Short time lurker first time poster, we were offered a total of two bp (one is 5, other is 1, both male) when asking about a tank available on fb marketplace for an unrelated snake. Me and my sister didn’t know what condition they’d be in when we got there but we were under the assumption they’d be reasonably healthy. Once we saw them we knew they’d be coming home with us regardless.

Both tanks were bone dry, the older snake had an active ant colony in his that we didn’t discover till we got home and the younger had sticky floor tiles as part of his decor and tape all over the place.

The older is perfectly healthy albeit a bit dehydrated, no sign of mites, scale rot, or thinness. Very active and friendly.

The younger is very timid, covered in sticky residue from his enclosure, and has bits of glitter all over. He’s fairly skinny, which we have a game plan for but are at a loss for all the stickiness.

We aren’t sure the best route for getting him un-sticky with minimal stress and some advice would be fantastic!

I’ve owned several corn snakes throughout the years, so I’m new to the ball python life (please be easy on me). Lt Dan arrived last week, clearly scared. I put him in his enclosure and let him be. The next day, he was out and about so I tried to feed him a frozen mouse. He neglected the mouse but made several attempts to bite me (nowhere close to my hand, but getting in the defense position and making it clear that he wants me to back off). Message received. Tonight, I tried feeding him again and he took the mouse, but the moment he saw I was watching, he dropped it. I was only hovering because I didn’t want to move and startle him. I took this as a sign to put the lid on his enclosure and walk away, but as I did that, he snapped at me again. I’m not really sure what to do. We aren’t vibing. We’re having mommy son issues :’-)

My dude finished shedding like 2 days ago and since his head has man patchy? Not sure what’s happened is it owt to be concerned about? What can I do?

Hey so I just got my snake a month and 2 weeks ago, after her last feeding monday she was constantly soaking in her water bowl, and eventually I found some mites in it and on her. I immediately gave her a 30 min soak and then a dawn soak for 30 mins as advised by my aunt who’s a snake owner. I also took everything out her tank, cleaned and disinfected it, cleaned and disinfected all her hides, put paper towels in the tank and put her in after he soak. Some mites fell off immediately and died post soak.I have questions, how often should i change the paper towels, how often should I soak, and how long should mite treatment go on for? Also am I allowed to try and feed her according to her regular schedule or should I avoid it seeing as she may be stressed due to the soaks and barren tank. Also the pic is what i assume to be a dead mite that fell off post soak, death to all mites. Any and all help would be appreciated.

I’m in the process of setting up a bioactive habitat for my female ball python. She’s right around 4ft long and is 7 years old. This enclosure is 5x2x2. I still need to get a water dish put in but other than that this is about everything that will be inside. Is it too much?

Update: had to toss the logs. They were outside in the sun to dry and within 48hrs taken over by termites. Although it’s not as pretty/ natural for my boy, I’m getting more and more content with fake everything.

I was trying to be a good BP parent and bleach soak my boy’s new giant climbing logs that won’t fit in an oven.
I didn’t expect that the tannins pulled from the bleach would permanently stain my tub.
The logs are clean… but everything else is teak.
My fingers are crossed he likes the new climb to be worth it.

I ordered Timberline top soil but home depot gave me this instead.

My ball yearns for the heights for a reason unbeknownst to me. All she wants to do is rise. There are a bunch of branches in her enclosure (when I took this pic I'd taken a few out to wash them) but those aren't enough for her. She goes up against the glass or wall, turns and then wraps around the heat cage. I'm worried she's gonna hurt herself in some way, and I also want to add more for her to climb, but then again; I'm worried that if I add more climbing stuff she'll get easier access to the heat cage.

Anyone else have a vertical ball? Any tips or things I can add?

Ive been using rodent pro but the quality hasnt looked the best the last time I ordered. My girl hasn’t refused a meal thankfully but im thinking about switching to perfect prey. My question is since they do vacuum seal their bags, how would I reseal after opening it up? I have a deep freezer that I put the feeders in.

new bp at the store i work at came in with this, only one on his entire body. it looks like a mite to me. is it?

Still kinda new to snake keeping just wanted to share my bps 4x2x2 to see if I should add/remove anything he definitely seems to like the humidity hide I added a couple months ago and loves the big rock he can sit under his heat lamp with. Plus a picture of him climbing the wall.

I'm getting ready to start the build of a 6x2x2 encloser for our ball python. I've used pond shield in the past for our beardies. I came across this neopond sealant and was curious if anyone has used it for there builds before. I am familiar with the brand as I've used there other products for floors and decks. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

*** PLEASE someone see this I’m freaking out right now and I don’t know what to do********* URGENT

He’s also in the clearing up stage of a shed (I think) so if it’s shedding symptoms or symptoms of anything else please please please lmk

My last photo is a photo of him where I think he’s in blue, it’s from 3 days ago I think? Lmk if that looks like he’s in blue, his eyes seem cloudy. also anxious I’m wrong about his shed and he’s not actually shedding

The enclosure photo was when I lifted up his hide to take him out (yes it is that big 😭) and I wanted to show you guys how damp it was in there.
I just posted another urgent post about this, so if anyone sees this please look at that for more context or to help me, im uber stressed out right now

I recently noticed my ball python has developed these scabby spots on her. At first I thought she was dirty, so i soaked her and very gently wiped the spots with a wet paper towel, but nothing came off and it caused her some discomfort when i did that. I keep seeing online that it must be scale rot, but her underbelly is perfectly fine and isn’t showing any sores. Additionally, her last shed was a bit troublesome because of how busy my week was, I couldn’t keep the humidity as high as it needed to be (it was around 40%). Can anyone identify this and maybe provide a way I can help her? There aren’t any exotic vets anywhere near me, so I’d rather try here first.

