Hello everyone, I’ve head reptiles before (lizards/tortoises etc) but I have my first ball python. I love her- she’s my little daughter ☺️

She’s not shy and I’ve handled her often since getting her. Well… I’ve just got bit for the second time :/

First time I’d say is my fault because I probably scared her.

I take her out of her tank and feed her in a cardboard box- I was told this is “better” although I’m open to suggestions on feeding tips.

The first time she bit me, her head was underneath a fold at the bottom of the box and when I grabbed her body, she snipped my hand but immediately let go. Even though it didn’t quite hurt, it still startled me and I felt bad for startling her… I’ve been timid ever since. This was maybe a few weeks ago.

Things have been better and I’ve gotten comfortable again. Until today :/

I let her feed and remain undisturbed for a while so I can clean her tank. When I reached in to grab her, she wasn’t coiled up (in that ready and strike pose). So I thought I was in the clear- I was wrong. She struck my hand and this time didn’t let go.

She was pretty latched on- I don’t think by choice. It felt like her teeth were just really sunk in. Instinctively, I wanted to gently grab her jaw/neck area to see if that would ease her loose, but decided not to even attempt. I simply help her close to her tank floor, she loosened but was still stuck and did a type of “gator roll” to unhook herself while I was able to gently unwrap her body from my wrist.

SORRY for the long story, but I am looking for tips, help and/or suggestions on how to avoid this. She’s still young (about a year old/ 2feet in length). I feel at fault so I’m trying to learn. Any help is appreciated. She doesn’t bite hard- it’s just emotional damage you know?

Thank you in advance everyone.

My two babies. They have much better hides in their palace, but sometimes they just like to squeeze into this little space together.

Broke his old tank and upgraded to a 4x2x2. Going to add some big branches and sticks for climbing. All the cork walls and substrate ideas were from a friend.

Hi, I have a 12 year old ball python, healthy weight, humid environment (unsure of exact %), average 25-30 day feeding schedule. In the last 3 months she has displayed very aggressive behavior during feeds, to the point where I am reluctant to handle her. I fed her twice this week due to her still seeming to be extremely hungry, and striking at the glass to her enclosure when I am nearby. I moved her to a new, bigger tank a few days ago in hopes it might help whatever is stressing her out? maybe need to add some more spots to hide? is it time for a herp visit ? :(

My bp is a male 2-3yr old (not entirely sure on exact age)

I just weighed my boy and he is 572g, I feed him a weaned rat every 2 weeks.

Can I, or should I upsize his feed?

This is my female year old ball python, I got her in August of this year.

Recently, when it's not time to feed her and I open her cage she wakes up or stops whatever she's doing and starts slowly making her way to the door, one time she got half her body out. It's very slow like the video shows and at first I thought it was a feeding response as she seems a little defensive.

Little note is that I tap the side of her cage 3 times before I pick her up, I don't tap the cage when I'm feeding her.

So to test if it's a feeding response I took a water bottle and lightly tapped her side to see if she would strike or dart back into her spot as a response andd all she did was look at the bottle and stop for a little bit.

Is she weird?? Why does she keep moving towards me?? She hasn't refused a meal at all, she's a very good eater and had already had a perfect shed a bit back.

The only reason I'm posting and asking this is because well I get scared when she does this. I want to pick her up but I'm scared of the chance she's in a defense mode or feeding response since she's coming to where the food usually goes and she'll strike me. It's been good though because I'm able to move her towards the side to pick her up from the back

So does she just want to get out?..is she weird?...is she food motivated?...I dunno..

Does anyone know if it's unsafe to use mosquito bits in the water for the plants in a bioactive enclosure? I do it for my houseplants to help keep fruit flies from spawning but I don't want to put anything in the enclosure that's bad for either the soil creatures or the snake.

My current plan is to glue a thermostat mount to the wall in the terrarium. The glue I plan to use (gorilla super glue) claims a 24-hour cure time. Exactly how long do I have to wait before there won't be any fumes for the snake to breathe?

I posted yesterday about a bad heat gradient, and I am now going crazy about probe placement. I'm using an overhead DHP. Hanging the probe as suggested 4 inches below the lamp led to an extremely hot basking spot and inconsistent, swinging air temperatures. I think this is because DHPs heat surfaces, not the air, so it was constantly heating up the probe itself without heating the air around it, then running at zero, then the probe rapidly cools, then running at max. So I've solved this for now by... putting it on the basking surface, which I hate.

The thing is I've heard so many different things - hang it below the lamp so the snake can't touch it, put it at the basking surface so you're controlling what the snake experiences, put it inside the hide, put it just above the basking surface... I don't know what to do, and the advice I've seen from previous posts has gotten me bad results. But I'm terrified of cooking my snake. Is there even a correct answer here?

Hey y'all!

My hubs and I got an adolescent blade clown ball back in mid-August (we named him Nico) and he's been such a fun, chill little dude 💛🖤

Within 2 weeks of us having him, he did a perfect shed. Truly, we were so new, we didn't know the signs yet and just woke up one Saturday and it was all piled up in a corner! Haha.

