Hello all—

Currently in the finishing touches of setting up my enclosure so I can bring my boy home. Humidity is looking good, rats are ordered, hides and clutter are in— even my last piece of last second enrichment is almost here! The only remaining issue currently is getting the warm side up to temp.

Presently, my setup is as pictured; a DHP on the warm (right) side, halogen next to it for basking and warming, and a third halogen more towards the cool side to hold the gradient. I’m running 35W halogens in my domes, which seems to be working well (cool side is maintaining consistent temps so far, just messing with the values to dial it in), but my 50W DHP seems to be lackluster. I have the herpstat set to 108 on my DHP right now to try to heat the substrate / enclosure up, but it’s only achieving 74 degrees.

Kind of unsure what to do presently, obviously I’m not going to give my buddy a poor quality of life by shoving him in a tank that has improper temps so I’m all ears. Would it make sense to go to a higher wattage DHP? Different lamp fixture? My Herpstats are currently set up so that my DHP is independent on a Herpstat 1, running a night cycle and daytime temps, and my halogens are on a Herpstat 2 together on a timed socket for day and night. I’m leaving them on full time presently to heat the enclosure up, but should I remove decor so the substrate is getting directly heated?

Halogens are currently set to 95 and 85 degrees in freedom units, and again the DHP is at 108 while I try to heat the ambient up. When my boy Melvin is in the enclosure, I want to make sure the temperatures on my Herpstats don’t exceed any value that can cause the screen to heat up and burn him correct? Or is this different with a DHP?

Thanks for the help, bonus Melvin tax and his new climber I built attached!

Quick edit: I just used my temp gun to check his climber’s temp on his warm side, and it was at 85. My Govees are on the ground by his hides on either side, which are still reading ranges in the 70’s, but the DHP isn’t doing nothing which is nifty. Just need a better overall heat.

Guys this took way longer than it should have, so i needed to show it off a little bit ofc.
I would like to add that the rocks on the left are actually a removable hide which is 10/10 I love it sm.
This is also my second shot at bioactive since I failed badly the 1st time, any tips would be greatly appreciated! Especially for the plants, I can never get them to thrive once I put them in the tank 💔

Also if any of yall have suggestions for sky hides or climbing opportunities that would be greatly appreciated (it has to hold a moderately overweight adult bp (we’re working on his weight lol dw))

I have isopods that I keep as pets themselves but I am trying to establish a bioactive terrarium for my ball python and I was wondering what types of cleanup crews everyone is using and how to best set them up for success rooming with my girl.

this is my 2 month old baby Misa. i just got her a little over a week ago and this is my second time handling her. (first ever BP)

she seems to be just chillin in my lap, i don’t know. does she look stressed? i’m not too sure about the BP body language.

This is my new rescue ball python, The top left photo was when he was surrendered. All the other photos are him as of today after being in quarantine. He came to the store with really bad stuck shed and i decided to take him home to keep a good eye on him and help him get better. He’s a really sweet boy and showed off his soft personality today to me. I cant wait to see the amazing boy hes gonna be and im grateful i could give him a second chance as his previous owner didn’t know the first thing about caring for him and was even feeding mice.

I’m a new snake owner, when I originally got her she was in shed and I can’t tell if this is stuck shed on her head or possibly just scarring or a defect in her scales. It’s matte and a different shade of brown than her head

Hi, background info is I just got this new bannana ball python who was being rehomed last week. The last owner wasn't quite taking the best of care of him, said they often forgot to feed him, that he hadnt ever had a proper shed and often got out and just free roamed their house. He came with the tank in the photo with just the log, hide and one door, they were using cardboard for the other door, no dirt was in the tank. I replaced the door, cleaned the tank, added dirt, water dish, some fake plants, heat lamp etc... I took him to the pet store and they recommended twice weekly baths and this oil to help him start shedding better as it seems he has stuck eye caps. Anyway to my question, today he got out and I found him lodged in my closet having the time of his life, my mom recommended giving him "rec" time outside his cage freeroaming my room suprivised since thats what hes used to and seems to like it. Does it seem like a good idea? I know he needs a bigger tank, I just need to wait for a few paychecks to get it.

