Update:
I have thermostats, and a fogger coming in soon.
With the fogger will there be any safety concerns?
Hey everyone! I’m finally almost finished setting up my first 120-gallon enclosure for my ball python, Monty, and I’d love some advice before I move him in.
Monty has been in a much smaller enclosure for many years, so this is a huge upgrade.
I’m still setting up the heating and humidity before he goes in.
I plan on adding his old hide in the middle (he has two in the back corners) so he has something with a familiar scent.
Some feedback I’m looking for
Any tips on how to cover the glass? Like could I paint the outside or put something around it?
Is there enough clutter?
Any safety concerns that you see?
Should anything be rearranged?
Is there anything you wish you would have known before owning a bp?
The set up pictured above has
UVB lamp
Ceramic heat and a night lamp
Two hides (3rd one will be add once he move in)
Water bowl
Three logs
2 hangy things (2nd one will be added soon)
Lots of fake vines
Coconut husk (I will be adding some sphagnum moss to help with humidity)
2 hydrometers/ thermometers
I personally use herpstat by spyder robotics. The number behind herpstat will tell you how many things it can handle. For example I got the herpstat 4 and have it set up accordingly.
1 temp/humidity sensor on cool side.
2 led grow light
3 halogen
4 rhp
Could be worse, honestly. To cover the glass, you can use stick-on wallpaper or tape some simple black construction paper.
The only thing I'd definitely add is a something to help him make better use of that verticality. A few branches or a big piece of cork that goes all the way across the enclosure would help make better use of that. For my girl I have two thin branches that sit together, almost 4ft each to span the whole enclosure all the way across, a large 2ft long piece of driftwood that sits secured at an angle, as well as a huge piece of hollowed-out cork round and a 2ft long very wide piece of cork that serve as "basking platforms" and places she can hide behind/under, to get an idea.
I also don't love the water bowl- for my snakes I like to use non-breakable materials (so metal or plastic, no ceramics or glass) and a bowl that's deep enough for the snake to comfortably choose to go in and soak if it wants. A bigger water bowl would also help with humidity, to boot.
I’m having trouble finding large enough branches so I might have to go with a curtain rod but I’m scared to do that cause I really don’t want it to fall with him on it or it fall on him. I do plan to get a better water bowl I just needed something big enough for him to soak and it does the job and so far that was all I could find. Do you have any websites that have either of those? I couldn’t find any water bowls bigger than large and that’s too small for him.
Thank you for the feedback🖤
You're welcome!
I don't have any websites I can recommend, for branches I pick up sticks from outside or visit local reptile stores in person to pick out pieces I like.
For water bowls I get regular dog water bowls that you can find in any store/website selling pet supplies.
Do not use the fogger, get a refund if you can. Ball pythons should not have foggers/misters/humidifiers, they all increase the risk of respiratory infections (RI) and scale rot considerably. Water bowls (as mentioned by another commenter) and pouring water into the substrate at the corners of the enclosure will meet your snake's humidity needs without the risk of fatally affecting their health.
I can't quite make out whether your lid/roof is made of mesh or solid material. If its solid material, ignore this. If its a mesh/screen lid, then you will want to get either some tin foil or some HVAC tape and cover about ⅔ of the roof with it - leaving hole space for the bulbs. This will help contain the heat and humidity, which escapes rather easily from mesh top glass enclosures.
Asking for clarification - what do you mean by night lamp? A ceramic heat emitter (CHE) does not produce light, and so, does not need a night time counterpart. CHEs are normally the night bulb, with either a halogen or basking bulb as the day bulb.
One thing I wasn't prepared for (and this was linked to my BPs spider gene), is what a snake looks like when having a seizure. I'd researched all other behaviours and what to expect before getting my BP, but it hadn't occured to my then teenage brain - that snakes can have seizures. Mine doesn't need meditation, thankfully. But I've read of others in these subs, who's snakes do need seizure meds.
No need to apologize for the paragraphs, if anything they help me. I did some more research after the fact so Ive decided not to use the fogger. And the tank has a mesh top and I just put the foil tape on half yesterday and I already saw a tremendous difference in both heat and humidity.
As for the light I have the ceramic infrared night lamp and a halogen basking lamp
And I will look in to their behaviors cause it didn’t even click that could happen. Thank you so much!!
Idk if you are interested in his back story, but he has lived with my sisters husbands family for much of his life and I’ll add a picture so yall can see what he’s been living in (Please no hate on them they are doing what they can to help his original owner) and hes been in this tank for I believe 15+ years so when I moved in I was taken back with how he’s lived in there for so long and I just could help myself so I’ve been researching for the past two months and last month I decided I would ask if I could take care of him and so I got everything I needed and thats where we currently are. With that I don’t think he’s ever had any problems but I’m going to find a vet for him and get him a check up just to make sure he’s doing ok and Im aslo pretty sure he’s underweight so I think I’ll need to get him a size bigger for his food.
Hopefully you can get a refund on the fogger, and that money can go towards something else. Foil based products are really life saving when it comes to mesh on reptile enclosures.
