Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys/gals, my wife and I are purchasing our first snake together at the end of the week. What a glorious day. I'm sure it will rate real close with the birth of my son.
I've been doing a little research and studying on the subject, so I think I have a basic understanding, but I may need a little fine tuning.
My main concern is the temp of my aquarium. I need a little advice on what size and kind (Kane?) of heating mat I will need. The dimensions of the tank is 35x17x17. Do I need a mat to cover the entire floor of the tank, half the tanks, ect..Will I need a secondary heat source? If so, what kind? Ceramic? Heatlamp?
Also, how many of you move your BP to another tank for feeding? And if you do, how long do you leave it in there before moving it to it's main tank? Also, after I purchase my BP I have read not to handle it for a week or two, and not until it has ate once or twice. Do I just need to leave him in the main tank at this time for feeding as well?
I've attached a pic of my tank as of now, I know I still need a heat mat, bark and thermometer. Can you think of anything else I will have to have? The items I have in it are the two strange looking object, a hiding hole and a butter tube with hole in top for hiding and soaking (both made by me with expanding foam and (after dried)nontoxic paint, a rock soaking dish, 2 climbing trees, and a little hamock for climbing. Too much? What else?
Thanks everyone.
Micah

1st off - Congrats on the upcoming addition to your home!

Balls are awesome snakes and I am sure you all will fall in love with the little devil. I will comment best I see it but am sure others will fill in anything I miss.

Ummm.. as a family pet your set up is fine for the most part. Sure, you do not need all that stuff, but your BP will have fun with it in the tank. If you plan to purchase a hatchling your tank is too big, furthermore; I do not recommend a fresh hatchling since they often times do not make it. Look for a juvenile, or a BP in transition from hatchling to juvenile. The goal is to find an established offspring that feeds well if you must purchase a young snake as your first.

First off, decide what type of substrate ( whatever is being used to cover the bottom of your tank ) you plan to use. The most common substrates are aspen, newspaper, and turf. Second, I do not recommend a heat lamp or rock. The lamp will dry out the tank and may complicate shedding. Also, heat rocks are hazardous since they can lead to burns. Not a pretty site, trust me been there, got the t-shirt. An undertank heater is ideal, and you will need something to regulate the heater since they can get terribly hot. I have always used heat lamps but recently switched to UTHs ( under tank heaters ). Big difference in the humidity levels of the enclosure, and my 5 year old male BP, Bugsy, just had a perfect shed ( uncommon for him. Also, flexwatt is used by many, but this is mainly used for housing larger numbers of animals. BTW, my UTHs cover about 20% - 25% of the bottom of the tank. Your local pet store can help with this. Actually, it should be on the box so just read it carefully. Take notice since most UTHs can not be used on anything but glass safely.

I do not move my BP's to another tank for feeding although many do. Over the years I have not had a single problem with this. If you guys handle your BP fairly often so he/she does not associate opening the tank with feeding you should not have a problem. I do not handle my pythons for a MINIMUM of 48 hours after feeding. I find they will curl up in the hot spot of the cage post feeding to regulate their body temperature for disgestion of the food. BTW, a regurgitated rat is not a pleasant site, lol! Speaking of food - feed once a week. This usually works fine.

What you will need:

tank,
substrate,
hide box - some people use two, one on hot side and one on cold
water bowl,
heat source,
thermometer,
thermostat,
hygrometer - I live in South LA, never had a problem with humidity

Note: Make sure the lid is secure!!!

Hope this helps and I am sure others will reply with their thoughts and wisdom. Remember, no one way is the right way. What works for me may not work for you. Good Luck!!!

ToddG
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1.1 Balls - Male het/albino, Female 66% het/albino
***Fingers crossed for next season!!!***

Congrats on your decision to buy a ball! They are great animals/pets.

I'm impressed that you are doing things correctly (actually
setting up a cage BEFORE buying, and learning a lot upfront...).
For heating, you want to provide your ball with a temperature
gradient. You want the warm end to be ~92-94 degrees, and the
cooler end of the cage to be ~80 degrees. That way, your ball
can choose what temps it wants. Ideally, you'd have a hide
box at each end so it can also feel 'safe' and doesn't have to
choose an inadequate temp just to feel safe. Make sure the temp
of the side with your heat mat aren't too hot.

