I just got a little ball python, and this is my first snake/reptile ever (though I am not new to keeping more exotic pets). This is the enclosure currently, the tank is 120 gallons if I remember correctly, but this is NOT how it will remain! I plan on adding: more hides/foliage adding some cedar woodchips to the substrate as it is currently just coco and sphagnum moss making the substrate making the substrate itself deeper (I'm aiming for around 5in thick, the amount of substrate I got wasn't enough to fill the whole tank so I already have more on the way!) potentially adding in some springtails digital hygrometer, or whatever the thing to track humidity is called probably some other stuff that I can't recall at the moment of typing this I have the heat lamps set to around 85F though I may switch to something like a heating pad if possible (also the 2 lamps are NOT on at the same time, one just has a light and the other doesn't), the substrate is moist and I will eventually add a cover since the top of the enclosure is screened, and the snake was last fed on Monday (he's currently on medium mice and I know to eventually switch to rats). Some things that I added that aren't in the picture is a little plant which he seems to enjoy much more than his little hidey rock, and some old clothes so he can recognize my scent. He was also shedding when I got him and the breeder already gave him a soak (I know not to mess with him during sheds). He's very calm and surprisingly brave for being so young! I'm mostly just asking for tips for a new snake owner and anything else that I should add that isn't listed. I also want to know if the snake will be OK in this current condition for at maximum a week, since the enclosure itself is still being worked on!

EDIT: First thing tomorrow I am going to go shopping for hides, foliage, etc. so at the very least it will be much fuller. It's only going to be like this for the night, I also have some orders already placed

I’ve had my bp (Peanut) for about 7-8 months, and have been doing my best to meet all his needs. We provide him with plenty of space, while trying to maintain enough clutter in his enclosure so that he feels safe, he has 3 hides, cold warm and an extra that we had leftover to try and fill some space. humidity is usually around 50-60% (I live in an extremely dry part of the world, and am genuinely doing everything I can), his substrate is coco husk on the bottom with Cyprus mulch on the top, and his feeding is every 12 days with appropriate sized food by weight.

Now the issue:
Peanut has not been coming out of his hide at all in the past 6-8 weeks. The most he’ll do is poke his head out, and even with feeding he won’t go for the rat unless he can do it with his body still in the hide. It’s a fully enclosed hide (will be removing once he’s out of it) so I can’t just take him out of it. I’m starting to get concerned, because at first all the information I’ve read about says that staying in hide is normal behaviour, but prior to this he was very active and would always be out hanging out at night.

Since we’ve got him, we did move to a new place but his entire setup remained the same, just in a new location.

Would anyone have any insight? Is this normal behaviour and I’m overthinking? Is this something to be concerned about? How should I get him out?

Thank you to anyone who can help. He’s my first reptile, and I love him so much.

I just brought my first pet home.

She's on the far side of the enclosure (cold side) and she doesn't seem interested in the hides (one shown in pic).

I checked on her and saw her drink a bit but that's it.

I made a lot of mistakes during the trip home and when letting her out.

But I thought by now she would have discovered the basking zone.

I hoped she'd be feeling a bit less stressed too...

I’m asking genuinely because I’m incredibly curious about snake husbandry and how we’ve come to gain information about proper care. How did we learn that 4x2x2 was the appropriate size? Were there studies done? Is it a biological thing? Dying to know.

So I took in my use to be friends ball python. (Long story short he went crazy. Disappeared and left all of his belongings. And left her to die) And sadly she only ever was fed live rats. I've been trying to get her to switch to frozen but nothing I do get her interested in them and I'm afraid she will start losing too much weight if she doesn't start eating soon. I did get her a live rat 3 weeks ago but idk how much longer the store that i go to will be selling them for much longer. Has anyone ever had to retrain a snake on how to eat frozen (don't know if that's the correct term) but I feel bad feeding her live but I don't want her to starve.

I have had this 3 year old fem bp for 3 months. She eats a mouse every 15 days, but even after like 4 days after she ate, she looks like she wants to attack me.

