hi guys! my name is heather, i'm a brand new ball python owner. picked her up at the sacramento reptile show last sunday. i'm pretty new to the whole herp thing - owned a small corn for half a minute many years ago, but that's the extent of my experience. right now i have her in a 40 gallon tank with a UTH from reptitherm, the larger size. i'm hitting the right humidity in the tank (i think, sitting right above 50), but the warm side is at a temperature of 75, which is obviously cooler than i'd like. i have a supplemental lamp with a basking spot lamp of 100w. should i add that to the warm side to bring up the temp? it seems like the darn thing gets so warm. can i leave it on during the day without fear of fire if i'm not home? would wrapping the sides/back of the tank in a background help bring temps up? attached a couple of pics of the tank setup as well as calpurnia herself, who is gorgeous if i must say. thanks for the help!
Welcome to the forums! I'm sure you will get a lot of input as there are a lot of knowledgeable ball python owners here. I would start by covering at least 2 sides of that terrarium, They do like to hide so a cave type hide is best (a bowl with a whole in it). My 18 Ball Pythons live in a condo called a "rack" where i use belly heat or UTH that stays at a temp around 85-86. You need to focus your temp checks to the surface where the UTH is inside the tank as the snake will move onto this area to regulate their body heat. I'm sure others will get more in depth on this for you but i just wanted to get you going in the right direction. As far as lamps, It depends on other animals in the house and how secure they are from tipping. I for one am always one to worry all day about the coffee pot so i secured all my lamps to the enclosures. Always remember to use thermostats on all reptile heating devices, It could be a matter of live and death for them. Never leave them unattended with live prey. EDIT: BTW, I love it when they para-scope to look around, I just had a baby follow his tail for about 20 minutes, too cute!
thank you! seems like there's a lot of knowledge here in general. just covered the back and the warm side of the terrarium, so i'm hoping that will help with temps. she's got a hide on the cool side of the tank as well as an identical one on the warm side, so she won't choose her favorite over thermoregulation. i've also got a thermostat for ambient temperature as well as one focused on the warm side of the tank so i can get a good feel for everything. maybe i'll see what i can do about leaving the lamp on. do you have a night lamp, too? definitely not feeding live! it freaks me out. i'm hoping she'll eat early next week once she's acclimated. thanks for much for the good start and a ton of info! pretty sure i would aww myself to death from the little one following his tail!
Calpurnia is a beautiful little lady...just look at that precious little face = ) One quick question: I see you have the "stick-on" thermometers in the enclosure. Do you have any other way of monitoring the temperature or are these your main tool? It has often been found that the analog, stick-on therms can be pretty inaccurate. I'd recommend getting a digitial thermometer with a probe or a tempgun to ensure accuracy. And as Supernova said, measure the surface temps on each end. Its great that you have a thermostat though! Very important device that is an often overlooked necessity in keeping snakes. Like you, I prefer to feed my snakes Frozen/Thawed prey or at the very least pre-killed as well. While it is completely natural to feed them live, it pains me to see the rodent suffer during the process and you ensure safety to the snake as well from their claws and teeth. Hopefully she eats for you next week, but do not be too discouraged if she does not. Some ball pythons can be pretty finicky about eating... we'll have to see how this little one reacts to food. Do you know what the breeder was feeding her before? The transition from live to F/T or pre-killed can sometimes take a few tricks depending on the snake (or switching from mice to rats) but we'll see how she does with her next feeding attempt and if you run into any problems we are here to help! Now - I do have a couple of minor criticisms. Firstly, you'll have to see how she adjusts to that enclosure. Some snakes do fine in large aquaria, others do not and it completely depends on the individual. She looks like she is still quite young and sometimes a large vivarium like that 40 gallon can be a little too much to handle and can make them feel insecure. Its great that you are willing to provide a nice big, beaufitul home for her though, she will appreciate it in the long-run and you will be able to use that aquarium even when she is an adult. Its still too early to tell if she will be bothered by the size or not...but if you find her not eating for a couple of weeks and appearing to be stressed we may consider reducing the size of her home...but again, this is going to depend on the individual snake. The other issue is aquariums are pretty tricky to make an ideal environment in (it can be done though). As Robert noted, covering the sides will help, and you can even buy backgrounds that are aestetically pleasing for you and still keeps the snake feeling more secure by covering up some of the glass. Ball pythons are a pretty reclusive species - they inhabit termite mounds in Africa frequently and enjoy being fairly cramped and well hidden. For this reason, I'd also throw in another hide or two that she can utilize... preferably something like Robert mentioned that is completely enclosed aside from a single entrance hole so that she can feel completely safe. The strucutres you have in there now will work okay and the enclosure looks very nice, but I think at her age she will benefit from an additional hiding structure or two for decor. Another issue with the aquairums is their inability to hold heat and humidity well. This can sometimes be remedied by placing plexi glass or even saran wrap over a portion of the screen top to help keep some heat in and prevent as much airflow and lost moisture to the room. You'll have to play with things... you can certainly make it work, but you might need to do some tinkering and keep an eye on her temps, shedding, and behavior to ensure that husbandry is good as far as the temps and humidity goes. As for the light - you can use one, but they are a bit disadvantageous to Under-Tank Heaters (UTH) and flexwatt heat tape. Not only do lights use a greater amount of wattage, but they also tend to dry the enclosure out more easily and they produce light that ball pythons simply don't need. They are a nocturnal species and fare well with low lighting. If you are still having trouble with temperature, I'd actually recommend getting a Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) to supplement the UTH for heat. The CHE is a bulb that only produces heat and no light, so in combination with the UTH that isn't quite getting the job done, you should be able to reach the ideal warm end temps of about 90 degrees. These can both be left on 24/7 and because no light is produced, the snake will be unbothered both day and night. You can regulate the temps of the CHE with either a cheap lamp dimmer or thermostat as well. Hope this helps some! Sorry for the novel... keep in mind a lot of what I've recommended will depend on the individual snake and we will just have to see how she acclimates to her new home over the next week or two to decide if any serious changes need to be made... but I would look into a CHE or another UTH as an additional heat source to get those temps right, add another hide or two, and cover up some of the enclosure for now.
