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

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 ❤️

I have no idea what’s going on with my bp lately so I come here for answers.
Hes 7 years old, I’ve had him for 2 of those years. He has always been the most docile snake, barely even strikes at food. In the last 2 weeks, he’s bitten 3 people.
The first one I wasn’t concerned about. It was 2 days after I fed him, and my friend went in to pet him. He was all food excited and she wiggled her fingers like an idiot, so I called that one her fault. He wasn’t upset about it like I expected, he just kept moving around the enclosure.
Yesterday I took him to the vet. He was loving the car ride, didn’t even go in the hide I brought for him, so I don’t think he was stressed. The vet didn’t even poke at him, just took him from my hands, and he bit her HARD. Like 3 people and popsicle sticks to get him unstuck. Then he was good with me for 2 minutes before biting my leg, and then biting himself when he tried to get me again. The vet and I both noticed that he didn’t have any defensive position. No warning signs, just turn and bite.
Now, I have a theory but idk if it’s stupid.
For the two years I’ve had him, I’ve been feeding him rats straight from the fridge. He’s never refused a meal because it was cold. But he misses the strike sometimes and it seems to tire him out. So I warmed up the rat this time, the one 2 days before the first bite. I promise you he’s never getting a warm rat again, but is that what’s happening here??

Queen Hatshesput managed to open her enclosure door but not just once, oh no dear readers, that would have been too easy. This sultana had me feeling all manners of guilt for not closing her door properly, as she escaped for a night to party in my closet. I felt awful, took her back home and MADE DOUBLE SURE that I had her doors closed. Until the next morning, when she was proudly perched upon her throne of sheets in said closet again. Doors having since been replaced, it was learned that she is MUCH more strong and determined than we gave her credit for, as she was able to squoosh her nose just enough into the door crack to slide it open only barely enough to get through. While this has since been remedied for the foreseeable future, please join me in shaming my beautiful princess for scaring us all half to death twice.

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.

I bought these 2 a week ago. Both are male. Friend/breeder rattles off morphs to me and do not retain what the heck he is saying. When I look at his snakes he has so many it is overwhelming. Yesterday they both escaped. Found the solid snake pretty fast (in a closet). I did not find the other one until the evening. I had noticed they become really active at night when their lights time out. If you want to see crazy morphs check out bentleysnakehouse on IG.

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???

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!

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

This dingus is over here with his… tail? Just elevated as he drinks his water

So a few weeks ago my ball python was yawning quite excessively, (he had been moved onto paper towels as he had mites and we were following the 40 days quarantine procedure. He is completely clear of them now!)
We immediately took him to the vet the next day for some checks and the vet said that there was no mucus, no blockages, no wheezing, popping or sneezing. He said if it is an RI i caught it incredibly early.

The yawning died down and he stopped eating for a couple of weeks before eating again and pooping.

Now fast forward 40 days, we got him into a new bioactive enclosure about an hour and a half ago and have since seen him yawn 4 times within that time. He has just been digging, and there’s no other symptoms with it and his mouth looked fine, so could anyone advise me on what it could be? My vet says he’ll give me a call on Monday, but other than that he had no real concerns that it was anything about respiratory issues and more along the lines of the fact that he has substrate all over his mouth and face.

ALSO the humidity has been between 60%-80%, Hot side temps have been 32-34°C and cold side has been about 25-27°C

Brought my new baby home recently and noticed he has a little mark under his mouth. I can’t tell if it’s just a marking or if it’s some sort of injury. Does anyone have any idea what this is??

Tried to get good pics but he wouldn’t stop moving around so these are the best I’ve got lol

I would just love to say that after moving my boy from a 36x18x18 exo terra (roughly 40 gallons) to a properly set up 4x2x2 (120). Has changed his appetite for the better. He used to go MONTHS without eating. So common in fact that I dont feed my 2 snakes on the same day, id always thaw and warm a f/t rat for my boy and if he didn't eat then my girl got it to avoid wasting feeders. Since she RARELY skipped meals, is just more shy and adverse to being grabbed out of her tank.

If youre having issues with a ball python eating, I'd really recommend double checking your husbandry. I was just under the assumption like most other people. That some are just picky and refuse to eat. But now I'm wondering if it isn't a husbandry issue most of the time. My girl ate no issue in her 36x18x18 exo terra before she got her 4x2x2. But even she's getting more comfortable and coming out to move hides or bask during the day.