Regarding feeding: I don't put animals in special 'feeding' cages
and find that they do just fine in their enclosures. However, if
your ball gives you a hard time eating, you can go ahead and
try a separate feeding bin (smaller and darker).

Regarding handling your new ball...the main reason people tell
you not to handle them is because of a worry that they will be
tough to get eating. You want your ball to feel secure in it's
new home. Once it starts eating regularly, then you won't be
worried that it isn't going to be a good eater. I would
recommend, in the beginning, that you don't handle it for the
24-48 hours before feeding (so that it will have a better
likelihood of eating for you). If your ball eats great, then
you shouldn't worry about handling it more often.

Your cage sounds like it will be a nice display for your animal.

Welcome to the wonderful world of ball pythons!
Regards,
ChrisS - SanJose

Posted by: micah01 at Sun May 30 21:23:51 2004 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Hey guys/gals, my wife and I are purchasing our first snake together at the end of the week. What a glorious day. I'm sure it will rate real close with the birth of my son.
I've been doing a little research and studying on the subject, so I think I have a basic understanding, but I may need a little fine tuning.
My main concern is the temp of my aquarium. I need a little advice on what size and kind (Kane?) of heating mat I will need. The dimensions of the tank is 35x17x17. Do I need a mat to cover the entire floor of the tank, half the tanks, ect..Will I need a secondary heat source? If so, what kind? Ceramic? Heatlamp?
Also, how many of you move your BP to another tank for feeding? And if you do, how long do you leave it in there before moving it to it's main tank? Also, after I purchase my BP I have read not to handle it for a week or two, and not until it has ate once or twice. Do I just need to leave him in the main tank at this time for feeding as well?
I've attached a pic of my tank as of now, I know I still need a heat mat, bark and thermometer. Can you think of anything else I will have to have? The items I have in it are the two strange looking object, a hiding hole and a butter tube with hole in top for hiding and soaking (both made by me with expanding foam and (after dried)nontoxic paint, a rock soaking dish, 2 climbing trees, and a little hamock for climbing. Too much? What else?
Thanks everyone.
Micah

Thanks for you quick responses. Most of what ya'll said backs up what I had determined from what I read. And the rest was iceing on the cake.
We can't wait to go get him. Saw him and picked him out last weekend. He was very curious and alert. Seemed to be healthy. I didn't have a measuring tape at the time, but he was about 20-22in. Would this still be considered a juvinile?
If anybody else has any other advice/opinions, I'd appreciate them as well.
Thanks,
Micah

My main concern is the temp of my aquarium. I need a little advice on what size and kind (Kane?) of heating mat I will need. The dimensions of the tank is 35x17x17. Do I need a mat to cover the entire floor of the tank, half the tanks, ect..Will I need a secondary heat source? If so, what kind? Ceramic? Heatlamp?
Also, how many of you move your BP to another tank for feeding? And if you do, how long do you leave it in there before moving it to it's main tank? Also, after I purchase my BP I have read not to handle it for a week or two, and not until it has ate once or twice. Do I just need to leave him in the main tank at this time for feeding as well?
I've attached a pic of my tank as of now, I know I still need a heat mat, bark and thermometer. Can you think of anything else I will have to have? The items I have in it are the two strange looking object, a hiding hole and a butter tube with hole in top for hiding and soaking (both made by me with expanding foam and (after dried)nontoxic paint, a rock soaking dish, 2 climbing trees, and a little hamock for climbing. Too much? What else?
Thanks everyone.
Micah

well for temps, any UTH will work, but you need something to controll it as UTH's can get well over 110 degrees!
and you temps should be 90-95 degrees hot side and about 80 degrees cool side. If the cool side is cooler than 80 but higher than 75 you should be fine, if you need to up the cool side indirectly point a regular light at one end of the cage until it goes up.
I usually use a lamp dimmer, cheap, easy to find, and works well.

I don't know if you said you have it, but a indoor/outdoor digital thermometer with probe will acurately tell you your temps. put the probe on the inside of the cage, right over the UTH, on the floor, under the substrate.