hey jeff, thanks for the killer reply! she's pretty cute, i'd have to agree okay, adding a digital thermometer to my to-buy list. good to know that it will be more accurate. unsure if she was eating live or F/T; i'll shoot off an e-mail to the breeder and ask. i've heard they can be very picky, so this is definitely something i suspect will be a challenge. i'm with you totally on the f/t; don't want to hurt the snake, have no desire to watch the rodent be killed. good to know about the enclosure being too large. what constitutes stressed behavior in a BP besides not eating? can i add a tank divider instead of downgrading to a whole different tank if i end up having to? will definitely look into another hide or too, and possibly will back the ones i have up against the sides of the tank so that they'll seem more like a cubbyhole. covering the sides already did raise the temps by a few degrees, so i'll experiment with covering the screen enclosure, too. where can i buy the CHE from? you recommend the CHE over the flexwatt heat tape? thanks for all the info and such a warm welcome!
Stressed animals will typically show signs of lethargy, weight loss, loss of appetite, and usually a complete lack of interest in food. They will also hide 24/7 and show little signs of interest or tongue flicking in anything. For example, a healthy python that may simply not want to eat the food item being offered and may get very excited about the prey, even rub their face all over it, but may not actually strike or consume the prey. This is what you may observe if trying to feeding F/T or a different prey item for the first time. A stressed or ill snake will usually stay put in their hide and refuse to even investigate the food. A divider can certainly work to reduce the enclosure size = ) Ceramic Heat Emitters can be purchased at some home improvement type of stores that sell lightbulbs. They can also be purcahsed at most pet stores or at reptile shows...typically those intended for pet use will be more expensive but they are the same bulb as those sold at home improvement stores if you can find them. A quick search on the web will usually yield pet store product results, but you can see what they look like and get a general price range if you look them up. As for flexwatt heat tape, this is usually purchased online from a site such as http://thebeanfarm.com or http://bigappleherp.com or from reptile shows. It's essentially an undertankheater that is a bit more flexible and much cheaper to install (and more versatile). The benefit of it is it can be cut to whatever size you desire and there are varieties of widths available. For example, you can get an 11" wide piece and it can vary anywhere from 1-100ft in length depending on how large a strip you want, and you can always cut in in 1ft intervals. I can usually pick up a square foot of heat tape that is prepared with a cord for around $5-6... and only a buck or two more per extra foot if I need some serious length. Often a more more economical approach for some keepers than a UTH...but it is basically just a thinner, cheaper, and more flexible UTH that doesn't have a sticky side and that can be quite large.
awesome. definitely not seeing any of those symptoms in cal yet, but i will completely keep myself aware so i can make the appropriate adjustments if need be. also good to know about the divider. good to know on the CHEs, will definitely go the home improvement route most likely. the markup on those things can be insane! also great to know about the flexwatt heat tape (also, try saying that ten times fast). i will be following up on both this weekend to find a good solution and get those higher temps she needs. EDIT: linked through to big apple pet supply and read up on the flex watt tape for the step by step instructions. thanks for the great link. thank you so much for so much information and for taking the time to type it all out to me! we're highly appreciative!
Jeff has pretty much summed up everything I was going to say, but wanted to add that I love the name. Did ya take it from Julius Caesar?
thank you! all my pets have literary names, so it was only fitting calpurnia join the club. works since it's from both julius caesar as well as to kill a mockingbird. you're the second to recognize it!
