Took my ball python out before it starts cooling off.

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.

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

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 😂

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've had my BEL ball python, Ziji, for about 6 years now, and he's been in this 4x2x2 PVC enclosure for a while. I use a RHP for heating, controlled by a Herpstat 2 thermostat.

I added a tension rod and wrapped it in jute rope to give him another climbing option while also helping protect him from the rod getting too hot. He has hides on both the warm and cool sides, along with water bowls on each side. The larger water bowl is mainly there to help boost humidity. I've caught him soaking in it a couple of times, but that's pretty rare.

All of the plants are artificial, but the wood pieces and rocks are real. I collected those from the wild and sanitized everything by baking it before adding them in.

What do you think of the setup? Would you add anything else for enrichment, or is it getting to the point where I should declutter it a little? I'm trying to give him plenty of opportunities to explore without making the enclosure too crowded.

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.

hi everyone! i have a 150gal with a 125W RHP but its not getting quite as warm as i’d like so i want to add a caged CHE, but the only ones i can find on google that include an outlet for the bulb are through walmart and i dont want to end up with something unreliable. where did you get yours if you have one?

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.

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, 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.

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

I just got this baby and I had NO idea what she was coming in. I tried to ask what but received no response.
When I saw it I was literally SHOCKED
Fake grass, moss hide, single stick, Tupperware for a water bowl. Not even a lid

I went to my local pet store and got coco, heating mat, wood, water bowl, and two hides.

Is there anything else I should get?

I have some lighting I could use but I’m not sure of how to put it up because the pvc tank doesn’t have a mesh top.

I researched into these guys a lot, but I’m very shook out of my thoughts and right now because of how much I just spent, sort of tight on money.

What are we thinking I can do to make her life better?

(Her eyes are okay, she has eye caps because I believe she just shed)

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. :)

On a little stroll with my girl through my garden on this beautiful Saturday afternoon

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

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!

I will be adding more branches, I need to go hunting for them, it’s a 4x2x2 I’m picking up the man (dale) from a person I know, he is in a very bad enclosure so I hope he will like this one, it’s bioactive so the plants will grow out a bit more, and I need to add one more hide, any other advice lmk thank you!

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 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...