Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a ball python from Petco about two months and everything had been going just fine until about two weeks ago. I keep Lazlo, my python, in a 20 gallon long tank with a lock down screen on top with a 65 Watt ceramic heater and a 65 Watt blue night light on him at all times. I can't seem to keep the temperature up past 84 on the warm end so I was wondering if you had any advice on how to do that. Also two weeks ago Lazlo began shedding he still isn't done, last night he got most of his skin off but there is still about an 1/8th of it left around his head but he lost his eye caps. I put a damp cloth in his hide box but I don't know if this is enough to keep the humidity at a good high level for his shed. I see him right now trying to rub off that excess skin so any advice ASAP would be much appreciated!! Thank you.

Ryan

First thing first, get rid of that ceramic heater. It will cook your snake. You need to replace it with an under tank heater (UTH). Now, in regards to the heat, or lack there of. From what we know about heat, it rises. So, if you have a ceramic heater above the cage, the heat won't get down inside there. I know this kind of contradicts that the heater can kill the snake if the heat doesn't stay in the cage. What happens is that the snake will eventually bask under the ceramic heater. The heat dicipates from the rest of the cage, but creates one dangerous spot of concentrated heat. Remember, your snake is on the bottom of the cage. To fix this you get an undertank heater and monitor the temperature on the floor of the cage up to about 6" high. Since ball pythons are not arboreal, it won't matter what the temperature of the cage is at the top. Be sure to use a hide box as it will trap heat in there. I personally feel that is why most ball pythons spend so much time inside their hide box when kept in an aquarium. Also, be sure to get a thermostat or rheostat of some sort to control the temperature of the UTH. If you do not do that, it might cause your snakes to burn it's belly scales.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.