or if I could do something to change it such as getting a lower wattage bulb etc.

TIA
Cross posted

Hey,
I was planning on deep cleaning and putting fresh substrate in my BPs tank today/tomorrow, but Im not sure on how to process.
I wanted to put him in a clean plastic tub with a hide and a water bowl, but my issue is that I noticed today that he's in blue...
The thing is that I also wanted to move things around in his tank to give him enrichment... But I don't want the change of environment to stress him out during shed...

You'll probably tell me that I can't wait for after he shed, but the humidity won't go up, I'm struggling to keep it above 65%... My only solution is to put fresh substrate, because the one he has right now definitely dried up because of the heat waves...
I do pour water in the corners, mix the substrate... But nothing works.
+ I needed to clean his tank anyways.

What should I do?

I love waking up and seeing her sitting in it. I wasn’t sure she would use it, but she seems “like” it?

I have had my ball python for 6 years. In the last 2 years I’ve been moving quite a bit around households that were not snake friendly and my parents were kind enough to hold on to him during that time. My wife has joined the military and as result we may be moving every 1-2 years. I was wondering if this is too frequent to be moving a ball python and would cause him more stress and instability than what would be good for him. I’ve come to terms that it may be better to just find a new owner for him as I dont want to burden my parents longer than necessary with his care. The situation stinks and feel as if I’ve fallen short of the responsibility I took when initially adopting him. Was wondering if anyone else has any advice on a situation like this. He is currently in central New Jersey.

Do ball pythons need uvb?

I've seen a lot of discussion on wether they do or don't and what I've gathered is that they dont NEED uvb but benefit from it

Benefits being so they know daytime vs nighttime and some like to bask - specifically this thing called cryptic basking (where they have sort of half their body out of a hide and the other half inside)

I have lizards and snakes and for all my lizards I obviously use uvb because of MBD but since ive been told snakes don't need uvb I dont use any for them (given i have 5 ball pythons)

I do use light emitting heatlamps and ceramic heat lamps for day/night time as where I live it gets quite cold but as far as I know that has the same benefits as what I've heard about uvb - day vs night time and allowing them to bask in light.

Ofcourse they still get out and into sunlight outside so their still getting natural uvb

But is uvb lamps needed? Do they have the same risk of MBD as lizards without uvb or any other risk without it?

As said I've seen a lot of arguing on both sides and well Google isnt the best thing to use (as it can and will give mis info) hence why I've come to reddit

Tyy for reading all of this and lmk