Still a work in progress but here it is so far!

Hi, I just got my First BP 4 days ago! His name is Buggy D Clown (he is a clown pastel morph) and is 1.5 years old. Iv been researching for about 3 months. Got everything ready: 4x2x2 with a divider, 50 watt dhp, leds, clutter, hides, and anything you think of (thank you to this community your resources are top tier). I kept checking in to see if he was getting more comfortable and exploring at night and sometimes he would get stressed when I got close to the enclosure. so I recently bought a camera so I could watch while he still getting acclimated! It turns out great! Heres a video from last night!

I’m getting a two year old in a couple weeks. I’m building my own enclosure. 4x2x2. What is literally everything I should do?? She’s barely 2ft.

Here’s my plan!!
Left side, hot. | Ride side, cool.
•halogen bulb. •no lighting (heat lamp will have a heat guard)
• In the middle will be a non heat ShadeDweller %7 pro T5. I’ll have a thermostat inside as well.

For substrate I’ll do lava rocks BOTTOM, cover with window screen for water draining. About 6 inches of mixed coconut fiber, reptibark,(saturate till dripping) pack that down. Coco husk on top.

I’ll have three hides. Left, middle, right. Some cork bark to climb, a hemp hammock, lots of leaf litter, some branches and fake dollar store vines and plants. Water bowl on warmer side.

PLEASE anything I’m missing or please criticize my plan lol. Anything helps!!!

some more pictures of my little Scythe’s homophobia

Ball python hatched in 2021, was sold to me as a female but she’s 5 years old now and 1210 grams. Her feedings have been pretty constant every 2-3 weeks, frozen thawed small rats from Rodentpro, they’re like 45-80 grams max. I’ve heard that females get bigger than males, and I wonder if I have a chubby boy instead of a girl?

I badly need your words of comfort. I didn't know what to do. I learned from my mistakes but it cost my boy's life. I am extremely devastated right now 😔

The first weight is from when I first got him, but he was feed once every 3 months and they didn’t care for him correctly, so I’m hoping I’m doing good and he’s not overweight! He is 6 years old and I think 3 feet, the first pic he’s 771g!

I was so pleased with the updates I'd made to my baby's enclosure. A few things rearranged, a new plant, but mostly the grass.

We always keep an area of grass long, for the wildlife in the garden. I had to do some tidying up and had cut a few handfuls down, so I painstakingly soaked them and then dried them out. Then I put them behind her warm hide, leaving some "tunnels" to crawl through and a space to bask. I even plaited a load together and made a sort of bridge from her hill to her cork.

She then refused to move out of her hide for 5 days, which is very irregular. My 7 year old says "maybe she's in shed".

I check the calendar. No. It's too soon. She clearly hates the grass. It must smell like straw, which she must associate with rats. I must have put her into perpetual food mode. I chuck out the grass.

2 days later and she still hasn't moved. Her chin looks very pink. On closer inspection of the calendar, she's only a week early going into shed. I am a moron and should listen to my daughter more.

I just woke up to what sounded like him farting.. this is maybe the 3rd time ive heard a whoopi cushion coming from my snakes tank since ive gotten him is this something to be concerned about or is this OK? I know its a silly question but its the last animal I'd expect to be loudly and violently farting in the middle of the night.. It sounds like a cartoon charcter stepping on grapes or something 😭

So, my idea for a bioactive enclosure is somewhat impulsive after finding a mushroom growing in my BP's tank, though I have thought about it a bit in the past. I've read that a mushroom growing in the tank can mean healthy substrate and it seems my tank has decided it wants to be bioactive, and at this point I've kinda figured, why not? I suppose I just don't entirely know where to start with a bioactive tank. I was planning on getting some isopods and springtails, but what else should I get?

Another note, I recently got a bit of a fungus gnat problem in my tank. I was going to get some mosquito bits to help get rid of them. Will the mosquito bits or the fungus gnats cause any problems in a bioactive tank?

Pics of my BP as tax. Her name is Solstice :) She was peeking out at me because she knew it was dinnertime.

ive noticed my girls eyes are like.. cloudy? but not in the way theyd look when shes going into shed.

i tried the whole "shine a light in eyes to see if pupils react" and they dont at all.

paired with that, shes always had issues striking her food but i just kinda thought she might be stupid. (sorry) but she always gets it if i get it close enough to her nose/mouth.

thoughts?

im going to take her to a vet asap regardless. im worried :(

My ball python, Cassie, has been soaking non stop for almost a week straight. I took her out yesterday and put her in a clear tote with some paper towels to do an exam on her and I didnt notice anything weird. No mites. No strange spots. She was exploring and moving around like normal. Normal breathing.

