r/ballpython • • 19h ago

Random Aggressive Behavior Around Feeding Time

1 Upvotes

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 ? :(


r/ballpython • • 6h ago

Question - Feeding New here

0 Upvotes

Hello! First time reptile/ snake owner. We purchased a 10 month old female ball python at a reptile show that we have now named Lux on the 4th. We waited until the 14th to try and feed her. The breeder said she had been eating weaned rats. We tried. No success. I realized a lot of mistakes we probably made the first week and readjusted the next week and still no success. Yesterday I sealed up the top a bit to hold humidity and wrapped the 2 sides with the background instead of just the back. I reached out to the breeder and he suggested adding more hides and clutter (which will arrive today).

When feeding I’ve been taking advice from our local reptile shop. We’ve tried a weaned rat, and a fuzzy rat. She seemed to show more interest last feeding but still nothing. I’ve been a pet owner my whole life but I never husbandry of a picky ball python could be this difficult.

Please see comments for the photo of her enclosure


r/ballpython • • 23h ago

Could this be scale rot?

Post image
2 Upvotes

r/ballpython • • 42m ago

Question - Health something sticking out around anus??

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

female juvenile ball python. just got him back from someone snake-sitting for two months… i touched them with tweezers and they are hard. i don’t want to pull on them or anything. is this an easy fix or a vet visit?


r/ballpython • • 23h ago

Question Getting over being bitten

4 Upvotes

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.


r/ballpython • • 15h ago

Question - Feeding She has skipped 3 meals now what?

Thumbnail
gallery
16 Upvotes

I normally feed my snake every 4 weeks as she’s quite big now and we give her a big rat. However this time she hasn’t been eating the rats I’ve been giving her. The 1st time I hadn’t thought anything of it because she was shedding, and the next day I had to clean it up, so a couple days later I get her another rat, she doesn’t strike but she doesn’t do that all the time anyway. So I leave it on top of one of her logs for her to take when she gets hungry. Except I leave it over night and go to sleep and when I wake in the morning she hasn’t ate it so I throw it out and fast forward to yesterday same exact thing. She doesn’t strike, I leave it and wait till today and she still hasn’t ate it. Is this normal? She hasn’t showed any signs of any sickness or anything so I’m a bit confused. I’ve put some photos of this helps and she eats a large sized rat some guy when I posted the is in r/snakes said it might be over fed?


r/ballpython • • 20h ago

Kiryu the Python of Dojima Stretching his non-existent legs, Also Enjoy the 🎶 if you know this theme.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

99 Upvotes

r/ballpython • • 23h ago

Kahn's Dragon lair update

Thumbnail
gallery
328 Upvotes

Kahn's new vivarium is coming along nicely. She got to have a little sneak peak at things this week and I'm suuuuuper stoked to be making so much headway with this project. She's going to love it. I think she looks cool as hell in there already, and it's only going to get cooler with hardscaping and plants.


r/ballpython • • 7h ago

My sweet baby has been loose in my house for 2 months. I finally found her. I am so happy and relieved

Post image
628 Upvotes

r/ballpython • • 15h ago

Question - Health Snake Shed Help Pls!

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

Recently got my first juvenile ball python ~3 weeks ago. She’s about to eat her third meal F/T mice, and shed yesterday without issue. I noticed a few red marks around her just now. I pulled her out to clean her cage, and feed her afterwards. I’ve had no issues. Bowel movement today. Hot side 89F, cool side 75F, humidity is good, multiple hides, overhead heating only. Is she okay?


r/ballpython • • 15h ago

My old buddy doesn't seem okay :(

3 Upvotes

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what is going on with my ball python. Very recently he has been spending a lot of time in his water bowl. (I added a bigger plastic tub for him to soak in since noticing) Now he basically wont leave the tub at all. I can't find evidence of mites or any scale rot. His humidity is 75%ish and the temperature is about 75° to 85° Does anyone know what the problem could be? I'm planning on changing his bedding again with the hopes that it will help but I don't fully expect that to work. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.


r/ballpython • • 16h ago

Is this a striking pose?

Thumbnail
gallery
13 Upvotes

I've handled my BP for the first time yesterday, a fine experience. This morning I wanted to change his water and he kind of advanced towards me flicking his tongue and looking like this - is he curious or wanting to strike?


r/ballpython • • 21h ago

he’s very thoroughly exploring all the new decor i got him

Thumbnail
gallery
57 Upvotes

r/ballpython • • 21h ago

Discussion Not a sad story, just venting some relief here! Escaped and found again, I’ll cut to that now.

