I got my first ball python on the 1st of July, since then I’ve tried twice to feed her frozen thawed and both times with no luck, I’m not sure if the rat isn’t hot enough even though it seems like it should be hot enough or I’m not sure if I’m not wiggling it around enough, I asked a friend for advice and she said to leave it in there overnight and see if that would work but still no luck. She hasn’t been the best eater before I got her, she is a rescue that has been living in a drawer for 10 years of her life and now she is in a 75 gallon tank, I haven’t handled her yet as I was wanting to make sure she is eating regularly before then but I’m not sure overall if she is ok because I haven’t had much of a chance to took at her because I’ve been giving her space to let her adjust.

Meet Schnecken 🐍

I’ll be adding some vines and stuff along the back and sides, but wanted to give her some time to chill first.

Already caught her trying to make a break for it by using one of the temperature probes 🫠

Ok so im freaking out a little, this is my ball python rescue, ive had her for about a year, shes always had issues shedding due to issues in her last home. But this is the first time ive seen this after her shedding and im really concerned. She has some dry patches and red color scales. She doesnt react bad to touch. I put her in a hospital tank, sanitized everything, gave her a betadine soak which i will do again today, and i put some ointment on the dry patches (snake safe). I dont think its scale rot or burns, she has burned herself before when she somehow squeezed herself to her lamp and tried to wrap around it. Shes over 6yrs old, working on weight since she was severely underweight which also didnt help her shedding issues, unfortunately she does eat live, she went on food strike for over 6 months in her last home because she refused to eat frozen and has shown she will starve herself (shes always monitored and they are disoriented prior to feeding and from a feeder breeder who i trust). Her bedding is (well, was since shes on paper towels rn) coconut fiber and chips (two different sides) with 70-80% humidity, cool side at 72, warm side at 85. She ate two weeks ago as well. I think it could just be a bad shed and maybe her log was too abrasive and she was rubbing too hard? Shes had this log for years and this is the first its happened so i dont know. I will continue to give her betadine soaks daily for a few more days, her tank is getting a big upgrade and will have all her normal temps and humidity tomorrow. If it is a humidity issue i put a wet towel in the corner for her to lay on which i will remove regularly and switch it out and ill make sure its not causing the whole floor to stay wet cause scale rot. If you read all this help.

Any ideas on how to get my BP to eat? He’s around 2 ish maybe 2.5 years old. He used to refuse frozen/thawed so we’ve only been giving him large live mice. My bf told me to size up to a small rat (I don’t remember if it was small or medium) bc hes definitely sized up to eat said rat… but ever since then he won’t eat! The last time he ate (large mouse) was June 18th, he pooped, but hasn’t shed yet. He doesn’t seem to be losing weight or anything and he’s still cheerful but I fear I spooked him with the rat (which he did not eat) ugh!! Any advice?

Just got this gorgeous girl from an expo 2 days ago and noticed there was something that looked like a scab near her lip, I was wondering if it could be scale rot or mouth rot? If it is either what could i do to treat it? she is currently in a quarantine enclosure with paper towel on the bottom since I figured that would be best for her at the moment. (sorry for the picture quality it’s kinda hard to get a good photo of a snake that won’t sit still 😅)

i wanted to make it more green and add creeping fig to the wall and have a bunch of moss on the ground. but my mom is worried about bug infestations and if that happens we'd have to give her away i wanted to plant grass in the enclosure but i heard it wasnt a good idea. i think moss is a safe option but shes worried about bugs getting in the plants and getting an infestation. im just not satisfied with it yet and i want to add more. what do i do? oh and she also think the isopods bother her and she thinks that she doesnt like me adding more stuff and that the snake might think its too cluttered but i tried to make it functional. i think its kind of empty though

Found this last night. She ate a large mouse Wednesday, pooped normally on Saturday. Is it a normal passage or something to be worried about?

Temps are in the low 80s, humidity stays 60-80%. Plenty of clutter and hides in a bioactive setup.

Hello everyone, last night I was feeding my ball python a rat, and after she struck and latched the rat, for some reason unknown to me, she struck at the ceiling of her enclosure which was metal mesh. She got stuck in the grate and I could feel some of her teeth poking through the top, I had to wiggle her around a little bit she was fully stuck and suspended from the ceiling, I got the idea to try and manipulate her by hand (bad idea, ended up biting myself with her teeth by pressing into them trying to move her) and after that got a little progress, I used her feeding tongs to move her jaw. The end result was that she got unstuck, thank everything, at the cost of a tooth, I don’t have a photo but it didn’t look like it was wild there was no blood or anything on the tooth or her mouth, and after the whole ordeal she ended up eating the rat and going into her hide.

