My first Snake

I love pictures of snakes yawning. They’re so cute! :heart_eyes:

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I remember when i started keeping i worried about everything like this too. Here’s your daily reminder to stop, take a deep breath, and tell yourself that it’s alright, and you’re doing a great job.

I sounds like you’ve adjusted the temps and humidity already, so her setup is just fine now. I wouldn’t worry too much about how fast she grows just as long as your feeding appropriately sized prey (about the same width as the thickest portion of her body) about once a week or so, then she’ll grow when she grows.

If you want, you can start a log/journal recording her weight, (by digital scale) her feeding schedule and size, her sheds, poops, temps and humidity, vet visits, and maybe even and thoughts and concerns you have along the way. It can help you put that newbie worry to some good use. You’ll have real data to look back on and report if you are ever concerned that she isn’t doing well, and the information that you record can be invaluable for a vet trying to care for your snake if she ever does get sick.

I did this myself with my first two boys. I wish i had kept doing it but I’ll admit that I’m not the best at keeping records over long periods of time. They are really cute to look back on and reminisce anyhow. Also it’s just a good habit to get into if you can.

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That is one darn cute BP! I’m mostly a boa guy but love BPs for how cute and easy to handle they are. That one is the darn cutest lol.

I agree about the tub - since it’s your first snake, you could get a bigger tub for quarantine and then switch to normal non quarantine setup in the same tub (with normal coco block and stuff) which I recommend converted 107qt Sterilite tubs as they have good height still. I’ve found thought the under bed ones are great for racks or more floor space, my BPs life to sit on cork bark or periscope and investigate, so a taller tub is nice. Then once you have an idea on their size can get an enclosure a year or 18mo in. Also helps prevents escapes from tiny snakes put in adult enclosures lol.

I use Soffit Vents from Amazon, the all plastic ones, a hole saw, drill and some Gorilla hot glue. Always a tub with a latching lid too.

Temps I let mine go as low as 78-80 as long as they have a good hot spot that stays about 88-90. This is based on temp probes and ambient - temp gun will give different substrate temp.

Also if you do a soak, there are electrolyte blends if they seem pretty dehydrated but usually I just recommend putting a rock or piece of wood in with them so they have something to hold onto. Maybe not big enough to be on top of, but just to breath and feel comfortable.

Just some thoughts for a new snake parent. Congrats! She’s beautiful.

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Super glad you’ve gotten into the world of Reptiles! Especially Ball Pythons. Your little friend there is beautiful!

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All good advice as usual. I always have issues with humidity in the winter here in Michigan as the heat gets the air very dry. If I see them turn, I usually just soak them when I’m cleaning. Live feeding is a pain in the butt any way you look at it, not so much when they are small but when you get to the rats is when the danger starts. Big teeth! And balls are notorious for going off food for no reason, don’t get disparaged unless they start looking skinny. One of my males was off food for 6 months.

Beautiful snake, and if new to keeping, try to take all advice as a teacher/student scenario. We all are passionate about our animals, whatever they may be.

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Make sure you’re giving rats about the girth of your snake as meals. Thaw rats then i warm in water to 90 ish Fahrenheit and all mine usually take right away. Id get a bigger tub as she needs 88to 90 on hot side and i keep my cool side 78 to 80. I believe in bigger enclosures bc even ball pythons will use the space even if mostly at night. I’ve noticed mine use everything in their 3x2x2

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@Everyone here
I never thought I’d get that much input so so quickly. Thank you for that!
It means a lot to me.

A few things I did until here:
-Added a small Dehumidifier right next to her Box and the Heatmat to hold Humidity a bit more stable.
Because somehow one Hygrometer of two still keeps rising. (Above the Heatmat on the backend)
No moist in the Box and it keeps rising to allegedly 90%.
The second one on the frontend has a 10 % Difference most of the time (standing right next to her cave)
-Every few hours I open the Box a bit to blow some fresh Air in her direction.
My feeling is that the Hygrometers are false because they*re right above the Heatmap - which I will change when her 48 Digestion Hours are trough.
Adding 2-3 Holes on the TopLid then aswell.
Although I have them all around the box on each side.

-Bought a more suitable Heatmat which fits the Size of my Box better (or any future ones)
Also, the same Brand as the ClimaControl Device.
Down From 14 W to 10 W + Half the Size

-Moved the water Bowl intentionally next to the Cave, so she cant move it or flip it around anymore, and hopefully feels even more safe.

And yeah what can I say - I tried to offer her one more Hopper Mouse (18,5g) relatively quickly after around 100 Hours just to have a look how she’d respond, because my impression was that she needed a slight settle in Boost ^^
She took it no Problem. Started Tail first, and changed sides after around 10 Minutes, without me doing anything :smiley:
Probably exceeding her Handling break a bit up from 48 Hours, because the Meal was 1-2 Days early.
A new Cozy Pillowcase is already waiting for her

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Humidity may be very different in one end than the other. Microhabitats can get specific, but it may just take time for the substrate to dry a bit and the circulation to settle each end a bit closer to each other. That said, you would be surprised how different various parts of an enclosure can be. That’s why I like tubs for my babies to grow up in - I feel I have more control over each specific part of the enclosure to build micro-habitats they can utilize for various needs etc.

Also, I will say sunlight can wreak havoc on those inexpensive (but generally accurate) thermometer/hygro combos. Mine will suddenly spike by 10 degrees or show super high or low humidity if hit my natural sunlight. It has to do with the cheaper sensor used as far as I know, maybe the black casing too. UVB doesn’t seem to do the same but natural sunlight can, for most of those cheaper sensors.

I would just cross reference with a temp gun (which shows substrate temp not ambient, keep in mind) and maybe wait til it’s darker to check temp/RH

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How adorable !! :heart_eyes:

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Update

Sooo we changed some things together over here.

About 48 Hours after her 3rd good meal she first entered her new (I‘d say Hybrid like Rack/Tank) where she has some space to stretch out etc.

Its like directly right next to her quarantine camp.

Step by step I added her old furniture, and water dish. She checked out both hides really quickly and stayed in there too, while sometimes stretching her head out seemingly enjoying the height.

I gave her the feeling of that kind of space, the days before too. She seemed to recognize that.

This was yesterday evening, when she had the whole night alone to adapt.

Body Temp was close to 30

The first bigger (ft) meal she had in there was very impressive to watch.

She literally dragged it Into her black af hide after constricting even tho I turned off the lights, and the last thing I saw when I peeked a bit was a tail moving like a noodle. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Unfortunately no footage yet. But I bet it happens again ^^

Handled her shortly before and it seems like her belly gets slightly pinkish aswell as her eyes blur a bit.

I stop handling and feeding now until the shed etc.

She did a good job so far and seems to enjoy the peace and freedom she has here :face_with_peeking_eye:

The black hide is around 30c and the papering hide about 32c.

Seems that she prefers the colder one atm. Also for digesting?

Hides are with paper towel.

Substrate is around 26c.
Ambient stable 28c.


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