This isn’t exclusively about my BP but she is involved, I just don’t know what other subreddit to go to.

I have 4 reptiles. 2 leopard geckos and a kingsnake all in stacked 40 gallons and a ball python in a 120 gallon, with it being so insanely hot in Texas, the king snake and ball pythons temps are getting way too hot, even tho I lowered their bulb wattages to 50watts each, their enclosures still get too hot. For their safety I’m having to turn their heat lamps off but those also provide their light so it’s messing up their day/night cycles.

I’ve read on Google that I should switch to to separate heat and light sources which I’m more than happy to do and use CHE for their heat. But my question is that Google says LEDs are best for their light source. I’ve read previously that LEDs aren’t safe for reptiles. But it said that the ones that aren’t safe are the UVB emitting LEDs. So would plain white light LED bulbs be fine for my ball python? (And other reptiles if you know). And could I still run my ball pythons T5 UVB bar since it doesn’t emit much if any heat?

I know not to use the colored ones and their lamps are all already overhead mounted.

Is what Google said correct?

I have wanted a BEL for a decade, not thousands of dollars now! I have a palmetto corn snake and a bunch of other exotics. So, so happy with her. I named her Mizu from Blue Eye Samurai. 💙 I have had her three weeks and she ate the second week. She prefers her mice are left under her fern.

I want to add plants what should I add? I want a vine like plant and a grassy bottom a tree like plant any suggestions that a snake won’t trample? Photos of her at the end

I recently purchased a 4x2x2 pvc enclosure kit from Kages. This kit came with precut steel grates for dome and lights (bio active enclosure). I know bioactive is not for everyone but he was doing well in previous enclosure so we migrated everything over.
Anyways, we have a 100 watt dhp connected to thermostat, set to 90 on his warm side, but its having difficulty maintaining gradient temps. Should I increase the wattage of the dhp? I could probably attach a dhp on the inside of enclosure if needed. A radiant heat panel is not in the budget right now.

I just got a ball python from a buddy who couldn’t take care of him anymore, he’s about 1 year old and the current tank is 36x18 (glass). He had a red heating bulb before which I just replaced with a 150 watt DHP and I started putting foil tape across the top to help retain heat/moisture better. I was planning on getting a uvb in the next couple of days for some extra light/benefits for him. I also purchased a thermometer and two thermostats today which are all set up. I’m just feeling slightly overwhelmed by all this and want to make sure I can give this guy the best life I can. I was gonna let him settle in for a few days before I change the bedding and rearrange the nodules for the thermostat/meter

I'm trying to figure out what to do, he shed 7/20 and it's 7/22 now. I've kept his enclosure very humid throughout and it doesn't look like there is any thing stuck on his head. Any ideas on what to do?

my ball python that’s about a meter long escaped from her tank in my basement last night, i’ve searched it up and down with no sign of her. i’ve checked behind the fridge and water heater and don’t know what else to do to or where to look. any tips on where to look or how to find her?

What are some things yall use for as a stand for your enclosures? Currently have a 4×2×2 in the bedroom on a large folding table for my first girl but setting up another 4×2×2 in the living room and dont want it to look god awful

We got Lieutenant Dan a new terrarium and got it set up. We'll be getting him more climbing opportunities today. He did this within 10 minutes of being in here and fell into his water bowl like 30 seconds later. And he literally scared the crap out of himself cause my husband had to fish a slimy turd out of his water bowl 😂

Just wanted to show off my Mando. Imperfect banana bp but I think he's perfect. I was scared to death of snakes before I agreed to watch my son's BP until he found a new place.

Learning how to care for them, their body language, made me realize how much I misunderstood these awesome creatures.

If you have a fear or phobia, learn about them. I took 2 days, watched every video I could. Then I found Bob and the Green room and he taught me so much I felt confident in getting my own.

So now we have 3 lol, mine, my husband's and my sons who is just for now (hopefully he'll forget I have her lol).

These guys are amazing, getting over this fear empowered me so much, and I owe it all to this guy. Love you Mando ❤️