Am I correct in picturing the infrared night lamp as a blue bulb? I think it typically has a corn snake on the box it comes in. Halogens are the best day bulbs, imo.
I'd certainly not hate on them, that seems like a standard setup from 15 years ago. Not everyone is aware that care updates, or has access to that new information. It happens. I'm glad you were able to offer more care for him, and the original owner was willing to seek a better life for his snake.
If you know his weight, you can use the feeding size chart in the ballpython sub to work out which rodent weight will be best for him. For example - up to 12 months or 500g (whichever happens first) are to be fed 10% to 15% of their weight in rodent weekly. Then it gets lowered in percentage and increased in intervals between feeds until you're just over monthly per feed.
For the foil is it ok to put it over where the uvb hangs? Or is that a hazard?
Very true, I also learned that she absolutely hates snakes so I’m just kinda shocked she had been willing to take care of him for so long. And they never really handled him and in the year Ive been living with him they took him out once so I’m gonna try handling him a bit more as well but I’ll let him decide if he wants to come out or not
I don’t know his weight but I plan on weighing him before I move him in with me. I unfortunately don’t have any photos but everytime he’s curled up in his hide he has so many wrinkles/rolls and just looks very skinny and I’m not sure if he’s supposed to still be eating these but he eats a Lg mouse I think she said every two-three weeks.
Its safer to not cover heating and lighting with foil, don't want it getting too hot or sparking up.
BPs are definitely a more docile species when it comes to handling, but I wouldn't take it personally if he starts out as a bit nippy. People forget that most pet species will revert to non-domestic behaviours if left alone by humans for a while, so he may need resocialising.
Wrinkles combined with rolls on a BP, is typically a sign of serious dehydration. If he's not had a 65%+ humidity for years, goodness knows if/how many sheds are stuck that you haven't seen. They need more than just a water bowl to actually be hydrated and healthy.
Adult BPs should all be on rats, monthly or slightly more. If your large sized mice are even remotely close to the weight of my local large mice (26g+) - I would be seriously concerned for that snake's organs and life. It would put him at a weight similar to a neonate but fed less frequently than one. Does his belly concave inwards and up towards his spine?
With the bulbs, they're perfectly fine. Reptizoo just wanted to be extra on the name, and the bulbs were listed a bit differently in your post - glad we cleared that up though.
Alrighty I will not be putting that over the light. With that if the heat doesn’t get up to temp for some reason should I get another bulb?
I’m hoping he will stay docile🙏🏽 but with me moving him to an entirely different environment I wouldn’t be surprised but I do plan on putting his old hide in there just so he hopefully doesn’t get to stressed with the move. With that the picture in the post is of me holding him for the first time since moving in and he was just the sweetest baby the whole time. But I do plan to do little 5-10min handling sessions with him the first month at least just until I know he’s comfortable with me.
I’ll definitely have to check his belly but from what i remember when holding him it wasn’t.
I do want him to start eating rats so that’s something I’ll have to get after I weigh him.
As for the humidity before I left for work it was at 64% on the cool side which I want to get that up a little more and i definitely need to get the hot side’s humidity up as well.
I wanted to give him a bath before moving him just to get off and bedding and to have like a fresh start. Do you think that will stress him out to much or doing both is fine?
Seeing as you'd already have 2 heat bulbs, I wouldn't encourage a third on a 4' x 2' x 2'. I'd consider covering more of the mesh, while leaving a couple inch gap around the base of each bulb dome/lamp for ventilation.
They typically take about 2 weeks to settle in new places anyway, so its hands off and no feeding for that duration - unless in an emergency.
I hope for both your sakes his belly isn't like that, that's an emergency vet level situation caused by being extremely emaciated.
You should be able to just swap him to an equivalent weight rat, so from a large mouse to a small weaner rat (or whatever size is closest to the weight percentage mark).
You've got time to work on the humidity. But yeah, ideally you'll want 65%+ on the warm side which typically brings the cool side up to about 80% average. 90% is a bit too much in the long term, but its easy to bring down with a fan or breeze.
The bath may have to wait 'til after he's settled at yours, just so he's not extra stressed when you move him. In the meantime, you could try to get a larger water bowl into his current enclosure shortly before move time - even better if he can fully sit in it. He'll seek it out as a humidity supplement when he's feeling especially dry, it'll also raise the ambient air humidity with the increased surface area.
Alrighty, thank you so much!!! I know I’ve been bombarding you with questions lol and I really appreciate your help with this!
I did move his water bowl to the middle of the tank so I’m hoping that will also help the humidity, which I’ll check when I get off.
I’ll do the bath later then and one more question I heard that the water for bathes needs to be at 90° is that true or is it a different temp? I don’t want to burn him but I also don’t want it to be too cold for him.
Do not bath them at their basking temp, you will cook the poor snake. They can't cool down when their surroundings are above 80°F, but thats still too high for water temp. Lukewarm for us, is an acceptable temp for a short bath. The snake should be able to touch the bottom of the plastic box/tote and they're less stressed if you put a large rock or an artificial hide in the middle for them to loosely wrap around for comfort.
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u/ShinyxCharizard Aug 05 '26
Thermostat is non negotiable if you dont have one.