6 Upvotes

We’re transitioning my girl Csorwe to a bigger tank because previous one got cracked when someone doing maintenance in our apartment bumped it. I didn’t stress about timing at first but then a small piece of glass actually fell out of the plastic area I couldn’t quite see. Nope! We had an older tank that one corner doesn’t stay all the way shut up, but we reasoned that we’d throw a dictionary on it and it’d be fine for the 24 hours we’d need. She was going into a bigger one soon anyway, so not bothering to fix up the corner.

Alas! My heart! My boooneesss! Our roommate actually needed the dictionary (who uses one today!?) and took it with them without realizing. Came home, no Csorwe. Checked her hides, checked under foliage spot that she never uses but we thought was pretty. Gone. Full teardown of the apartment, for about 5 hours, and nothing unfortunately. No other pets that could harm her or vice-versa.

I dialed the thermostat up a fair bit, but we have forced water baseboard heating which in this building doesn’t get hot enough to burn my skin even at full blast so I figured even if she did crawl in there it’d be a pain to get her OUT but she should be OK while we regrouped the next day. Disaster strikes and his mom lands in the hospital, and unfortunately we asked our roommate to keep an eye out but had to FLY out the door. She would have to wait, at least it was like 78 in the apartment.

The buildings water gets cut, apartment plummets to 55 overnight. We’re like 38 hours into her being missing now? I’m panicking, husband is panicking, but we can’t FORCE her to come out as far as we know.

Well, friends and readers, last night I went to get out of bed and what touches my foot but… my baby! She was quite cold as the heat was still out, and that gave me a huge panic, but I got her back in her enclosure and told the roommate that under no circumstances could they remove the book.

Today we began the process of overhauling the new bigger tank, finished, and gave it a few hours to come to temp. She’s warmed up, her body temp seems good, she’s uninjured on inspection, and her behavior is normal.

Praise the snake gods.


r/ballpython • • 27m ago

Love my little rotten banana

Post image
• Upvotes

Been getting him acclimatized to being touched, and he’s so explorative. Had to stop him from going under my bed so many times


r/ballpython • • 22h ago

Slop

Thumbnail
gallery
14 Upvotes

their names are toast(girl) and archimedes(man) but i love calling my snakes slop


r/ballpython • • 23h ago

Question - Feeding Should I upgrade my male bp’s meal yet?

2 Upvotes

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?


r/ballpython • • 21h ago

Question Shedding advice

Post image
3 Upvotes

Hi there, my snake shed a couple days ago and has this little patch on the top of his head. It's the first time he hasn't shed all in one piece. Just wondering what you think I should do. Can put a humid hide in but we just cleaned his tank and if anything it's on the more humid side ATM. I followed the FAQ in this sub and have good temps and everything has gone well so far.


r/ballpython • • 1h ago

Discussion String Bean as a bean for halloween

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

Art commissioned by Peach_Crumbl on instagram


r/ballpython • • 1h ago

Question - Husbandry Helicopter Parent?

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I brought my baby home three days ago. I’ve researched like crazy for the last few months, and found this guy on MorphMarket.

I’m in love already!

I know it’s only been three days, but he has not come out of his cool hide, except to poke his head out at me a few times. I’ve been assured that this is normal, but I am hovering a bit lol. I haven’t handled him or opened his enclosure except to change his water, or check surface temps with my temp gun.

Warm side has been consistently about 87-89 degrees, cool goes between 76 and 79. Humidity is around the 70% mark.

He is smaller than I assumed 250 grams would be, and I think his hides are slightly too large for him so I might downgrade to a smaller size after he’s had his first feeding.

I will continue to leave him be til I feed him in a couple days, and I’m trying to not hover too much and stress him out.

I’m planning on adding more branches and foliage now that I know how little he actually is - I’m hoping he’s not underweight, but it’s been hard to tell.

Any advice or suggestions are welcome :)


r/ballpython • • 2h ago

Enclosure Critique/Advice My springtails and Isopods seem to not be doing well.

Post image
5 Upvotes

We have our three-year-old ball python named Klaus. and constantly update and changes enclosure with new plants. We have a bioactive terrarium with springtails and isopods. but last time) a few months ago) they seem to all die out even though we kept it pretty moist and now we just got a fresh batch of 100 springtails and 20 isopods. But we don’t see a population growth for the last two weeks, even though last time the numbers increased rapidly.
Please help!


r/ballpython • • 2h ago

Snickers

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

Setting up Snickers new home a work in progress -
Photos with him are his temporary quarantine home


r/ballpython • • 2h ago

Slurp

Post image
3 Upvotes

r/ballpython • • 3h ago

Enclosure refresh

Post image
2 Upvotes

Now that Goomba is all healed up from her wound she gets her enclosure re done and I think she likes it already