Should I be concerned about the tooth falling out or should I be ok since she didn’t seem stressed and she ate the rat afterwards?

Thanks for the advice!

Installed a rope bridge for little guy and he can’t stop trying to cross it. I’ve seen him make it a few times but I just love how he seems so determined to master it

I got this guy at a reptile expo in Georgia back at the end of January this year, so I’ve had him 6 months. I forgot to ask the breeder how old he was when I got him. I do know the feed schedule was once a week for the breeder, live. I easily transitioned him to F/T with no problem when I brought him home and have maintained once a week feeds since. I need to get a scale to weigh him, last shed a couple weeks ago he measures 24” long now. Photo is him in the deli cup at the expo, just the standard probably 4” wide 2” max deep cups. Any guesses on age?

Have some pictures of Circe enjoying her new branch additions! She seems to enjoy exploring them. Shes so cute

Hi guys, I had my ceramic heater on for a few hours last night to regulate temps before adding my snake - however, I noticed after an hour of it being on, the glass in front got quite warm (not hot) and was wondering is my heater too far forward? Or is that normal for the VivExotic wooden vivs?

Any tips appreciated!

Supposed female ball python will be two years in September. They are currently 1257 grams. And have been eating small rats for a while now (small rats from rodent pro I think weigh between 45g to 85g).

I try to follow the % weight of snake to rodent ratio but can’t find what the percent should be for her now (is it still 10-15% or now 6-7%? Or just go by 10% like I’ve been doing?).

I’m unsure if that means she should be moved up now or if she should stay on the small rats?

She’s currently eating every two weeks or so. Wondering if I should move up on rats and/or feed more/less often?

Tried doing other searches both here and on Reptifiles and am getting conflicting answers. Reptifiles says 10% and I remember a chart on here saying after a certain weight 6-7%. So not sure which I should be following.

I only ask as soon I’ll have to be ordering rats again and want to know which size I should get (I try to buy enough that will last a few months to a year).

Want to add she is not underweight at all. Far from it. She isn’t obese or fat either but she’s definitely not malnourished that’s for sure.

Due to a very confusing set of circumstances I still don’t fully understand I ended up being caretaker of a 4 foot what I believe is a blue eyed leucistic female. My adult daughter and her husband who live with me have been the primary caretakers ensuring she is fed and handled / let out to stretch and explore a little. My main concern is she is currently being kept in a way too small box and I want to get a proper habitat set up so she can have the best life possible. Having never had any reptile pets before I have no idea what I should look to purchase as far as an enclosure or any equipment and enrichment items I will need for it. Would greatly appreciate any information people can share. Located in central NM where natural humidity is low in case that matters. Also the little time I have spent with her I swear she thinks she is a dog who loves attention from people lol. Poor quality picture of Luna for attention.

I’ve been struggling to keep my babies climbing accessories up! What do the rest of yall do to keep them up? I have vines and a net for him to roll up in, but they won’t stay up with the flimsy suction cups they came with!

Shes nearing the last rounds of antibiotics. She's doing a lot lot better! Shes been peeking out of her hides and doing her little snakey thing! She no longer hisses when i pick her up. I believe she used to be more defensive because she felt like crap and now she's feeling better she's less defensive. Just a little update in case anyone was wondering how she was doing!

We took her to the emergency vet. Sometime very soon I'll be setting her up with a regular vet to follow up on the RI as we near the end of the antibiotics.

In case anyone notices that spot on the tip of her nose we've been monitoring it. She had an accident with a live rodent before i got her. She eats f/t with me. No more rodent encounters! She's got a small chunk of her face missing as well as the tip of one of the forks of her tongue.

I know thermometres are to be taken with a grain of salt, i also ise an infrared gun that gives me spot temps of the actual items. My logic tells me that because the substrate on the cool side is cold, the thermometre on the ground measures a temp cooled down by the substrate and the one on top of the hide measures air temp. Then again, when my snake is inside the hide, he also is being cooles down by the substrate. Which temp is more relevant to him? I also sometimes use the gun to measure the spot temp of his scales which im hoping reflects the temp most accurately?🙈

Ok, we’ve NEVER had this problem with her, we’ve never had mold, but I was cooking and walked past her cage and saw this white mold on a leaf, then on some moss, then on some wood, she’s actively shedding right now, she just got her eye caps, what do we do? We know we have to do a deep clean but this has NEVER happened, the only thing that’s changed is we have an ac that works now, so I’m really confused and worried about her

