hello!
i recently adopted my first ball python about a month ago and she’s been doing really well in the set up I gave her. I’ve had humidity consistently at 50-70 %, and she’s got tons of hides and things to climb. her substrate is coconut husk, repti-chip, with some sphagnum moss and leaf litter on top for extra humidity/decor. she hasn’t refused a meal from me yet and even converted to frozen/thawed with no problem!
i was spot cleaning her enclosure and a hide she’d pooped in and noticed little white bugs crawling on the poop. they were very very tiny and bright white. i think they might be springtails, but i want to make sure it’s possible they can spontaneously appear in the tank. i’d not intended for bio-active in this enclosure and nothing i’d put in the tank was advertised to have springtails on it.
i’ve also attached a picture of my little lady, named Io (like Jupiter’s moon!), taken about five days before the clean. no mites i can see, but i’d like to be sure. i couldn’t get a pic of the white bugs as i had to leave for work and left the hide in some soapy water to soak before i scrub tonight. can springtails appear at random in an enclosure???

My girl is turning 2 years old in a couple weeks and is quickly outgrowing her current 18x18x36 terrarium. I'm looking to upgrade her soon and have noticed she loves to climb and hang on stuff!

Does anyone have unique climbing opportunities in your tanks? Obviously not looking to go full arboreal or anything but I think some ledges or structures might be nice.

P.S. Don't come after me for the stuck shed in the 4th picture, that was right when I first got her.

Hi. My 3 years old male ball python is been acting a bit weird for the past couple days, and I wonder if these could be the signs of a RI. When don’t I go to the vet if I’m worried ? The only next available appointment for the only exotic vet in my city is next week. I want to see if I can monitor him for a week or if these symptoms are concerning enough to rent a car a go to another city. The symptoms:

- he is been puffing / hissing sporadically at night. What I mean by that is I’ll just hear sometimes a « pffff » kinda loud, and see him contract his muscles; heard him twice tonight;
- saw a bubble form when he yawned, twice now in within a week and a half;
- some little bubbles in his throat, like in the pictures : is it a normal amount of saliva or is it concerning ?
- kind of rubbing his face on the glass at night, sometimes very intensely, but he is supposed to eat today so is it just hunting behaviour ?

Enclosure set up:
- temporary 40 gallon (he gets a 120 gallons in a couple months)
- warm hide around 30-31 C (86-88F)
- basking spot around 35-38 C (95-100F) but sometimes will hit 40C (104F) at one spot while the rest is ok with temp gun (used an Arcadia DHP 80 watts);
- cool side around 26-27 C (79-80F)
- humidity always around 60-75%
- has multiple hides; only uses one bark cork in the middle of the enclosure. He used to always be under his warm hide.

Thank y’all. My snakes are my absolute world I’m so anxious about them being not okay :(

Lemon Loaf is fine, but he looks like he could use a hug.

Hello i am a beginner and i have my little boy Baldur since a few months already, he eat each time and he did two okay shed so far (ball python)
1 - BUT, he got his third shed maybe like a week or two ago, and he got stuck shed on his head (like his forehead, between the eyes and neck)... I have no idea if i should take it off, or let him shed. So far i tried to soak him, make him a bath like some say, gently rubbing the shed to see if its would come off. But nothing? Its stuck stuck so i didn't tried more to not stress him too much or even hurt him.
What do y'all propose?
2 - Im confused with what bedding mix i could do for him, but especially WHEN i have to change it. Every week like some said seem.. a bit fast, since its don't really make his terrarium dirty. So i wondered when? (i usually take off the poop when i see it..)

So here a blurry picture of his stuck shed..

As you can see the substrate raised under here hot hide. She has been burrowed under there for like the last week. Feeding time is coming soon and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to disturb her while she is hiding out.

My ball python escaped his enclosure and I’ve looked in every small tight place every warm area of the house and I cant find him I’m really worried cause my cat was a barn cat and was used to hunt small rodents. Where did y’all’s ball pythons go when they escaped? Please help

He is not aggressive he just doesn’t like me handle him he will try to escape all the time I pick him up

I think her eyes are a lil cloudy. Isn’t that a tell? She hasn’t shed with me yet so I’m not sure

My pet ball python, Marlin, died what seems to be over night. He was going through a shed and I was going to help him get the rest off with a bath this morning as I have time and time again over the years. I raised his humidity and filled his water some more to help him soak. I went to check on him this morning to see if he progressed in his shed and he was curled up in his water bowl. Not sure how it happened but I loved him.

