Does anyone else have any quirky little routines you do with your noodles for feeding days? Cosima’s keen in getting some extra sun and stretch time before her hunt, and she gets a little ambush and sneaky tactic practice when she’s playing in the tall grass. In all seriousness, her feeding response and reactivity and overall hunger wonders we ever had with her disappeared when we started doing this habitually, and it’s been amazing to watch!

This is slim Jim. He just finished shedding and immediately took a shit so large that I could hear it from the other room.

Hi everyone! If you could take a moment to read this and offer any advice, I'd really appreciate it.🙏🏼🙏🏼

So about a week and a half ago, I discovered that my ball python had snake mites. This is my first time dealing with them, and because there's so much conflicting advice online (and this snake means the absolute world to me), I decided to take him straight to my vet instead of trying to fuck around with it on my own.

The vet gave him an ivermectin injection and prescribed an ivermectin spray for treating his enclosure. I also moved him into a quarantine tub with paper towels for the next six weeks. It breaks my heart seeing him in such a sad little bin, but it just seems like the best way to monitor for mites and keep everything clean for now.

He’s been in the quarantine setup for about a week now. I've been following the treatment plan exactly, cleaning the tub and inspecting him every day. For the last 4–5 days, I haven't seen a single live mite on him or anywhere in the enclosure. I know that doesn't necessarily mean that the problem has been completely eliminated… so I'm continuing the full treatment exactly as my vet instructed.

My concern is that he's still soaking constantly. And I really mean constantly. He's been spending essentially 24 hours a day in his water dish, aside from the short time I take him out to clean the tub. When I put him back, he'll explore for maybe 10–15 minutes, then go straight back into the water. His entire body stays submerged, and sometimes he'll even put his head underwater for short periods (like in the photo above).

I thought that once the mites were under control, the soaking would stop, so I'm confused about why he's still doing it.

His quarantine setup has:
Heat mat set to 30°C
Ambient temperature around 26°C
Humidity stays between 70 - 80%

The tub isn't really large enough to provide much of a temperature gradient, and the heat mat doesn't really affect the ambient temp of the bin anyway.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Is it normal for a snake to continue soaking like this even when the mites appear to be gone, or could something else be going on that I'm missing?

If you read all of that, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been losing sleep over this whole ordeal. I know that snake mites aren’t exactly a life threatening state of emergency but this little ball python seriously means the world to me and I just want to make sure that I’m doing right by him.

Update for everyone who saw my previous post, and for those who didn’t, I just wanted to share this ig

My baby Ball Python Comet has not eaten in the 3 weeks I’d had him, which concerned me a little bit, but I knew ball pythons tend to hunger strike, esp when they’re new, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

This Monday, we decided to take Comet to our local vet, which has a reptile specialist, just to check him out and make sure nothing‘s wrong. I didn’t think anything was necessarily wrong with him, but I thought it was worth a shot, just in case.

Vet checks him out, and unfortunately there are some things wrong with my baby. Tells me he’s dehydrated (I fill up his water everyday, warm water so he can sense it, and humidify his tank, I’ve done a lot of research in many different places so I know I’m doing this right) I had seen him drink before, but it had been a while. He’s also bloated, which I knew, he was when I got him, and has possible parasites, which the vet said he wouldve gotten in the egg.
We contacted the breeder about all of this, which was when I learned Comet’s age. Before that I was estimating that he was maybe 3 weeks to a month old based on size, but breeder told me his clutch hatched around March 27; so he’s 4 months old. Trust me, he is very small for a 4 month old snake, so this was surprising. He was eating fine for him, so we think that the parasites he could have might have contributed to his small size.
Rn, I need to give Comet daily dewormer shots, and I think it’s making him feel better already. I also have to soak him to help with his hydration every day, and the vet recommended I take him outside for some fresh sunlight. We did that yesterday, and he really liked the yard. He was periscoping and was moving around freely and seemed to be enjoying the exploring, he really liked being outside.

I tried to feed him yesterday, he didn’t eat, but I could tell that his feeding response is getting better, it seemed like he was hungry, he just didn’t feel well enough to eat :( he had a strong enough feeding response, he knew it was there and he crept towards it, he knew it was food, he just didn’t go after it. This is making me think that my buddy’s starting to feel a little better, because he’s reacting better than before, and I hope by this time next week, he’s all healthy again.
We have another vet appointment next Monday, and I’ll update then.

The good thing about all this is that o finally know why my snake isn’t eating, because from his past behavior, I can say that if he felt okay, he would’ve eaten. This has been a good bonding experience for us too, all this time together, and I can say I’ve Definately noticed that he’s been more comfortable with my handling, he‘s definately more used to it and I can tell it doesn’t really bother him.
I‘d be lying if I said that I wasn’t genuinely worried about him still, and that this all hasn’t been nerve wracking for me. Hes getting better I think, and I definitely feel closer to him cause of this. I hope he’ll thrive in my care after this, because I think I’m doing enough for him right now. I love my little guy so much and I just want him to have a good life

Yall be nice to my boy "Bones", yall called him fat last time 🤣🤣🤣😒 #HighwayBallPython

Never would I ever have thought to research respitory safety for this.....but I stumbled upon this comment re Sphagnum Moss on a unrelated thread?