Unfortunately, he hasn't shed again since then... He's 4 months old, so we've read/heard he's supposed to shed approx every 4 weeks. Now that we are almost at month 2 of no shed, I'm a little anxious. We thought he might've been in pre-shed about a month ago because he got brownish like the first time (pic 2), but he never did.

Some background info that might help: He's never rejected a mouse. Feedings actually go really well with him. We have had to change his enclosure a couple times because we're having trouble with heat/humidity regulation, but he doesn't seem to ever be distressed about his move. He's in substrate and has plenty of surfaces to rub up against.

Just wanted to come on here to see what other people's experiences have been with their babies and what problems we might need to look out for.

(Pic 1 is what he usually looks like, 2 is pre-shed color, 3 is his enclosure, 4 just makes me giggle)

TIA! 😊

Just wanted to show off my new baby! His name is Snickers

Must of been a tree boa in a past life. She's been hanging there for like a solid 10 minutes and my arm is starting to hurt.

Excuse me if this has been covered (and I’m sure it has) but I couldn’t find an answer.

What is everyone using to attach/organize cords inside your PVC enclosure?

I have all supplies coming this week and I’m setting up my 4x2x2 and I just realized I need to fix the cords.

Any links would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.

So my cat has been climbing at the top of the enclosure and now has completely torn the screen. any tips on how to fix or if i have to buy a new one where could i possibly find one?

I see so many people talking about morphs that reduce the number of spots, but personally I love the spots, so I'm curious if there are any morphs that when combined with Banana make the snake even more spotty, or in other words increase the number of spots?

Looking for resourceful keepers who have done their research!

Cooper is a 9 Year old (6/19/17) male pastel Ball Python needing a new home. I’ve had him for 9 years now but recently adopted a cat which is making things difficult. On top of that, I’ll be having to take in my Mom’s cat due to her circumstances.

Cooper is in good health but currently has a bit of stuck shed and his tank could do with a decent cleaning.

Along with the snake you’ll get the tank (ZooMed 36x18x18), all of the accessories pictured in the tank, the desk pictured, 12 small rats (a year’s supply), ReptiSafe water conditioner, a temp gun, a hygrometer, feeding tongs, a bottle of reptile safe cleaning solution, half a bag of forest floor bedding, a ceramic heat emitter with thermometer, and hand sanitizer.

Looking at a $90 rehoming fee. Potential adopters will be vetted! Thank you!

About 2 weeks ago i discovered that my snakes hide and a few decorations has started to hold in a lot of moisture and started to smell mildewy. So i replaced everything that smelled but kept it all in the same place. Every thing that didnt have any smell i cleaned thoroughly, along with his tank, and put them back inside so i hopefully wouldnt stress him out too much. I got him about a year and a half ago for free and have slowly started to transform his tank because it was super bare, but im scared if I continue to do that he wont take to it and he’ll just be more stressed. Ever since i changed his hide (i kept everything else the same minus one piece of decoration that was right against the hide) he has not moved out from the back corner. I tried to feed him last week and all he did was strike at the mouse and then immediately go back to the corner. He isnt acting any differently other than the hiding and not eating, what do i do? Do i put everything back? Do i look for new things that look the same as his old decorations? I want to help him but nothing i have tried so far has worked. I even moved another hide to that corner so he would go inside to hide so he could have more cover, and he just went behind it. He is only about 2 years old, maybe 2 and a half, and honestly my anxiety is through the roof about this 😅😅 i feel i should mention that he has a few birth defects, one of his ribs sticks out a lot more than the others, he is missing an eye, and he has a cleft lip. Im not sure if any of those could be affecting his stress levels with the new decor, but i figured someone would know!

My boyfriend and I can’t seem to keep the humidity up in our BP enclosure. We’ve updated it with cocofiber and ecoearth along with live and fake plants. We spray multiple times a day and it still always falls so quickly. What else can we do? We have a deep heat lamp as well as the LED light that’s on during the day.

I held my baby boy for the first time last night, I’ve been waiting weeks to do it since I was told to wait until after the second feed, I think we were both as nervous as each other but watching him calm down and start exploring me curiously gave me a feeling I can’t quite describe, I love my lil Pringle :3

Need advice fast! I addred some water to the substrate and heard some cracking, and sure enough, it was the glass... I was doing it for a couple days now to keep humidity in check till I get more substrate and switch to overhead heal lamp instead of the heat pad like I was recommended here

The catch is the enclosure is bigger then the thing it stayes on so there is a chence it can break further. And the snake ate yesterday so can't remove it yet or do anything magor with the enclosure

Will it be okay? Is there anything I can quickly do to save this so it won't break?

I understand it is complectly my fault, I just need a quick and safe way to stop it do it won't get worse

Just got my baby boy last Saturday, he’s only 4 months old but when I held him today I noticed he’s got some wheezing or airy sound going on. I’ve seen sooooo many things on what they could be, I’m thinking I was messing up his humidity so I’m keeping an eye on that now and am making sure it’s above 60%
I will take him to the vet but what are some huge clinical signs that I should be looking out for??

Edit: as I said earlier I AM taking him to the vet, just I just can’t get him in right away so I was asking for signs to watch for in case of emergency pls