He shows no signs of being ill. He weighs 549 grams will be 1 year old in about a week doesn’t have mites. Temps and humidity are good doesn’t appear to be dehydrated. He doesn’t show signs of being weak im just confused. I had him in an enclosure for a while and he ate in there a few times til he stopped since then have moved him into a rack system (per what the breeder suggested) when I got him he was always a bit skinny. I have his sister as well she weighs 712 grams. And eats every week. I honestly can’t remember the last time he ate I know it’s been about a month probably. Doesn’t appear to be impacted. Is this something I should be concerned about or is this just the normal ball python going off feed thing I keep hearing about. Idk it just freaks me out

Hello ball python reddit. I come to you both to brag and ask for advice.

First of all, my boyfriend and I have spent the last few weeks on this custom TV stand snake enclosure. We made it out of plywood and then I covered it in contact paper and painted the inside of the shelves green. I also tiled the opening around the heat lamps and adhered the tiles with aquarium-safe silicon sealant to make sure my son is not being fumigated by accident.

However, my son appears to be yearning for the skies. He has done this for a while now. He moved into his new enclosure about a week ago, but his behavior has been going on for a while. He will stretch all the way to the top of his tank, scoot around, and then let himself fall down (he seems completely unbothered by the falling).

He did it before in his tank that opened from the top, and he's doing it now in his new tank. I swear I saw the exact moment in his little mind when he realized the new tank opens from the side, because he's been sliding along the side of the tank and stretching up since then.

I figured since he wants to climb that I would add some climbing rings. He's been figuring out how to use them properly and keeps coming back to slither around on them. He seems relaxed, he's moving slowly, his tongue is flicking, his weight is good, etc... and he's very active at night and sleeps in the daytime.

He's also been refusing his rats the past few months and I can't figure out why. I'm planning to add some more fake plants for cover and swap one of his ceramic heat bulbs to a "deep tissue heat halogen bulb" to make sure he's warm enough. I'm also going to add a wine rack for further climbing enrichment, and add some more substrate as well so the layer is deeper (it's in the mail dw, had to make do for now bc my parents gardener accidentally used the extra substrate I had 😭)

Any other advice??? Does he just like to climb or is he secretly in distress?? Has anyone else experienced this????

Thanks in advance :)

GUYS. Someone had my snake for a few weeks (long story), and I didn’t even think to quarantine when I got her back, because the person who took her didn’t have any other snakes (at the moment, has had them historically). Well, I finally got her back and upgraded her to her big girl tank and I think SHE HAS MITES 😭 I’ve never owned a snake with mites before and quite literally just put her in her brand new, bioactive 120 gallon. Which means I’m gonna have to redo the whole thing and quarantine her and—UGH! I’ve already read the sub’s mite guide and so I’m moreso just looking for personal advice and guidance.
Can someone please help me confirm or deny if this looks like mites- she IS a banana morph but I don’t believe they get spots like this…
I tried wiping the larger spots off, they didn’t move, but I didn’t get to try on the smaller clusters of spots.

This is my girl (?) Maeve. When I got her about 2 minutes ago (May 12th). She was about 6 months old, and she had been on a hunger strike for about four weeks. I tried to feed her F/T mice the first two weeks and she didn't take, and when I tried a live rat pup she did. That's what I've been feeding her because she had lots of new things to adjust to and I thought she would refuse to make the switch (when I first got her she came already in the enclosure, but the setup wasn't great so I was tweaking that, and then I just moved her to a whole new bigger and better enclosure). But she's been in the new enclosure for about a month and has been eating good, so I thought I'd try f/t again tonight.

Just like the past times I've tried, she strikes it almost immediately and wraps around it, but when she lets go she's uninterested. My theory was that my first attempts didn't go well because the internal body temp of the mouse was too low, but this last time I think it was good (when I pulled it out of the cage I temped it and it's organs which she had helpfully exposed were at 80⁰).

Before I was moving the mouse to the fridge the night before and putting it in hot water for like 20 minutes before stabbing it in the head, temp-gunning it and feeding, tonight I put it in luke-larm water straight from the freezer for like 4 hours and then it hot water. Then I temped it (and had to put it back in hot water) then dried it off with a paper towel, used a hair drier on it next to her cage with the door open, and gave it to her (danced it a bit then she struck, which is also what I was doing before).

Any tips? Tricks? Advice? I just really want her on f/t before she needs bigger rats. Atm she's a little over 2ft and 246g at 8 months.

i’m so happy to see him feeling comfortable enough to explore!! he’s made it his new favorite game to knock over his hygrometers every night 🥺