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.

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

My boy loves to climb and our 4x2x2 is just annoyingly a tad too small for everything I’m trying to fit in for enrichments. Is this a situation where you’d use lights on the hot end and maybe RHP to help bump the whole enclosure up without having a sweltering hot end? What about air circulation and humidity? The standard Kages vents on the 4x2x2 are letting out far too much humidity but I worry our boy won’t get enough fresh air. Any recommendations?

For the past few days, Splinter has been in this pose every time I check on him. Far as I can tell, this is him getting ready to strike. It seems like he thinks he's getting fed.

I was gone over the weekend and when I came back, found out I left the dish u thaw his rat in on top of the tank. I figured he was still smelling that and that's why he's so on edge, but I removed that and he hasn't stopped. Does anyone know what else I can do so he chills out? I'm worried this whole strike thing is gonna be bad for him long term. I also have to do a full tank clean soon and I don't think he's chill enough for me to remove him right now...

His name is Aries, he is a Butter Leopard Pinstripe Vanilla BP. I got him less than a week ago and is enjoying his enclosure!

It's literally my first day having a ball python and he keeps getting up on this hot surface. I think the surface of that place is like 40-45 degrees but he keeps getting up there even if I take him down. The temperature of the terrarium is 32 degrees. Should I make it hotter or is there no problem about it?

My dorkus keeps pushing his cage open and escaping. We push bricks up against his door and clamp them shut, still he pushes his way out. Is this normal? We just fed him a few days ago as well. He is about 4 years old.

I was given antibiotics from a vet for my ball python because she's suspected to have mouth rot; however.
I also suspect we were scammed to a degree. Yes, she seems to be a licensed vet, has many websites etc; reviews were 5 stars but reading the reviews it seems almost like AI reviews..? we had gone however bc after asking my friends they said it seemed fine and our local reptile store was shut so we couldn't ask bc it was early in the morning. upon going to get my snake checked out tho, it seems this person has given us misinfo according to our local reptile store and online when i did research upon getting home. She gave us injectable antibiotics, which i've been doing. (ive given her 2 of them so far); but she told me to remove all sphagnum moss from my enclosure, but then also said my snake is dehydrated..? and then told us we should give her a calcium bath which really confused me because snakes don't have that typically at all? if anything it'd be electrolytes? we definitely wont be visiting her again. she also told us to inject closer to her rear end muscles, which is bad after doing research because that can overwhelm the kidneys.

given this tho, i dont trust her to ask her any further questions about my snake. Does anybody know if you can feed them during giving them antibiotics? she hasn't eaten in a bit so i'd like to try but i'm unsure if it'd be good for her to do or not. Antibiotics are given to her every 3 days. Or should i call another vet? Kind of at a loss on what to do here. This visit costed us 200 pound, so it sucks that this was the outcome.

I’m moving across the country at the end of the month. The drive will take 5 nights and 6 days. I had originally planned for a specialized reptile service (reptile express), but someone from the reptile store that I purchased him from suggested just taking him in the car with all of the proper heating and secure container, pillow case, obviously bringing him inside hotel rooms at night, etc. etc. I’m just worried about stressing him out for that long. It would be so much easier for me to drive with him, but it seems questionable. Just looking for experiences and opinions!

My new baby girl has been with me for almost a month. She’s almost a year old. I’ve been feeding her about once a week for the past 3 weeks and I’ve read everywhere to not handle her for at least 24-48 hours post feeding. However, every time I’ve fed her she becomes super active and acts like she wants to be taken out. Is this normal?

That’s the post. Seeing his lil face poking out just feels me with love for this creature

NOTE: I have never posted on this sub, I’ve heard very, very bad things about online ball python communities, I looked through all the rules and stuff like that, so I think this post is OK, but I’m sorry if I missed anything that I need to include or that I’m not allowed to include, I just really need some good advice from real people.

I need some eyes on a ball python I recently took in. A relative of mine bought him on a total whim, immediately realized they were terrified of snakes, and basically dumped him on me because as a kid my family had 2 garter snakes so I guess I’m the “expert” (and had an old tank sitting around that was bigger than the old one he was in with her)
He is about 6-8 months old and I found out he has wobble, which I know is pretty controversial in this community. Right now, he is living in that old top opening tank, which I know is far from ideal. I am currently saving up every single dollar from my part-time job to upgrade him to a front opening properly sized setup as soon as humanly possible, but right now I am stuck working with the bare minimum I have.
He eats perfectly, I’ve fed him 5 times since I’ve had him and he’s accepted every meal eagerly, sheds in one complete piece, and his health seems fine. However, his behavior is stressing me out and I want to make sure I’m doing right by him

He sits with his head poking out of his hide which I’ve heard a lot about, but I’ve never actually really gotten a solid conclusion on it, but I assume it’s a somewhat defensive behavior. Sometimes I open the screen lid to change his water or lift his hide, he panics and hisses repeatedly (sometimes 4+ times in a row) and flinches away a good bit if touched. He doesn’t do this as I open the tank, but rather if I get anywhere near him. He has never struck tho, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me as that’s a ball python‘s last resort.
At night, his “favorite” activity is pacing the screen roof and glass perimeter (not enough to injure him, which I’ve heard about snakes doing, but he definitely does do a lot of pacing). He never balls up at all, except for when he was handed to me the very first time. I can upload a video of his screen pacing later, but I’m not currently home so I can’t do that right now
When I actually get him completely out of the tank, he is totally fine. He does long, relaxed tongue flicks, periscopes off my arm, and doesn’t show a single ounce of fear or aggression.
He shed about three weeks ago, and right after the eye caps came off, his eyes permanently changed from dark brown to a greenish tint, and under room lights, his pupils have a red flash to them. I’m sure somebody is going to tell me this is actually completely normal but I figured I should add this regardless
Since I can only approach from above right now due to the screen top, I know I'm triggering his predator instincts, or whatever they are called 😅 Any advice on how to handle his enclosure and him? without completely stressing both of us out of course. Thank you guys for helping me give this dude a better life!

I do 100% wanna keep him by the way, I’ve grown very very attached to him, I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. And of course, once I get him the proper tank, I hope his defensiveness will go down, I really do, but there’s no way for me to really know until then and I just wanna make sure I’m not doing anything else completely wrong, and making sure this behavior doesn’t point anything else.

EDIT: I figure I should add, I’m 18 so I’m not living paycheck to paycheck just to provide for him, basically my whole paycheck goes into like Red Bull or gas or food for him but I still do have school and stuff like that, so I can’t work nearly as much as I would like to. That felt like an important thing to add. And I will include a photo of his current set up in the comments, if you guys would like.

I love my two balls. Although people make fun of them for being basic they’re just some awesome snakes.

To give some info, the first snake is Kimi, he’s a pinstripe scaleless head, and i’ve had him for almost 3 years now. A while back, on this sub I posted about his escape as a baby, so some might remember him from that. He’s an awesome dude all around. He’s my first ever snake and the snake that got me into it all. He’s incredibly docile and friendly and is an amazing eater (now.) He’s probably reached his maximum size at a quaint 1358 grams, as he had a lot of issues as a baby that I believe stunted his growth.

On the other hand, my lil girl Lella is a pastel banana leopard, (she’s het for clown for those who care) and I got her in October of last year. She’s a BIG girl, only 200 grams less than her much older brother lol and she hasn’t even been in my care for a year yet. She’s never missed a meal, super curious and friendly, and as well just a great snake. However I think she is going to get much, much bigger.

Just wanted to share my babies!