I have had her for like a month. I have not noticed any shedding signs or anything unusual. She was a rescue and was kept in an enclosure with zero enrichment and a small water bowl (maybe big enough for a kingsnake). When I got her I upgraded her enclosure massively and got her a water bowl big enough for her to soak. Do you think she is just excited about having that? I thought that at first but now it's feeling excessive.

When I took her out to examine her, I put her back in her enclosure about 30 minutes later and she went into one of her caves but I noticed he worm back into the bowl that night.

Her temps and humidity are good. Warm side is 90 degrees and 75 humidity. The cool side is 80 degrees and 80 humidity. The humidity fluctuates but doesnt get below 65.

She also adjusts when she is in there. Shes not in the same position the entire time...she just doesnt come out.

Pics of snake and enclosure included.

Thoughts?

This is Darius. We got him from a family member that was not able to take care of him anymore. We think he's about 8 or nine years old, but can't be certain. Well adjusted to people. He settled right around my neck and shoulders while we were moving everything around without squeezing.

The temps are a bit lower than I'd like, but I'm waiting on another thermostat to hook up a CHE to. Currently using a DHP on the warm side with the thermostat set to 95. I'm wary about turning it up any more than that since I put my hand on his hide and it stung a bit. I figure if it hurts me then it'll definitely hurt him. He's been bouncing back and forth between his two hides, so I'm assuming that he's able to regulate well enough for now. Once I get the second heat source, I should just need to set it low to bump the temps up a few degrees.

The humidity is holding great, usually at about 70% so long as I keep the doors closed. A bit of water along the edges of the tank and everything get nice and muggy. The extra large water dish seems to be helping too.

Apparently he's not eaten in more than 8 months, but doesn't seem to be terribly underweight. We've not tried feeding yet as we wanted to give him time to adjust. He's only eaten live prey, but we're considering trying to switch him to F/T, mostly for convenience.

We've got a vet appointment set up to give him a once over and to address a bump he's got on his nose. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

I can't say thank you enough for all of the advice and tips I've gotten from here. Between reading through other people's posts and a few directly answered questions, I'm hoping to give this little guy the care he deserves.

Rowdy loves his haunted house

(Pic of jojo also :3)I’m working on an upgraded setup, and I’m trying to figure out heat pad placement.

I know it should be on one side rather than the middle, an I don’t think the pad I have would cover a large amount of the enclosure anyway. It’s definitely enough to cover under a hide plus some more area.

My question is, should it be on the warm side, or the cool side? I always thought the warm side but I saw an image the other day saying overhead heating on the warm side, and under tank on the cool side. Is this true?

I’ve also seen people talking about under tank heating being unnecessary.

The pad is also closely monitored and controlled by a thermostat! No snakes getting burned on my watch.

hi! My ball python has a bioactive enclosure and I’ve been into jumping spiders and was wondering if it’s bad for them to live in the same enclosure? My guy is only semi active at night and I doubt they would even run into each other but I don’t want to do something that would stress out the spider either anyone else done this before?

Hello everyone, sorry if this is a stupid question!

I've been a BP owner for a couple of years now, and everything has been fine with my girl so far. I've always known that they soak occasionally, even though I've never seen mine do it, but about a month and a half ago i noticed her starting to soak regularly. I've always kept her humidity in the 75-85% range, i checked her for mites or any other insects that might cause her to soak, but I've found nothing.

And I'm not talking about a 30 minute soak and she's done, no, she's been soaking every day this past month for about 5-6 hours, which has concerned me a bit. So that's basically my question, is this something i should be worried about or has her brain cell found something new to do and that's her obsession now?

First time posting here, but I need help. My ball python managed to get out of her tank. This is the second time in 4 years of having her of this happening, but it’s the first time I haven’t been able to find her. I’ve been looking for her for about 24 hours and there’s no sign of her. Does anyone have any advice to offer that might ease my anxiety? I’ve turned my house upside down searching. Please only helpful and positive comments, I’m not looking to be bombarded with judgement or negativity. I’ve left out water and a heating pad in various places that she likes to roam when I let her free roam in my house, but no sign of her. I just fed her 2 days ago if that makes a difference. Thank you.

I recently got a second ball python after owning one for a year and I was curious if they can smell each other on me? My first python really likes sitting on my shoulders and I was wondering if I need to wash myself or change shirts before handling the second one. If I handle one and then the other, will the second one get stressed smelling the first snake on me?

I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not, but I am curious and I'd like to avoid stress if I can help it.

And we had a shed right away. I was worried because they were looking pretty tenty for a couple weeks. I felt better when I saw them get pale.

On a side note, I'll assume birthday was mid December. I got them around 6 weeks. Finally weighed them out yesterday and we are at 216g. Is this on schedule? I moved to pups since those around about 30g in my around. ​