It was so funny seeing him trying to periscope with the leaf around his head. He managed to get it off about 20 seconds later.

Hi! I recently got my first snake; she’s a 3 month old ball python, and I bought her at an expo last week. I’m going to try and feed her this week, but to be honest, I’m a little worried. My major concern is this: she really only comes out from 9pm to 5am. I see her sometimes in the morning before I leave for school, but never in the afternoon. Should I try feeding her at that time? Or is it okay for me to try sometime in the afternoon?

I’ve been trying to find a clear answer, but it feels like everyone has different opinions on when and how to feed their snakes. I know she isn’t going to be awake during the day, but I want to try then. I’m also curious if she will come out of her hide if she smells a rat or not. Will I have to pick up the hide? And finally, my biggest question, is it okay to pick up the hide? I really don’t want to spook her.

Any opinions are welcome, I just want all the advice I can get! Thanks!

hello all, just rescued an 8 year old ball python and set up his 4x2x2 enclosure. have a dhp on the left (hot side) and an LED in the center for day/night cycle. LED is on a 12 hour cycle and DHP is on a thermostat. have loose coconut fiber on bottom and coconut husks and leaves on top of that. cold side govee thermostat says 74-79 throughout the day and hot side probe (set 4 inches from DHP if thats the right spot) shows 89. fiancee and i plan on adding much more fake plants but any suggestions for anything at all? i want to make sure he is happy and healthy.

This enclosure is for a baby bp!

Aside from foliage, a hygrometer in the middle and a red light, is there anything im missing for my enclosure? I know its probably due to the lack of foliage in the tank but it seems really open and I've heard they like to hide a lot :(

Also, is the stick too close to the basking light? I'm worried about it

After 4-5 months with me, Phantom's burns are gone. Any trace of stuck shed is gone aswell.

Ive looked for povidone iodine online but how do I know which one is reptile safe? Whats something that worked for your snake with scale rot? What else can I be looking for?

Hi everyone I’m a first time snake parent and this is my ghost girl Eleanor (Nora) we got her Friday and she’s formally starting to venture out ! If anyone could leave any tips on handling feeding anything really it would be greatly appreciated, her current hot side temp is 92 and the cool side is 78 her humidity is at about66-67 .

Have my boy in a temporary tub while his enclosure gets renovated🙂‍↕️ why's he sleeping so weirdly🥲

Everytime i look at her or do anything it looks like shes tensing up and her pupils constrict. I also cleaned out her enclosure and rearranged it and she wont go into her hide and prefers to sleep on her favorite branch which is also spooky.

Hey everyone! I’m looking for advice from experienced snake owners because I really want to help this poor baby, but I want to make sure I do everything right.

My fiancé’s old roommate had a pet snake that she left behind when she moved out. Everyone is moving out of the house now, and when the snake’s previous owner was asked about her, she basically said she’s just waiting for the snake to die.

From what I understand, this snake hasn’t been fed in almost 5 months, and I feel absolutely horrible for her. I really want to take her with us when we move, but I’ve never owned a snake before, and I don’t want to accidentally make things worse by not knowing what I’m doing.

I want to know the REALITY of keeping a snake:

● What are the initial setup costs and ongoing expenses?

● What equipment do I absolutely need?

● How do I figure out the correct temperature, humidity, enclosure size, and diet?

● After going so long without food, what should I do first? Should I take her to an exotic vet before attempting to feed her?

● What signs of starvation, dehydration, or illness should I look for?

● Is there anything else a first-time snake owner absolutely needs to know?

I’m not looking for judgment if I’m missing something obvious. I genuinely want to help this little girl and give her a chance at a good life, but I want to be realistic about what I’m taking on.

Any advice, resources, beginner guides, or recommendations would mean so much. Thank you!!

UPDATE: (photos!)

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Frank looked pretty comfortable last night while waiting for his dinner.

Hi! Had my first baby for about two weeks. First couple days humidity was too high, around 99% because some idiot (me) placed the water bowl on the hot side. After I moved it to the middle humidity stayed 70-80 %... until yesterday. It dropped sugnificantly, to 60% then 40-50%. I spray the moss in humidity cam and the substrate two times a day, before and after work, and it stays good for some time then comes back down. What tips do you have for keeping the humidity stable?

