Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all. I just signed up to this forum because i just today got a ball python. I'm trying to find a good home to learn how to take good care of it. It is a male, and it is allready "full grown" the pet store guys said. They said it was about eight years old. It is about 2 and a half-three feet long. I'm going to go through my setup i have for it. I got a 50 gallon aquarium. It's a decent size. For the bedding i have about two inches of treated bark. I'm not real sure what kind of bark but i bought it at the pet store as well. I have a heat lamp set up, off to the side of the aquarium, its actually right above the pythons "hide box" which until i can come up with something better, is the shoe box from my last pair of boots, with a section of the side cut out. It seems like the temperature seems to be staying right at about 87-92 degrees F. on the other side of the aquarium i have like a glass pyrex bowl with about 3 inches of water in it. It is big enough so that the snake could get in there if it wanted. I also have two sticks i got from the pet store inside the aquarium kind of set up against the walls. I got both a day time and a night time bulb as well.
So i have a few questions.
What is the cycle i should use for day night?
12 hours day 12 night? or actually change the lights along with the outside?
The pet store had the snake for four days, the whole time they didnt feed it. I had the snake about 5 hours before i tried giving it a gerbil (that i killed myself... which i didnt like)And they didnt know the last time it was fed. When is the next time i should try to feed it? (today is may 23, 04).
We were told to handle it atleast once every day. But it seemed kind of timid to me and my girlfriend. Should we just let it go a few weeks?
What are some appropriately sized hideouts for the snake? Right now it has the box from my big old size 12 boots... which takes up a lot of space in there... id like to make enough room to give it 2 or 3 hideouts.
What are some warning signs that its going to strike you? Ive seen it curled up into an "S" ... just staring at me... which kind of freaked me out... Just... what do i look for to tell if its going to strike me.
What is the proper way to bond with them?
I bought a large tupperware container to feed the snake in on the advice of the pet store guy... to try and teach it that a hand coming into its cage doesnt mean food. Although it didnt eat the gerbil i killed in there... i set it back in the aquarium along with the snake. If the snake doesnt take it should i just pitch the gerbil and try again in a few weeks?
Thanks for any responses everyone. Ill try to get a picture on of it ASAP

one more thing. we were told that the snake was WELL fed with the previous owner... and it is kinda fat it seems. so take that into account.

i would like to recommend the book,"the ball python manual"by philippe de vosjoli,roger klingenberg and david and tracy barker.i recently acquired my first ball and this book is a wealth of information.it's hard to respond to your questions because of missing information.also vpi.com has valuable info on balls.have fun!

first of all if this is an 8 year old BP and it's only 2.5-3ft long then it is SERIOUSLY underfed!

Don't feed gerbils, bp's can get addicted to them and won't eat anything else, feed it small rats, f/t (frozen/thawed make sure it is REALLY warm before offering) or f/k (Fresh kill)

The HOT side should be about 90-95 degrees
the cool side should be about 80-85 degress

The BEST way to acheive this is to get a under tank heater (sold in most pet shops) and hook it up to a lamp dimmer to control the heat (uth's can get WELL over 110 degrees)

get a digital thermometer and put it above the UTH (the UTH should be on the OUTSIDE of the tank, under one side, the probe on the inside right over the UTH)

Lamps suck for bp's as do tanks.....

get a humidity gauge
the humidity should be about 50%-60% normally
and about 60%-75% when IN SHED.

Get the snake off the bark for now and put it on news paper or paper towel until you can get a fecal done (Especially if it is as old as you say and only 2.5-3ft long!)

take the branches out as well until the snakes health is all cleared up.

if you have any questions you can email me and I will help you to the best of my knowledge, and if I can't help you, I will point you in a good direction to ask people who can help you!
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

get that little thing out of that huge tank! or take cereal boxes in there, atleast 3 one on the hot side one on the cool side and one in the middle.

put it in a small rubbermaid or sterilite container (drill holes in the side for ventalation.)

do not feed, handle or sit and stare at it for atleast 14 days.

only get into the cage to give fresh water or spot clean.

after 14 days offer a f/t small rat (as small as you can get considering the size) if it eats, great.

Do not handle it until it eats sucessfully 4 times in a row (not one right after the other, but once a week)
if it eats succesfully 4 times in a row, great, if he refuses a meal start over. Ball pythons are not good beginner snakes, you have to be patient.

every snake has different warning signs that it is going to bite, some doesn't show any signs at all. You have to learn to read the snake. Don't be afraid to handle it.

Like I said, take it off the bark until you can get a fecal taken to the vet, or get the snake to a vet.

I hate to tell you this, but snakes don't bond (if you wanted something to bond with, you should have gotten a dog), they don't love and they don't "like".

Ball pythons are nocturnal and solitary creatures. They don't like the company of other snakes, and most likely don't like to be cuddled, and if it seems they do, it's probably the heat you are giving off, remember that your body temp is usually 96.8 degress, which is a great temp to lay on.

And if you ONLY get into the cage to feed it there are some problems. You get into the cage on other occassions, like to water and clean, and even handle the snake.

So it will NOT learn that you hand means food.
Now if you reach into the cage after handling a rat/mouse then expect to be bitten. That is your own fault, you should have washed your hands.

Pitch the gerbil if he don't eat it.

again if you have ANY questions just email me (sapphire_snake_goddess@yahoo.com)

if I can't help you, I can tell you about a place that can!

sorry for the double post, but I forgot to read the last part of your post! lol
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

hey sapphire_snake, chill a little bit your going to scare the pore guy to death. Keeping balls isn't really this hard. Now all those numbers for humidity and temperture are right and if you can do this great but if you can't ceep those numbers it doesn't mean that you are going to kill or harm the ball. you said that it looked fat so it probally is fine as long as there is no lose skin or the belly is flat and doesn't look like a pit (I'm thinking the pet store guy is wrong about the age). I would however check with the pet store and make sure that it is a captive born snake If it is wild caught you probally are going to have problems getting it to eat. Try putting him and a mouse or rat (I use froze/thawed but if he is wild caught you may have to use a live one the first couple of times until he gets use to this) back in the smaller plastic container at night and let it be completely dark. this will normally prompt him to eat. as far as the cage goes I kept snakes in aquariums for years with no problems I did use newspaper for a floor and still do. If your interested though The rubbermiad bokes that sapphire was talking about is just regular old sweater boxes from wall mart. just take a drill or saudering iron and pop some holes in them. I have switched to using these because they are cheep and very easy and fast to clean and with the number of snakes I have time is alwase an important. I hope you the best of luck with yuor new snake, and remember reptils are addictive you can't stop with just one.

It sounds like you've got a very nice setup except for the hidebox. You could try an overturned flowerpot with a hole drilled in the side, but it normally takes a lot of time to drill through that clay. U should definately handle him every day so that he can get used to u. Otherwise he'll get even more timid. I suggest feeding him once every five days up to once every week. As to the lighting u should go by what it's doing outside this gives the snake a natural photoperiod. Bonding can simply be done by handling often. Also, if your python isn't eating pre killed food then u should try giving him live. Finally, another option to feeding him in the tuppaware is to feed him in the tank anyway, but when u go to handle him scrub an antiseptic (probably available at your pet store) called reptisafe. This normally works because reptiles have an acute sense of smell and memory. This works with my snakes.