Thinking of getting one of these fellas. Besides the obvious big cage, heat temp monitor and lamp, and hides and pool, what should I know/get? Do the redditards know shit?
Ball pythons and other small snakes
Thinking of getting one of these fellas. Besides the obvious big cage, heat temp monitor and lamp, and hides and pool, what should I know/get? Do the redditards know shit?
Ball pythons can be picky eaters, have you considered a different kind of snake?
>ball python
>small
bro you're in for four feet of CHONK that can heem the mightiest rats
disregard the clowns who tell you females can get like 6 feet long though. the sex difference is like two inches
This fatty through a fit when I tried to give her a bigger hide. She just sat on the cold side and pouted for hours and hours. Poked her head in the new hide and then went back to the cold side. I gave in and gave her the igloo box back. She likes to lift up the lid and slam it shut. I also somestimes leave it open after I feed her and she closes it on her own.
What a dummy
One big thing is that they are nest raiders in nature and many do enjoy climbing but almost no care sheets/manuals I've seen mention that. Put some sturdy, stable branches and other climbables in there.
>Do the redditards know shit?
I assume so, they are pretty hardy snakes.
Add a scale to weigh your snake with to your shopping list. You may want to buy a safer heat source than a lamp as well. Also helpful is something large and flat like a dinnerplate or piece of slate or tile that can be placed over the substrate; it’s to put a thawed rodent on (just leave it there for a few hours, ball pythons don’t need to strike at prey and will happily scavenge) to keep the snake from eating a bunch of substrate.
Stuff you should know:
-They can sometimes be fairly shy and picky about eating, but the using the scale to check weight should help you from feeling too anxious and worried about it. They can starve for ages with no risk of dying; mine once escaped and got trapped in a tv stand without food for half a year.
-The condition of its shed skin is a good indicator of if you have too little humidity (a truly accurate hydrometer can be hard to find); the shed should all in one piece, if it’s peeling off in smaller pieces the enclosure is too dry. Soaking the snake will fix this in the short term if it’s bad enough there are stuck bits, make sure the snake can fully submerge itself in its normal water pool as well.
Your mileage may vary with taking the rodent placed on a tile. I've heard many times of ball pythons that will only eat food left for them in the dark when their owner doesn't watch them, but mine is an absolute retard who will only take food if its very warm and on the tongs. If I accidentally drop it he will sit directly on top of it and look around/at me confused demanding to know where his dinner went. If I leave it it's still there in the morning and I have to throw it out and waste the rat. They are kind of autists about food in general, it's the only real downside to keeping them besides them hiding most of the time. Like the other anon said they should have climbing opportunities, mine comes out to climb at night unless he's got a full belly.
I was initially afraid to add a ballpython to my small collection due to the reasons mentioned here, but is one of my easiest snakes now. Mine strikes like a cobra and never skips a meal. It was also easily trainable with Lori Torrini's method (check her youtube vids). I do have her in an 120x60x50 but the goofball only sits below the water bowl which barely fits. Get a PVC enclosure to keep the humidity stable, glass and some wood enclosure are really poor in keeping humidity in.
Seconding the PVC. I bought a huge glass terrarium because I am snob that hates plastic in my home, and my hubris caused me to think modifying it for humidity in the winter while living in a frozen shithole would be simple. It was not simple and I have to add water to the substrate occasionally and mist daily even with modifications.
Not OP, but since PVC enclosures have been brought, I may as well ask here: what are the main suppliers people get PVC enclosures from and are happy with in terms of the quality?
Keeping a ball python is fairly straight forward. Try to avoid the ones at big box stores. Reptile expos and private breeders are a good option.
Do the opposite of
Expo bps are all inbred to death by morphaggots. My big box bp and corn are lovely, active, handleable, good eaters, growing fast.
Oh and big box stores have great customer service. Reptile stores are like guitar stores. Narcissistic losers who gatekeep you because you don't know what a 66% poss het hypo xanthic ass viper is. They're all Jack Black in High Fidelity. PetSmart rules.
>Oh and big box stores have great customer service.
Don't lie to an anon like that, that's just mean.
Teenagers with good grades > 38yo single guys who didn't like school
You cannot stop the big box. Kneel.
Those "teenagers with good grades" must be failing at their animal husbandry classes, given the average condition of a reptile at Petco or PetSmart.
That's on the breeders. Reptiles don't live at PetSmart very long before being bought and aren't there long enough to developed most of the conditions you see there.
So if they're in good shape it's because petsmart is better than getting shit from breeders, and if they're in bad shape it's because of the breeders petsmart buys from.
You're an idiot.
welcome back hoarder-anon, I'd recognize that dunning-kruger-ass, "we purposely trained him wrong, as a joke" ass retardation anywhere.
the above poster is almost INFAMOUSLY retarded, ignore them. Do your own research, reptifiles seems to be pretty decent with their care guides
>reptifiles.com/ball-python-care-guide/
and then find a breeder who actually shares their practices online, there are shitloads of facebook for some reason. go through their posts and check their husbandry. if they dont meet your standards, dont buy from them. It's as simple as that.
Zen habitats and custom reptile habitats are the ones that immediately spring to mind, Vision cages if you have money to throw away and dont want to build it yourself, dubia.com has been getting into pvc enclosures as well and they are CONSIDERABLY cheaper than the others. Pick up a handful of tubes of GE silicone 1, though, you're gonna need them to waterproof the edges.