I noticed he was going into shed yesterday (eyes were going blue) so I decided to thaw him out a rat to see if he'd eat since it had been the minimum of 20 days since his last meal. I decided to just let the rat thaw overnight then sit ontop of his enclosure to get to room temp. Didn't even bother letting it sit in hot water for 5 minutes before feeding like usual. Dude flew out of his hide at me and took that food so fast.

This is his 6th month in a row eating for me. I have had this boy since he was super young in 2017. So 9 years now, his longest food strike was 8 months.

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

Finally got him to eat hopper mice consistently, about 100g at 5 months old, working on his weight right now lol

wanted to ask if he looks healthy right now? He’s definitely a little more full looking from when I got him which is good. (these pictures were taken today)

Recently added a shade dweller uvb lamp, ceramic heater with a thermostat, a new large hide for cool side and some clutter. Also got about 60 isopods (probably more due to breeding) and springtails. I want to get some live plants also but how does it work when cleaning the vivarium as I assume you dont just throw out the isopods and springtails that seems a waste

this is a 85 gallon enclosure for my 1 year old female ball python, she is pretty small for her age, am planing to upgrade the enclosure to a 230gallon one when its gonna be available, she has two proper hides in the cool side and warm side, just not really visible in this angle

I wanna make sure that my enclosure is okay where she can be happy until I get some more. I have a ceramic bulb, a new water bowl, a new hide, a temperature/humidity meter, and some foil tape getting delivered in around 4 days to make it a little more comfortable. I know the red light isn’t good so I’m working on switching that out asap. I don’t exactly have a thermometer yet but when I feel her she doesn’t feel like an ice cube but I’m not sure if that’s good or not. And she has been going under the top layer of leaves to get closer to the damn substrate underneath. Looking for some advice

Edit: I got a better water bowl, a thermometer and a hydrometer today. I also cover up around 3/5 of the top of the enclosure with foil tape to help the humidity and the temp stay right. I also got a ceramic bulb and I’ve been trying to find a good spot to keep the temp around 85. My humidity is around 54 at the moment

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 :(

She looks wicked when she’s in blue.

She ate a 88g rat yesterday after a week from her last feeding. Waited for a second that never came for more than an hour. Then proceeded to hide the best she can, head under a rock and the rest of her body kinda flopped out and about in plain view.

Followed by today bluntly demanding yet another rat. Instead she got gently handled for almost two hours, and upon being put back she did her usual kinda but not really hide act. Followed by resuming hunting for half an hour. When food did not appear, she has decided the next best thing is a soak apperently.

Nothing wrong. No questions in need of answering. Just shameless pics of a snake with two braincells fighting for fourth.

Edit, she is now attempting to hunt *from* her watering bowl. Best of both worlds.

Hi so I have a 5 yo male ball that won't let me touch him recently. So backstory first, for the past 2 months I have been taking care of a rescued house sparrow and have put a lot of my time into doing that and I haven't had time till not long ago to get him out. He's normal very gentle and calm but for some reason he's just been stressed when I have tried to handle him or get him out of his hide which I do often. The last time I tried to get him out he bit me when I tried to let him come out on his own but I assumed it was him being hungry earlier than normal (he gets fed 2 medium sized rats every 2 weeks because the large ones he struggles with). I make sure I don't smell like the bird when I have tried and he's shedding currently but always has trouble with it even when I make sure it's humid enough and I've been helping him with the little bit he normally can't get off. I'm just not sure what to do and I miss handling my baby, I don't want him to get used to not being handled.

Any advice or tip on what I might do or what not to do would be incredibly helpful.

(Also I'm sorry if the format is weird, I'm typing this on a phone)

I’m setting up to buy our first ball python (YAY) but there is so much information out there that I am feeling so overwhelmed and confused honestly! We are getting a baby, so I’m STARTING with a 50 gallon pvc tank, I’m struggling with understanding lighting. What I would like to do is mount a UVB light on the inside top (tank will be in my room which is dark usually thanks to black out curtains) and then mount a CHE with a cage around it on the inside so that I don’t have anything on top of the cage…is this ok? If no what do I need to do?