You will also need a humidity gauge.

As for feeding, most balls stress way easy, and moving it back and forth to feed (especially the first few times) will probably stress it out alot. So my suggestion is to use news paper or paper towels until it gets used to eating regularly.

You need a substrate. Yes aspen is used alot. But it can be ingested and you have to either feed in another container, or put something under the snake to feed it. I just use news paper, not the most attractive, but it works great, I keep 4 snakes on it.

You may want to watch it climbing, they aren't the most gracefull of snakes and can injure themselves falling.

Don't get a fresh out of the egg hatchling but there is no need to get a juvi or in transition juvie either. Get a ball that is feeding regularly for atleast 1-2 months.
There is no telling how old a ball python is from how long it is.
You will have to ask the people you got it from.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me or email me. I can give you the name of another website that is AWESOME.

Congrats on the new addition, your tank looks great! And beware, they are addicting!
-----
1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

UTH should cover about 25% of the tank - 50% max. Be sure to set the UTH on a thermostat.

You need at least one hide for each side of the tank. They should be low, tight and snug - round seems to be preferred. Check this out for more info:
proexotics.com/FAQ_answers_Hide_Spots.html
A tank that size can be find for a little BP, but only if you have more hides and hides that are appropriately sized (see above). I started my 2 month old in a 50 gallon breeder with about the same dimensions as yours, but he had 4-5 hides to choose from and they were correctly sized (low, tight, snug, etc). So he was not stressed by the space.

A UTH may be all you need for heat, but maybe not. Tanks are notorious for not maintaining proper temps and humidity. So get everything set up and running for a couple of days so you can monitor the temps and humidity BEFORE bringing your BP home. It will save you a lot of headache and be best for your BP. That way you have time to make modifications if you need to. If you need a supplemental heat source I'd avoid ceramic heaters. They dry the air up too much. Go for an infrared heat lamp - they also make great night lights. They will also dry the air so you may have to resort to some of the tricks to making a tank work (covering with duct tape/saran wrap/aluminum foil, covering with damp towels, etc).

You only need to feed out of the tank if you have a loose substrate. Otherwise not required, unless you have a difficult time getting your BP to eat in the tank and you find feeding outside the tank works for him/her.

I wait one week after getting my snakes before handling or disturbing. After that week I feed them. Once I've gotten at least one successful feed in I start handling for short sessions and then gradually increase the sessions. You'll find different people have different strategies.

Be sure to get a good quality (that usually means a digital with probes and not the analog or stick on kind) thermometer for each side of the tank and a hygrometer. You can find units that have a thermometer w/ hygrometer and probes.

Also, I can't tell, but it looks like the tank is in front of a window? If so, then you shouldn't keep it there. The light from the window will bake your BP - if this is where you intend to keep it. The tank should be away from a window and in a low traffic area.

Finally, it's difficult to tell from the picture, but that top does not look secure (I could be wrong). A little BP can still be strong escape artist. Is it a sliding top?

Some final tips/advice:
Don't handle during shed or for at least 48 hours after feeding.

Wait to feed after shedding or at least until the eyes clear up.

Establish a good routine for cleaning and disinfecting (these are 2 different things, just cleaning is not enough: www.anapsid.org/cleaning.html

Temps: warm side=90-95, cool side=80-85. A night time drop is not required, but if it does drop do not go below 72-75 on the cool side and make sure you still have a temp gradient (difference of 5-10 degrees between the 2 sides)

Humidity: 50-60% when not in shed, 70% is great during shed

Shedding: body and eyes will cloud over and then clear up. Once the eyes clear up the snake should shed in a few days. When the eyes clear this is the most important time for higher humidity. Be prepared for your snake to defecate after shedding and you may see some blood - all normal.

Buy your snake from a reputable source. Be sure to ask to see it feed first and hopefully it is already eating frozen/thawed. You want to minimize your chances of having to deal with a difficult feeder as much as possible - it is so incrediably frustrating.

Get at least a fecal done by a vet.

**************************

Have fun! You're going to be so happy with your new friend. Glad to see someone interested in making sure things are right before bringing their snake home. So many problems can be avoided by doing that.

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1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
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0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"