Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know everything is ok, but i need to have someone hold my hand and say "everything is going to be ok" haha. my new ball has been a great eater since i got him 3 weeks ago. he has pounded 2 pinkys his first week, then 2 fuzzys last week followed by a hopper this week, but when i went to feed him his second time he showed no interest in the hopper. i am feeding him on sat and wed. my take on it is he was underfed at petco.....yes i bought it at petco......and it took till now to get him comfertable and he is just full. he has pooped 3 times, once a week. he is active and feels a lot stronger now than when i first got him. so in your guys and girls opinions is he just full and i should cut back to one hopper a week. o ya it is 19" and roughly 110 grams, longer and bigger than when i bought him. going to try a pic but i dont know if it will post. thanks for help.

ok how do you guys get multiple pics up?

apparently you should preview message before you post like 10 times with no pics in the post...haha hopefully the mods will see this and clean it up for me because i dont know how to delete my posts. this pic is when i first brought him home

this was taken like 5 min ago....well more like 20 because i was messing around on here for so long

this was on our first night as well, my little girl loves our new pet

Just keep offering him the food. Maybe switch to a mouse a little bigger than a hopper. the movement from something a little bigger may spark his interest. He looks really healthy in the pics, so I wouldn't worry if he skips a week to eat. I've had some that won't eat for 5-6 months and then all of a sudden eat everything I offer. They were larger though and could afford to lose 100-200 grams over that period. Just keep doing what you're doing, it'll be fine. just switch to a mouse that's a little larger than a hopper and see if that works. It's cool to see you and your daughter so happy with him. He's a great looking ball python.

If that temp guage is correct and the enclosure is only 72-ish degrees, you've got bigger problems than a ball python that hasn't eaten for a few days. Your temperature probes need to be on the ground, where a BP spends most of it's time. That emclosure also seems a tad (read: way) too big for a hatchling ball. What type of heat are you providing for your animal? UTH? heat lamp? What are you rhot side temps and your cool side temps? How many hides? How often do you handle him? How often after feeding do you handle him? Why haven't you treid feeding rats yet if he's such a great eater, he should readily switch over?
Lots of questions that need to be answered to determine if a suitable environement can aid in your ball pythons general health.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

those thermometers are junk, the heat gun had it at 78 on hot side and 75 on cool side. it was like 3 in the morning so it was as cool as its going to get. just finished my home made rheostat so i will be able to fine tune temps. the tank is only a 20 long. i figured buy bigger and save some money. he has an uth and a ceramic heat emitter. 2 hides one on cool side and one over the uth. the hot side goes to 95 during the day to 75-80 at night cool side is 80 during the day and 70 at night. i handle him just about everyday for about 15-20 min. i leave him alone for a day after he eats. i havent switched to rats because they are harder to find out here. i had some rat pups ordered at a reptile store by my work, but we had to do emergency work in the burn areas so i am about 2 hours from the store so i wasnt able to get them. i am trying to find them though, but ordering them online is too many for one snake. i would like to help that problem by getting more snakes but the wife doesnt like that idea. i think i got all the questions. let mt know if there are any more.
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0-0-1 green iguana
0-0-1 normal ball python
0-0-3 fish
and we had a pet mouse......untill stripes was hungry

Wow, aside from the night drop in temperature, which is totally unneccesary unless you're breeding and counter-productive for a hatchling that you want to remain eating, everything else sounds spot on. I wouldn't handle a baby that much, but it's your snake.
Good work.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

i switched to a ceramic heat emitter so i can leave it on all night. i had a basking light before and was switching it off at night, hence the drop in temp but not any more. the only thing i would like now is a thermostat so i can just set a temp and it will adjust accordingly, but those are a little pricey
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0-0-1 green iguana
0-0-1 normal ball python
0-0-3 fish
and we had a pet mouse......untill stripes was hungry

$30 isn't pricey.

http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=3136604.9734&product=Temperature%20Control&user4=On/Off%20Thermostat
Thermostat

not really pricey at all. Might just have gotten a bad quote. Up here in Canada I can pick one up for around $40. I'd shop around a little. Its the most helpful piece of equipment I own!!
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

Overhead heat is useless for an animala that will spend 95% of it's time in a hide. You need to provide equal heat 24 hours a day from below (i.e. heat pad, het tape, UTH, etc).
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www.strictlyballs.ca