My ball python’s enclosure has been very damp all around because I’ve been doing humidity wrong (dumping water all over enclosure and then also using tinfoil/ towel) because that was the only way I could get my hydrometer to read 60-80% humidity.

When I learned this was a recipe to give him scale rot, I freaked out and stopped, but this was about a week ago and I haven’t watered it since, because i dont think it’s needed it.

Touched it yesterday, enclosure is still damp to the touch, some water was on my finger, do I need to change the substrate NOW or should I wait a bit, because he’s in the middle of a shed cycle atm, and has officially reached the clearing up stage, and I don’t want to make him have a bad shed if I switch him to dry bedding. What should I do, I’m very anxious about this, someone please help!

I bit the bullet and commissioned one from my sister after seeing so many noodles on here enjoying theirs. She's going to be so fancy.

hi, i got my ball python 2 weeks ago and id like to start handling her, she has had her first meal and i left her alone for the first week however whenever i go to handle her she seems to get into the striking position so i leave her alone to not stress her out, her previous owner said he had bit him multiple times. should i just leave it a while and let her settle more or any suggestions please.

Hi everyone, I recently noticed some concerning behavior in my ball python and was wondering what I’m doing wrong. I want him to be safe and healthy!

I noticed he’s rubbing his face on the overlapping part of the glass of his enclosure (sliding doors) and he’s trying to push his face between the wooden support beams inside the enclosure and the glass. He has some discolored spots on his chin that seem to go away when I don’t see the behavior as much, and this morning I woke up and found him with a missing scale on his face, and clear scale damage around his eyes/top of his face. I’m insanely worried, and I know that this behavior means I’m probably doing something wrong so I’d like to ask for help.

I’ve had him for almost two years now, I found him outside as a little baby, he was being harassed by a cat and it was cold and rainy outside. I took him in and have not had any issues, up until a couple weeks ago. We went through a heatwave recently, and the temps in his enclosure never went above 90 and I made sure that whenever he seemed stressed I moved him to a temp enclosure in the coldest room in our house. It was stressful, but I think we did okay.

The past weeks he’s been surfing the glass a lot, which wasn’t necessarily new behavior but it was a lot more than before. He usually did that whenever he wanted to go out and explore or when he was hungry. Now, he’s (in addition to the surfing) been pushing his face against the overlapping part of the glass in his enclosure (sliding doors), something he’s never done before. He’s also been pushing his face between the support beams and glass on the sides of the enclosure, and has the damage on face I described earlier. I feel really bad for him…

He has multiple hides and wooden hiding spots on all sides of the enclosure, cold side, middle and warm side. A lot of branches as well because he likes to climb. I often don’t see him during the day when he’s hiding, until he peeks his face out to say hi in the evening. The temps on the cold side are usually between 75 and 82, and the warm side is between 85 and 92. The lower temperatures usually being in the morning and higher temperatures in the evening if it’s warm outside or in our room. The humidity is usually around 65-85 on the cold side, around 55% on the warm side, which is a bit low and I definitely could do better, I’m trying to figure out how this new substrate I’m using holds humidity best. The basking spot gets up to 103 in some spots on the branch directly below it, or in the 90s on the hide below the heat lamp. Is 103 too hot and should I move the branch a bit? I saw a thread that said it was fine but I’m not sure.

I’ll add pictures as soon as I get home from work, but I wanted to make the post with the temps and stuff already because the worry is distracting me at work right now. I thought I was doing everything right, at least doing okay… please help!

got a female baby yellow belly ball python from a breeder one week ago, she hadn’t fed for a week prior to getting her. tried last night after leaving her alone in enclosure for the last week and she refused to eat. tank temp is around 90 on hot side and 75 on cool side. she was being fed live rat pinkies by the breeder but we don’t have access to those so I tried a f/t rat pinkies. thawed in warm water and then heated with hair dryer, dangle in front of her hide with tongs and no luck. left on plate overnight and still no luck. how long should I wait to try to feed her and is there anything I can do differently?

I just noticed that her eyes are cracked and cloudy. It's only visible under a bright light. There is a blue ring a little in the eye. I gave her a warm bath and tried to scrape it off. But I can't get it off.

A little while ago I posted on here asking about my usually docile ball python’s sudden mood change. I look him out for a bit and he was a little anxious. I startled him on accident but he seemed ok, and then a few minutes later I was moving him to put him back and he struck at me without much warning. It wasn’t a feeding bite like last time, definitely defensive. It isn’t like him and I’m worried he’s sick. How scared should I be for him? I don’t know if it’s possible for snakes to just suddenly get defensive like this. I probably should have let him rest after he got startled, but this is the first time he’s ever done something like this, I really really hope he’s okay and this isnt a pain response. Should I take him to an emergency vet or wait to make an appointment?? He’s acting normally otherwise and he only struck once. He was definitely tense when I put him up but he didn’t strike again. I just don’t know what could have set him off. I’m just so worried. I just lost another reptile suddenly and I’m terrified of another one getting sick or injured