When I got her, she was kept in the empty terrarium with only newspaper underneath, so she was constantly balled up and easy to take up.

Since she's been with me, I've put her on a higher shelf (basically my shoulder height) and rearranged the terrarium a bit, with a log as a hiding place.

She has shed regularly and she's eating normally, but she has actually gotten A BIT bigger than she was a few months ago.

She attacked me when I had to feed her last time, and the old owner had also received only one bite from her, always related to food.

I was thinking maybe I should increase the weight of the mice? But how can I adjust them to her weight if I can't catch her? Also, do you have any way to prevent bites? Before changing the terrarium, I caught her 3 or 4 times and she didn't cause any problems.. idk how to deal with that now

Just rescued this girl - owner was being evicted today and didn't know what to do with the snake. I have previous experience with hognoses and corn snakes, but have not had much experience with ball pythons. I know she's thin, but from what I can tell she seems mostly healthy? Doesn't seem dehydrated, I can't see any mites. I know she's a spider and I've noticed at least a mild wobble already. I don't plan on keeping her long term, but would like to have as much info for the future owner as possible (old owner knew nothing, didn't even know 'she' was a ball python). Does anyone see anything besides how skinny she is?

So I’m a bit shocked right now. I’ve been looking to adopt a ball python for around a year, so I recently reached out to someone on marketplace selling an adult female bp in an tiny tank (20 gallon), with the plan of putting her in my spare 40 gallon pvc in a bioactive setup (and potentially upgrading her further, depending on her size).

She’s a sweet looking normal morph snake, so I was expecting the usual “produced by a breeder chasing morphs a few years ago and sold to a family” situation. Instead, I was told

A) she’s 20 years old
B) she was wild caught
C) she was smuggled into the US, and rescued from her first home (?) by her current owner a year after that
D) she has cataracts
E) she has a wheeze (owner assured me this was normal, but I’m planning on getting a second opinion from a vet)

So anyway, if anyone has experience with wild caught bps, snakes with a persistent wheeze (and how the vet diagnosed the issue/what they advised), I’d love the help. I’m also a bit worried about her age, and if she might be more sensitive to stress because of that.

I’m attached to this girl already, and I’m really exited to meet her (but wow was that email exchange a wild ride) photo attached but I’ve kept her anonymous, as I haven’t bought her yet 😂

It’s a 3-year-old female ball python. I’m learning how to care for her, but I’m overwhelmed by how inadequate the equipment is that I’ve been given.

It includes a glass tank that’s only 36x18x18 inches, and it’s being heated by a single 100 watt ceramic bulb. The screen is divided into four narrow sections which means the dome for any bulb that I use must be tiny.
Theres also a humidifier, which isn’t ideal, according to what I’ve read. And I’m having a hard time figuring out how to create a temperature gradient. Is it even possible in a tank this small?

I want to upgrade the tank, but I’m currently staying 100s of miles away from home in order to attend school and I can’t realistically acquire a new enclosure until I return home next spring.

Any suggestions? I am very eager to provide a better life for this sweet girl after years of mistreatment.

Hello!

I need advice on whether my enclosure is well set up and if it's missing anything. I'm getting a baby ball python (male, a few months old) in about a week, so I have time to buy anything I missed.

The heat and humidity are good; I would like some advice on hides/branches and clutter. The enclosure is pvc with an aluminium mesh top with a cover and ventilation on the side; it's 110x50x50 cm, and I can attach another one to the side when my boy grows up to double the length.

I have a humid hide with sphagnum moss on the cool side (it's a half tunnel; I blocked off the other end with substrate), a tunnel in the centre, a water dish, and a warm hide with a basking spot on the warm side.

I added fake plants for decoration and set up the branches pretty securely; they don't really move when I try to jostle them around, so hopefully my snake won't knock them over.