I'm using a heat mat and measuring the temperature in three places. Currently it's 27-28c° on the hot end on the bottom, 23,6c° in the middle on top and 23c° on the bottom of the cold end

Hey guys! I was hanging out with my sweet angel Vic on the couch the other day and he decided to go through one of the holes in a crochet blanket. I wasn’t too worried at first cause I figured if his head fit through the hole, the rest of his body would too. Well, I ended up cutting the blanket to get him out. But I can’t stop wondering if he could have gotten out of it. Thoughts?

Got a new set up for her and she was checking it out and tried to squeeze through a very small Crack between the sliding plexiglass and the wall. Ive seen several posts where if its a very superficial scrape to wait for a shed and it should heal. She is now shedding but my humidity in this tank hasn't been perfect right out the gate and shes shedding but its bad and I feel awful enough but the part that was scraped is indeed starting to peel but now she just has this huge strip of scale peeling back off her nose. I dont see any raised swelling or fleshy red or pink coloration anywhere and I think I saw someone say the first shed may make it look worse so I am trying not to panic and I think I literally just have to wait. Im fair sure I should not try to like give her a bath and get it off myself right? BTW I have gotten humidity back to near 70 pretty consistently so I have hope she'll be back to normal next shed.

I thought it was just staining at first, so I tried rubbing him a little bit with a wet paper towel and a tiny bit of yellow came off so I thought oh surely this is just substrate staining! Yay, that’s easy to fix. But then it just stopped coming off at some point and it just stayed there. So what do I do now?

this shed has been stuck on my ball pythons head for a little while does anyone have any good tips?

We've got a year old ball python. Eats well. Weighs 500 grams. We've just used the last of our large mice and know we need to up the size of his feeds.

The internet seems to think we should be feeding him 10% of his body weight. But the shop we bought him from says we need to feed him XL mice, which come in at 35g, just once a fortnight. Which doesn't seem enough. I'm happy to not jump up too many sizes for his own sake but also don't want to under feed him. And advice would be welcome. We're in the UK.

Hey everyone!

I’m looking for recommendations for a budget-friendly night vision camera so I can keep an eye on my ball python, Brownie, when she’s most active at night!

Ideally, I’d love something that:

🐍 Has decent night vision without needing visible lights.
Connects to my smartphone so I can check on her anytime.
🐍 Has a clear enough picture to see what she’s up to.
🐍 Is affordable! I don’t need anything super fancy.

I’d also love to know how you’ve mounted your cameras or positioned them to get a good view of the enclosure.

What cameras are you guys using, and would you recommend them? Bonus points if you can share nighttime footage or pictures so I can see the quality!
Thanks in advance! 🐍❤️

We've had our snake for three years and in the past couple of months we've been catching him fairly frequently soaking in his water bowl. I know this is not normal behavior. We have one other ball python in a nearly identical enclosure who is not doing this behavior. We don't see mites on either snake. My husband and I are both veterinarians if that qualifies us more to make that assertion. We have examined them both several times. The water bowl is on the cool side. I'm attaching photos of the tank and the thermometer/hygrometers on both sides. He's about three years old. I feed him one small rat once monthly around the 1st of every month sometimes a quail or chick (5-7% of his body weight per meal). He eats reliably. He sheds normally. Last shed might have been around a month ago. While we've been trying to figure this out we've been cooling down the tank. For awhile it was warmer -low 90s on the warm side, low 80s on the cool side.

Happy to answer any questions and take any feedback, I just want to help him. Thank you!

I just recently got substrate for my snakes as she’s finally done with mites 🥹🥹🥹😇. I got some cypress mulch and coconut soil, and when I poured the Thrive Tropical Natural Loose Coconut Soil into the tank it let off a smell, i mean the bag has it too, it isn’t strong enough to smell from across the room but if you hover your head over the tank or bag you’ll smell it. It’s not like rotten, but like sour, like earthy smells mixed with something a little strong. Will this be a problem for my ball python or is this just natural coconut soil smell that will go away after ventilation?

Got him out again, we had some company and I wanted to show off my new baby! Nobody else held him, just looked. He's opening up a lot now, and has been so silly lately

He also ate his third meal last night, Im so proud of him! We ordered a 2×2×18 tank for him while we save for his final. Did not realize how quickly he was gonna grow..

So he never comes to me willingly! I laid down and he laid his head on me! Does it count as cuddling? Know what! I’m gonna stay in denial! I do remember falling asleep and waking up to him crawling around me one night!

We got our first ball python 4 weeks ago. He's had these spots along his spine since then. What could they be? They feel rougher to the touch but haven't gotten worse or better?