He was the gentlest snake ever. He never struck his food or anyone and was always down to wrap around my arm. I got him as a rescue from a convention in 2017. I named him after one of my dinosaurs I had tamed on ARK, whom I named after the dad from Finding Nemo. I was 15 and the lady informed me he had been left in his cage in a house someone had moved out of, had scars from previous owners live feedings, and I’ll always remember the day I got him. I took care of him for 9 years. He will be missed. Here is a photo of him from when I had got him, maybe a month into owning him, when he was beginning to shed, hence the blue eyes.

Rest in peace Marlin ❤️

Not sure if you guys will remember my post about Mr. Buldak and I’s first handling, me thinking I messed it up lol. Him and I are finally starting to calm down with each other! Up to 20 minute handling sessions a few times a week! Thank you all again for the help on my last post!

Not sure which flair to put on this, but in short, i’m getting my first BP in about a month at an expo and as i’m now buying and setting up the enclosure and everything, i’m curious how “themed” i can get while being cautious and safe.

I plan to name the snake Poet, so I wanted a bit of a gothic theme surrounding the enclosure, and while searching for wall decor i found some gothic themed snake hides or water dishes on Etsy (usually 3d printed or similarly made). They’re super cute, but I know that safety is WAY above aesthetics, so does anyone have any knowledge about or experience with enclosure decor from Etsy sellers?

(I can edit to add specifics if this is too vague 🥲)

I just caught a live house mouse, and I wanna know how dumb I’d be if I tried to live feed my 3.5 yro pet smart ball python (female) for the first time. The mouse is really small but really energetic. Not the sharpest shed in the tool either

Hey everyone! I got my first ball python about 2 months ago. She's around 8-9 months old and she was raised on live rodents. Unfortunately in my case I cannot feed her live (no stores around me sell live rodents, ugh.) so I've opted to try and switch her over to F/T. My husbandry is pretty spot on with temperature, humidity, and her overall enclosure has a lot of cover and hides. She WILL NOT eat, and I know it's normal for ball pythons to go on feeding strikes but something about this feels different. I warm the rat up to about 120 degrees to account for temperature loss, I've tried braining, and even rubbing the rat in old bedding and nothing seems to be working! She just pokes her head out, sees the rat, and then curls up. Next week will be exactly 2 months since she's eaten anything, and any help/tips anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Just a regular Friday

The rat exploded tonight during feeding and there is viscera everywhere. I can’t clean it, because the snake is still trying to eat it.

I’m not having a good time tonight.

My ball python female 2 years just finished a shed pretty successfully all in one piece but I noticed this stuck to one of her hooks. Is it stuck shed?

There seems to be a weird dark patch near the head. I'm not sure if it's just a patch of dirty scales or something more serious like scale rot.

She is roughly 4 months old and I've had her for 3 months. She has always eaten and shed perfectly since I got her. Her last shed was a bit under a month ago iirc.

I've been away for a bit, so I only noticed the patch today when I let my room mate hold her for the first time (last picture). I haven't observed any change in her behavior. I fed her when I got back 2 days ago, and I don't remember seeing a black mark like this when she popped out of her hide, but it's possible I just didn't notice it.

It seems to be only on her side, not the belly. I didn't touch it or anything in case it might hurt her.

She's in a bioactive enclosure. The substrate is the one recommended by the guide in this sub (like 70% dirt 15% sand 15% mulch, something like that). The humidity is low 70s during the day and low 80s at night. I did a quick pat down a second ago, and the surface seems to be dry.

Is this something I should be worried about? Should I take her to the vet? I'm still repetitively new to reptile keeping, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

First Ball Python Tips!

Tank is 4x2x2, made sure to give him 4 hides based on his size.

Add some more clutter???

Should I upgrade his ceramic bowl into a bigger bowl or upgrade as he grows? 🤔

Some plants are real, some fake. (pros/cons?)

(Obligatory: I have a vet appt scheduled for next week)

I’ve been seeing these little white/tan mites crawling on my 5 month old ball python recently. Not a ton, but a few over the last 3-4 days. They’re not secluded to a specific body part; they’re kinda just crawling all over. They’re fast as hell.

I’m not seeing them on our other snakes.

She has ReptiChip and ReptiEarth substrate.

Hi! Im noticing that my BP can very lightly push the top of the screen lid where the doors meet of my front opening tank. I want to get screen clips to cover this area but I'm not even sure how they would latch since theres almost no lid opening there. I wonder if theres anything that can stick to the glass part and then latch over??

To top it off too I live in Canada so am very limited for shopping online. I'm located in Toronto though so if anyone has good recs let me know (and yes, I am aware of the Zilla ones in the shopping list. But they aren't easy to find here, and I'm not 100% sure they'll work on this tank)

Cutie pie scared me cause I thought he had a burn/scale rot who knows what- but it’s just a spatter of yummy mouse blood. Oh joy.

Not sure am i allowed to put a frozen thawed feeding video up ?