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RE: Eating Concern

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Posted by: j3nnay at Sun May 20 17:15:47 2007   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by j3nnay ]  
   

Like melindaste said, you want to seperate the babies. Doesn't matter if they were lumped together at the place you bought em at - petstores and reptile expos are rarely good examples of how to house your animal properly. So, here's what you'll prolly wanna do:

- Seperate the babies into their own tanks/tubs. I keep my similarly sized babies in 12 qt sterlite tubs.

- Get a heat pad/mat/cable as well as a rheostat/dimmer, and ditch the light. Your first ball might have adapted to the lights and tank, but the new babies don't seem to have done the same. Ball pythons are nocturnal animals that spend most of their time hidden in rodent burrows - lights stress them out and dry out the air.

- Ideal temperatures are between 85-90 on the hot side, and 75-80 on the cool side. Your babies are probably a bit too warm.

- Once you get all that taken care of, leave em alone except to change their water and check on them. NO HANDLING AT ALL UNLESS ITS AN EMERGENCY. This is the hardest part! Don't mess with them at all until they've eaten at least twice for you.

- And don't panic. Balls are known for their tendencies to cause headaches about getting them to eat regularly. Don't start to really worry until they either start to noticeably lose weight or they haven't eaten for a month or two after you got them.

- When you DO start feeding them, don't worry about getting the "smallest adult mice" you can find. At 16 - 20", they can handle a regular adult mouse just fine. My babies are between 20 and 24" and they eat two mice a week.

Good luck and keep us updated!

~jenny
-----
"The python has, and I fib no fibs,
318 pairs of ribs.
In stating this I place reliance
On a seance with one who died for science
This figure is sworn to and attested,
He counted them while being digested."
~Ogden Nash

jenny.thegreenes.org

"If you're happy and you know it,
Bomb Iraq!
If you cannot find Osama,
Bomb Iraq!
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq!


   

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