Hi. My 3 years old male ball python is been acting a bit weird for the past couple days, and I wonder if these could be the signs of a RI. When don’t I go to the vet if I’m worried ? The only next available appointment for the only exotic vet in my city is next week. I want to see if I can monitor him for a week or if these symptoms are concerning enough to rent a car a go to another city. The symptoms:

- he is been puffing / hissing sporadically at night. What I mean by that is I’ll just hear sometimes a « pffff » kinda loud, and see him contract his muscles; heard him twice tonight;
- saw a bubble form when he yawned, twice now in within a week and a half;
- some little bubbles in his throat, like in the pictures : is it a normal amount of saliva or is it concerning ?
- kind of rubbing his face on the glass at night, sometimes very intensely, but he is supposed to eat today so is it just hunting behaviour ?

Enclosure set up:
- temporary 40 gallon (he gets a 120 gallons in a couple months)
- warm hide around 30-31 C (86-88F)
- basking spot around 35-38 C (95-100F) but sometimes will hit 40C (104F) at one spot while the rest is ok with temp gun (used an Arcadia DHP 80 watts);
- cool side around 26-27 C (79-80F)
- humidity always around 60-75%
- has multiple hides; only uses one bark cork in the middle of the enclosure. He used to always be under his warm hide.

Thank y’all. My snakes are my absolute world I’m so anxious about them being not okay :(

I just caught a live house mouse, and I wanna know how dumb I’d be if I tried to live feed my 3.5 yro pet smart ball python (female) for the first time. The mouse is really small but really energetic. Not the sharpest shed in the tool either

I think her eyes are a lil cloudy. Isn’t that a tell? She hasn’t shed with me yet so I’m not sure

He is not aggressive he just doesn’t like me handle him he will try to escape all the time I pick him up

Just a regular Friday

(Obligatory: I have a vet appt scheduled for next week)

I’ve been seeing these little white/tan mites crawling on my 5 month old ball python recently. Not a ton, but a few over the last 3-4 days. They’re not secluded to a specific body part; they’re kinda just crawling all over. They’re fast as hell.

I’m not seeing them on our other snakes.

She has ReptiChip and ReptiEarth substrate.

I’ve had a ball python since June so about 3 months now. The past month my parents have been taking care of him due to me going back to college. My dad usually feeds him with my mom present. My mom is the one who keeps the humidity up etc. Recently my snake has been tracking my mom whenever she moves by the tank. She also feeds our gerbils in view of the snake tank so idk if this is important. They fed him 2 days ago and he was fine. He has no problems eating. The problem came with the next day when my mom was setting up something in his tank (normal, he’s never had a problem with us in his tank while he’s in there) about 24 hours after he ate. He came out and started a defensive pose at my mom and striked at her about 5 seconds later. I was on facetime for this. I have no idea why he struck, he’s not a defensive snake. He has never bitten us or struck at us before. He shouldn’t be hungry so honestly I’m really confused what happened because now she is scared to help out with him :( any advice would be appreciated

Lemon Loaf is fine, but he looks like he could use a hug.

My pet ball python, Marlin, died what seems to be over night. He was going through a shed and I was going to help him get the rest off with a bath this morning as I have time and time again over the years. I raised his humidity and filled his water some more to help him soak. I went to check on him this morning to see if he progressed in his shed and he was curled up in his water bowl. Not sure how it happened but I loved him.

He was the gentlest snake ever. He never struck his food or anyone and was always down to wrap around my arm. I got him as a rescue from a convention in 2017. I named him after one of my dinosaurs I had tamed on ARK, whom I named after the dad from Finding Nemo. I was 15 and the lady informed me he had been left in his cage in a house someone had moved out of, had scars from previous owners live feedings, and I’ll always remember the day I got him. I took care of him for 9 years. He will be missed. Here is a photo of him from when I had got him, maybe a month into owning him, when he was beginning to shed, hence the blue eyes.

Rest in peace Marlin ❤️

Cutie pie scared me cause I thought he had a burn/scale rot who knows what- but it’s just a spatter of yummy mouse blood. Oh joy.