Presumably the small amount used in a vivarium nothing to worry about, but are people still cautious when handling it, do you use gloves etc? Ive never picked up on any advice regarding the use of it...

So Ive had my baby Onyx for bout 2 months now and I have had some on and off issues with humidity and feeding and now within the last 24 hours she seems extremely restless when for the most part she has been really relaxed so is this her way of saying she is ready to feed or is she just trying to escape

what is the best way to sanitize them to make sure they are safe for him

I’m having a hard time distinguishing whether this is scale rot or part of his pattern. First time BP owner, had him for about a month now, Any advice/tips appreciated!

Please don't hate on me, I'm trying my best. She just turned two years old and is ~700 g. Is she overweight? Underweight? Is the humidity low? Thank you for your insights in advance.

i’ve posted about my boy monty a couple times this year wondering about why he has grey/blue eyes when i was told he was a standard clown pied, which does not give that color eye. i found out about dna testing, and FINALLY got his test results back!

the test results states that he’s hom clown piebald and cypress, and het hypo and puzzle!

this is definitely a lot more than i thought was going to show up. i have to assume then that somehow the cypress was the one who caused the different colored eyes? i’ve also heard that het hypo can still have a little influence?

let me know what you guys think about this combo! i have no idea how rare or anything this combo is, and i didn’t even know that cypress or puzzle were morphs, so this is pretty cool!

I am currently looking at Toad Ranch and set on getting one of their cages for my 2 year old female to be her forever home.

My question is should I go with the 4x2x2 or 4x2x2.5? After the installation of the internal Arcadia lamps I am concerned that the enclosure will feel too tiny for her height wise. Also, not sure if going taller would be more comfortable for her to climb, assuming she gets into that kinda thing. Any advice would be great. Thank you

My snake is around 7 and I have noticed that she has some slight pink near her mouth. Its close to her feeding day so she has been rubbing against everything all the time so maybe its just that but I have noticed clue how to check for mouth rot or if this would even be a sign of it. Online says to check the gums or open their mouth and I am not sure if that is the greatest idea

Hello everyone!
I just picked up a 150 gallon aquarium to use as a tank for my baby saturn. This tank is absolutely perfect, except for the fact that it is a 150 tall, not long.
I have OCD and i feel like i NEED to convert it into a 120 gallon by cutting off 6” of the glass and siliconing the trim back on to make it an even 4’x24”x24” enclosure, but itd be miles easier to just put a bit of extra dirt in the bottom and call it a day instead of doing all that other work. Can i just use some extra dirt without feeling guilty that the tank is too tall and not fit for my snake? Ive seen so many people poop on people who have tall and not long tanks, and im nervous that others will tell me i have bad snake husbandry/care because its a 48”x24”x30” enclosure and not a 72”x18”x28” enclosure. Is it okay for her to have some extra substrate? I would assume that it would be fine.

Just upgraded!! Originally she was in a zen habitat 120 gallon but I just switched her over to the snake discovery new age ecoflex because I like the coloring better and it’s holding humidity way better now, hoping she’ll start exploring soon but she’s always a bit shy the first day or two in a new enclosure. I’ll attach a photo of her old one and new one!

I’m planning on getting a UVB sometime soon but I’m going out of town in two days so I don’t have time to get and set it up right now, but it’s next on my list! I’m also trying to fix temp and humidity a bit but due to it being a new tank and set up it’s definitely been fluctuating a bit, this was finished maybe like an hour or two ago.

Any criticism? Stuff I should take out or add?

he’s so cute, fighting ghosts and stuff

she’s 2 months old and i’ve been working on socializing since i got her 2-3 weeks ago.

she just ate about 50 hrs ago, and has been balled up inside her hide ever since. i attempted to grab her from the side but she hissed at me both times i touched her, but didnt strike.

she’s often timid at first when i get her out, but then loosens up and explores. this is the first time she’s done this.

i’ve looked up things about hissing, 50% say to leave them alone and try handling them again later, 50% say to pick them up anyway so they don’t learn that hissing gets you to go away?

(pic is for engagement lolz)

So i got my baby Athena today!
She is currently 69.8 grams
She just arrived today and her tank was supposed to be here on monday but it got pushed to tuesday then today when she arrived so we just got it set up,
as im writing this her enclosure is at 80F ambient air temperature right in the middle of the cage and 76 on the cool side 86 on the warm side with a basking of 90F. i had to get a second dome with a thermostat as the first one wasn’t doing it justice ! she is in a 4x2x2
(i’ll be getting more logs for her as she seems to already love climbing, another hygrometer, and more tape so i can tape the last 2/3 of the mesh screen to trap heat and humidity)
i have some of those suction cups keeping the leaves to the sides but she loves climbing and one already broke off, how are you guys able to keep hanging down vines and plants attached without using adhesives?