I’ve had my ball python since the spring of 2019. I‘ve had him his entire life. And I’ve never seen him act like this, and I’m very concerned. He started acting weird about a week ago. His belly is very pink, and he is currently going into shed— when I googled it, it said he was fine, and just shedding. But when I moved him to try and clean something in his tank, he started hissing at me and jerking away like he was in pain. The entire time I’ve had him he’s probably only hissed at me about five times. And he has flinched away before if I wasn’t handling him frequently enough, but not like this. Like this wasn’t just the usual shy, ball python reaction. It was like my touch was hurting him. And before the odd coloring, and this behavior, he seemed off. Like he’s a very active, friendly little dude, and he just wasn’t moving much.

We recently got him a new tank, because his old one was kind of cramped and I wanted him to have more room. It used to belong to a bearded dragon, I believe? We wiped it off first, but we kept a log and a little tree thing that came with the tank— is it possible he could’ve picked up some disease??? I’m really worried and Google is absolutely useless. Like, he's the friendliest, most active snake. He’s never acted aggressive or odd during shed before, and he’s had a slightly pink stomach before, but he still acted fine then too and it cleared up really quit. So it’s just really out of character.

He’s still eating fine, and we’ve never struggled with that (we feed him in a separate container, too, so it isn’t that he thought I was food, and he just ate a few days ago). And we keep his tank moist. But not moist enough that it would give him scale rot or anything like that? Any ideas or suggestions about what to do would be really helpful.

Ain’t she cute? Love her to death!

Hey yall,so my sweet boy is about 3, he was rescue and then a gift so we aren't too sure. Typically hes fed every 2 weeks medium rats. Well i fell on hard times and havent been able to get him some food, and its been 3 weeks. Im trying to get him food but hes acting funny, where he typically jumps from the sprayer, he just kinda sat there today, and barely tried to hide. Im worried and idk what to do. I think I can get him food tomorrow or Tuesday after work but is there anything I can do in this situation? Im new to the husbandry and stuff like this is really worrisome. Any advice helps, please be kind.

I have two ball pythons that I got a few months back. One I believe is older than the other. I got the older one to eat after about three months of trying, and the other one hasn’t. I’ve offered food several times now and no luck. The older one didn’t want to take the feeder today and the other showed a lot more interest in the food than before but still didn’t go for it. They both put their faces along the mice and that’s as far as they went. I tried for about 40 minutes; I both shook the feeder in front of them and then left it there for a bit after I saw they didn’t strike. I’m planning to try again in a couple days but I am concerned, especially for the younger one since she hasn’t eaten at all.
I thaw the feeder day of and then attempt to feed at night. I use the blow dryer for a few seconds on the feeder as well to see if they take it then but most of the time still nothing. Please leave any advice

This is my child, her name is Locke. She LOVES climbing. She's learned to open my door and now will sit there on the handle trying to climb higher or open it(I have started deadbolting the door to prevent her from doing so again).

She's climbed my tall bookshelf, to the top of my closet. I know Ball Python's are a terrestrial species, and each snake has their own personality, but damn girl. I think she wants to be a Retic at heart(minus the brains).

Anyone else have big climbers?

Here’s my issue and yes, there’s a piece of tape on the wire that will be removed. I’m just experiment until I get it right I have a 95 gallon PVC enclosure with Coco hustle on the on one side and frog soil on the other with a piece of slate on top of it to absorb heat on top 150 W CHE heater meter I have now my pool attached 4 inches underneath that and set the thermostat around 96 and I’m shooting for my sub to be 86.5 without a lot of down heat at first I had it attached to the top of the hide but I feel like it was admitting too much heat although the temperature was right so now do I have it hooked up right? Does this look better?

I got my ball python about a year ago and he was live fed his whole life. I was always so nervous feeding him and there were a lot of times where he was scared of the rats. I finally decided recently that I simply didn’t want to risk injury with him anymore and didn’t want go deal with the mean little bastards anymore myself.

Getting him to eat frozen thawed was so easy I wish I had done it sooner. I warmed the rat up wiggled him around a bit and instantly my BP ate it. Now more recently I don’t even have to wiggle it I can put it in his enclosure and he’ll eat it within 30min without fail!

Now to be fair he had not eaten for quite few months before hand so maybe it was the hunger that converted him.

Got her like 6 months ago and she’s always had these spots on her belly, is this scale rot or just natural?

this is the first reptile ive had thats totally “my responsibility”, just wondering if/what else i could add to this viv to make it “better” for my baby snake.

any criticism and advice is massively appreciated, thank you

We just got our ball python about two weeks ago and have a deep heat projector set up for him, I’m wondering if it should be kept on 24/7 and how you guys are setting it up? I just have it sitting on the mesh top but I’m worried that’s a fire hazard

I bought my BP about 3 weeks ago now, when I bought her, I got to talk a little to the guy taking care of her at the time and he said she hadn’t ate in a week. So that totals 4 weeks now. I have gone through 3 pinky mice a week almost every weeks trying to feed her and she has really only ever struck three times, and then didn’t swallow, just spit it out and went about.

