Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can't wait, his dad was an albino and the mom was a het. He's comming from the Sutherland's so I'm sure he's going to be great. I'll post pics when he commes in.
I just wanted to make sure everything goes over smooth. I set up a 32 qrt rubbermaid, one side has an 11 inch heatape set at 90 degrees. I'm going to leave him alone for the rest of the week when he arrives. Any othe advice would be great.
Also, he has been eating rat fuzzies, what are you experiences of switching a ball back to mice, I feed my other snakes mice so it would be a lot easier to keep all my snakes on the same thing.

P.S. this is an off topic question, but would a 28qrt be suffient for hatchlings?
Thanks, Dave.

Honestly the biggest I would go for hatchlings if 15qts. and that is almost too big. They don't need much room and shoe box size tubs are efficient enough. I don't move my ball pythons into 32 qt. tubs until around 900 grams. Ball pythons like tighter areas.

Keep him on rats. You don't want to have to feed a large Ball a bunch of adult mice if he decides thats what he wants after you switch him. Usually they will take mice or rats, but I wouldn't go to mice unless I had to.

Chad

I agree with dominicanthony, hatchlings do much better in smaller containers. I use 6qt shoeboxes for my hatchlings and move them up to a 12qt, and then a 32qt. Congrats on your purchase. The Sutherlands are great people! Here are some pictures of some of my hatchling units:

I would recommend that you use a shoe box or something small for hatchlings up to 400-600 grams. I have put 800 grams females into 28 quart Sterlites and they tend go of feed. I have heard the same from customers.
I use 12 quart Sterlites for 500-1200 grams and 28 quart for 1000 grams and up.
Keep them in a smaller container until you find feeding problems. No need for a hide.

GOD Bless
Andre
ASFReptiles

Wow, never knew that they would do fine in a 12 Quart container when that large. Thanks.

I have the exact same setup "32 qrt rubbermaid, one side has an 11 inch heatape set at 90 degrees" exactly the same and my BP, hatchlings and adults do fine. You do want a rheostat or lamp dimmer to turn the heat tape down, I keep my rheostat on low or else the temp will reach over 100 degrees.