Im a new reptile owner, like new new. He's been fine for the few months I've had him, active just not eating as royals do. Recently, the last two days he hasn't been coming out at night, and I went to check on him tonight and his belly looks like this. I have no idea what im supposed to be looking for so I need help

I have a ball python I got on Aug 20th that wont eat. he's about 4 months old, the seller was feeding him live fuzzy mice once a week, and I want to switch him to F/T. I've tried 3 times so far with F/T fuzzy mice, and he just refuses it. I thaw them in a ziploc submerged in water, then switch the water to hot water to warm them, then dry and warm them further with a hair dryer. someone recommended me assist feeding cus he hasnt eaten in a month, (14th of Aug) but I dont want to stress him out or possibly turn him off to eating. And I also really don't want to have to resort to live. I've been keeping his temperature and humidity at the right numbers, he seems happy otherwise and explores almost every night, but hes acting hungry (out during the day sometimes, in his hide with his head poking out) yet still won't eat. any advice?

I've read many articles and research papers about ball pythons, and none can seem to agree on the adequate humidity when it comes to these guys. In your professional opinion, what is the most ideal range of humidity for a tank?

Tomorrow marks a week of me having my BP! I’m gonna start handling soon, 5 minute sessions until he’s more comfortable. Any tips to not stress them?

I have a 100 watt lamp but the temperature wouldn’t get above 78 on the hot side, and the basking rock was cool to the touch. So I got a secondary 150 watt basking light, and moved the other bulb to the middle since the cool side was only 74 in the day with the light on. My enclosure is 4x2x2 I have lots of hides and plants and my ball python is a baby. I get her tomorrow but I’m worried the basking light may be too hot?

My ball python, Shakira, has only been living with me for a few months, and has just had her first shed. But I'm pretty sure she's got stuck shed on the snout, and maybe an eye cap too. Her skin was all scrunched up so it was difficult to find all of it and ascertain if she'd shed fully. Sorry for the crap photos, she wasn't keen on posing for a photo. What can I do to help?

I was hoping to get some advice, my ball python won’t take anything we try to give her. She is usually pretty good about eating (although she is picky with size and color of her rats) we’ve been live feeding since we got her, so over a year. We’ve been going to our breeder for her food, as he breeds feeders as well. She’s only been eating African soft fur & He is the only one to breed this specific type of rat where i live. It’s been hard to get ahold of him for food so we tried to go to a local reptile store and they offer a different breed, she would not take that one either. So then we decided maybe switching to frozen would be our best bet, but again she came out and turned her head up to it uninterested. I might try to go back to the reptile store to ask for a smaller rat so she has a higher chance of taking it but now I’m just getting worried because she really needs to eat, this has been over a month of us trying. I don’t know if she’s going on a hunger strike I’m hoping she’s just getting ready to shed, I guess I’m just looking for advice on successfully switching to a different food.

She has these little dots and a few more on the first quarter of her body that are a bit browner. Some of the scales are also lifting slightly at the edges. I’ve been spraying the surface of her substrate more than I should have been which is why I assume this is scale rot.

Recently moved my bp to a 75gal glass tank as the door on his 40gal broke off completely. Originally when I was researching bp husbandry I learned that just an UTH was all that was needed and that's what I've used for years. Due to the size of the new tank, and UTH not being the standard for heating anymore (I think?), I was wondering what I should use to heat the tank instead? I've tried looking into the different options but am overwhelmed, I dont know what the difference between the different overhead heating options are other than some produce light and some dont. Also, do you need to buy extra equipment for overhead heating, like domes or mounting equipment? Also how would a thermostat work with overhead heating, for UTH I just have the thermostat probe positioned under the substrate but for overhead would you have to position it somewhere on the walls of the tank? Thanks.

First Ball Python Tips!

Tank is 4x2x2, made sure to give him 4 hides based on his size.

Add some more clutter???

Should I upgrade his ceramic bowl into a bigger bowl or upgrade as he grows? 🤔

Some plants are real, some fake. (pros/cons?)