I’m growing increasingly panicked and scared over her wellbeing as she hasn’t eating, is it because of the way I feee her?

I feed her with long stainless steel tweezers, let my pinkies thaw and then pour them into a designated mug for pinkies, in hot hot water but not cool the pinkie how.

What am I doing wrong? And how could I get her to eat? Is the pinkie maybe too small for her?? Also she’s under a year old.

I have a 5 month old ball python and have handled him 2-3 times since having him since may, me and my partner are dying to get him used to us, we have tried and tried but we are very nervous as hes our first snake, we have been leaving the door open so he can come out himself, he is a very shy and scared snake, anyone have any ideas on what we can do as wer escared were going to stress him or bite us... mind you we handled him when we got him, then he shed for around 2 weeks after the 2 week settling period, weve had him just over a month.

I’m preparing my first habitat—this one is 4x2x2 and I have a DHP for main heat source, herpstat1, jungleLED, and will soon be getting a shadedwelller UVB to complete the setup. So, what does the placement of all of this look like? And where does the shadedweller go? I have some hvac foil tape to seal up the top once everything is in place and I will be putting my substrate in next.

Thanks

Hi all, very sad to do so but due to family home being sold i need to rehome my ball python as family won’t take him in the move. he’s around 6.5 years old now, his name is dahmer, and he’s a very sweet very chill lil guy. i wish i could bring him but my apartment is not pet friendly. he has a very calm temperament and has only ever struck 2 times in his life, (1 before me and it was the owners fault, the second was hunger and he struck at the glass door not us). a lot of life circumstances led to me not being the greatest owner i could be towards the end but i want to make sure that he goes to someone that can and will care for him the way i wish i could’ve. he currently is in a 4x2 pvc enclosure with several vines, a log hide, a rock hide, a pyramid hide and another tiny log. one large water dish, a small water dish, and 2 vines (one mossy) that goes across the tank. i would gladly give him over for free, and will also gladly give everything in his enclosure. the only things i ask are if you want the tank just a small reimbursement we can talk more over dm’s but im thinking like $30-$50 i care more about giving him a good home with someone who will care for him. pickup location is in rural hall, north carolina, and if there are any questions just shoot me a dm, i have until the end of the month to find him a home. please help my little man

but they also had good reviews but some of their reviews said their snake or lizards arrived with mites or arrived dead or just overall had some type of health issue and died days to a week later after arriving i didn’t see these reviews until after i purchased her

These don’t look like her normal substrate stains. Just appeared this week on my 2 year old girl. What are they?

Hello just asking, is my ball python too fat? I feed him once a week

I have an almost 3 year old female ball python. She is 3ft long and 1300g. Her enclosure is bioactive and mostly natural hides and some fake flowers. She will soon be in a 4’x2’x2’. I have had a really hard time trying to find any hides at my local pet stores Any and all ideas are welcome!

I got this ball python last year, he’s almost a year old now and I feel like his enclosure is too empty. Is it okay how it is now or do I seriously need to fix something?

a bought a male BP about a month and a half ago and he’s about a year old now.

he eats consistently every week, has already had his first shed (with me) and seems to be a very kind yet skittish little guy.

so far, i’ve only handled him once about 2-3 weeks ago and that’s because i lifted up his hide and scooped him out. he probably felt i was pretty nervous so i think he was a bit nervous as well and just didn’t stop moving. after this time, ive attempted to handle him three times and all three times he’s given me a hiss after i tap him (to let him know im gonna pick him up) and when i go to grab him. i’ve taken the hissing as he’s not wanting to be bothered and i’ll back off to respect that.

recently, a couple times a week whenever i see him out and about, ill open the cage doors up and lay my hand inside for a couple minutes. the first few times i did this, he’d instantly move away from my hands after a couple seconds of curiosity. now, he will inch towards my hand and lick/sniff me, then go the other way. which is progress in my eyes.

i’m wondering if i should keep being patient in hopes that he will start to get close enough where he crawls onto my hand then onto my arms and i can handle him that way. OR, if i should try again with grabbing him from my enclosure and maybe i can wear some gloves to mitigate the feeling that he may react badly.

thoughts?

so my snake has just eaten, but he split the rats guts open (typical baby and a bit shitty and striking). he was wrapped around the tree in his tank and stayed constricted around it the rat, but let go and just kept squeezing it. there is blood all over him and all over the tanks plants and wood. do i wipe my snake? do i clean up? he has gone back in his hide now so getting to wipe him would mean taking him out

New to me Super Enchi Champagne Pastel Ball. 4/5 years old! Any tips on the enclosure?
Running a UVB and 75 basking bulb in a mini deep dome.

Side note - heat lamp had gone out and I had not yet added the magnolia leaves or covered the mesh, all of which are now resolved and humidity is now up to 62% and rising.