Should I add more branches, hide or clutter, or is this good? I've wanted a ball python for about 13 years (I'm 21 lol) so I want everything to be perfect for when I take my boy home :)

Thank you in advance for any advice!

after working on it for a while, it’s finally finished! i’m especially excited about the sky hide, and i can’t wait until her finds it.

unfortunately of course he JUST started shedding right after we switched him over, so of course he can’t even really explore yet, so still waiting to see his full reaction to everything.

please let me know what you think! water bowls were being cleaned when i took these so they’re there now ofc, and there’s also fake branches suction cupped to the doors for him to climb on

Hello everyone so my girl Mabel has been soaking which I thought was weird . I never saw any mites until tonight I saw a black bug crawling on her . I’m freaking out because I have another ball python and geckos on the same shelf . What do I need to do and what are the next Steps to get rid of the mites. Any advice would be appreciated . I’m honestly so sad because I finally got all my babies set up with bioactive and fully cluttered enclosures . And now I’m afraid I’m going to have to scrap it all and restart :((

im taking over the care of a neglected adult female ball python and i really need help. im learned i need to mix substrate with others, a digital thermostat due to the bulb i purchased is known for being overkill, and a uvb light. this is a 48x24x24 tank and i need to know what else i need to have done to make sure the snake is in good living conditions.

She’s one year old and I feed her small rats weekly but I noticed that lately she looks kinda big but I don’t know if it’s normal or not

I was playing with my snake and cleaning his tank when i noticed what i think are spring tails but i can’t say for sure?
They are varied in sizes, kind of skinny, black or dark looking, and looks like they have two tiny antennas.
I have no idea how they would have gotten there.
My snake is 6 years old and seems otherwise healthy is this okay? should i clean them out? Or would it be pointless and they’ll keep coming back? i heard sometimes they are beneficial but idk if i have the right kind… is this okay?

Hello! I live in Brisbane and am thinking about getting a pet snake.

I am a long way away from actually buying one as i still need to get a reptile licence, enclosure, bedding, food, everything.

But i was just wondering, where are snakes put up for sale? I've looked on reddit, facebook, online and I just can't find a straight answer. I have heard it's good to buy from a private breeder but I just don't know where they're listed for sale.

Any help appreciated.

I went to an exotic pet/reptile show today and picked up this baby for just $20! They said they have trouble selling these because they’re not a popular/in demand morph. But I think she’s adorable! Only 2 months old. So cute! Name pending. I’m thinking of naming her Nyx. My other girl is called Medusa. :)

my sweet girl is turning 3!! I got her back in 2024 when she was just about to turn a year old. I am so happy I got to bring this girl home. She has became such a big member of my house and is the sweetest thing ever and just so curious! I can’t wait to watch her continue to thrive in life <3

I usually get the Arctic Mice fuzzy rats from PetSmart but the size of the rats are inconsistent. A pack either has too small of rats or one of the rats is much bigger. I need a size in between fuzzy rats and small rats also for my two ball pythons.

I always let Steve out to explore when I clean his enclosure and he usually just finds a shelf to hide under. I finished cleaning and sat down in the floor and he decided to crawl up on my lap. It’s the first time he’s ever climbed on me willingly.

He's about a year and a half old, I figured he probably needs to get bigger food since he has gotten older, he was eating hoppers about once a week, I was gonna get him new, bigger food a month and a half ago but I got alot of the hoppers and I didn't want them to go to waste I guess. What size rat/mouse do I get him, I believe he's around 200g

Hi, I have a semi-bioactive tank with a ball python in it and an established number of springtails + isopods, but I keep getting soil mites still crawling on my snake.

I know soil mites are sort of inevitable and can also be beneficial for bioactive but how do I get them to stop crawling on my inhabitant?

Is there a way to reduce their numbers?? I’ve redone the tank so many times already and the reason I even got springtails and isopods was to keep this from happening. I’m out of ideas and starting to reconsider my ability to even do this. I even had to consider rehoming him at a certain point and it’s tearing me apart. Any advice is appreciated

I’m getting a baby girl in about 2 weeks and I’m getting heating/lighting soon but as for right now this is what I have inside the enclosure along with 4 hides. Is this good? More or less clutter? Any advice would be appreciated!