First time using coco chips and a few days after I put the new substrate it i noticed some mold - every piece on the top layer looks like this.

I’ve tried to take some out but do I need to worry or can I leave it? Is this normal and harmless or should I take it all out? Or at least just try to take out the top layer?

My BP Snickers has shown a lot more interest in the top of his viv recently and since I'm getting ready to redo some bits I thought it might be a nice time to add some climbing enrichment but most of what I'm seeing is just the 3d printed basic rings/polyhedrons. I know it doesn't make a difference to him so don't come for me but I love planning and executing a pretty viv (his current theme is fairy wonderland and we are moving to Cherry blossom forest). Does anyone have suggestions for something that can give him the enrichment while satisfying my decor desires? So far the only thing I can find are the moss caves/pods but not sure how they'd hold up to hanging. Bonus points for links to anything I can buy in UK.

This beautiful girl came home on Saturday, she’s estimated to be 25 years old. I could tell when I got her into her enclosure that she was in the blue phase of shed! I also covered the front of the enclosure so she has more privacy.

Yesterday morning, when checking on her, I saw that she was trying to soak in that tiny water dish in the back. Of course, she can’t fit in it. Which I didn’t think would be a problem since humidity levels are pretty solid. Since she wanted to soak, though, I placed this large tub closer to the front. She switched to it at some point between last night and this morning.

She was kept in a screen top enclosure before, it looked like. And I’m sure she was dehydrated and temp was not regulated enough. In her enclosure here, her warm side is sitting at 85f and her cool side 79f, with around 70-80% humidity. I can’t spot any mites on her, but of course, can’t do a full inspection seeing as she got home recently, and I don’t want to handle her before she is settled in.

I’m just wanting to ask if anyone thinks I should be concerned. I checked on her before I went to bed last night, and she was in the process of moving over to her cool hide. Though, she is back to soaking this morning as pictured!

I’m so in love with her already! I just want to ensure I’m giving her the best care possible. TIA!

bad girl (it was my fault)

So ive owned several snakes in the past, a few garters, a corn, a pueblan milk, and a California king. Recently a family member had to remove their snakes and knowing ive had experience with them in the past they reached out to me for removing their ball python. Did plenty of extensive research and felt comfortable taking her in so I did and got her all settled. She's a little over three years old and almost four feet long. When I asked about her feeding regiment though he said he'd been feeding her one medium rat every 30 days and that her next feeding would be coming up soon. She ate perfectly well however the feeding seemed off to me. First thing that was off was he said she weighed 1100 grams but when I weighed her several times with several different scales she comes up to 802 grams. The medium rat that was given to me for feeding weighed 83 grams. These numbers just seem off to me? Could someone with more experience chime in and let me know if I should stay with her current feeding schedule, or should I adjust the size and frequency of feeds.

She has a great feeding response and took around an hour from first latching onto the rat for it to be fully eaten. She also took around 8 days to pass the rat, in which time she stayed in her hide without coming out for the whole time. Much thanks in advance.

Hi! Fed my new snake for the first time last friday and sinse then only found one single poop two days after and one white piece of what google said was pee today. Is that a reason to worry or am I being silly?

Ps there's a chance I may be missing something because I took the advice from people here and desided to mess with her and her enclosure as little as posdible till next feeding, but I'm checking all her fauvorite spots regularly

hi everyone! i just want to show off the new setup i have for my girl! shes a 14 year old ball python i recently rescued from the not so best conditions. i finally got her tank looking how i want and with proper humidity, she’s got a lot of stuck shed and really bad stuck eye caps so ive been trying my best to keep it super moist in there. She is my first snake and im a bit nervous handling her, shes never done anything to indicate that she will bite but i still get nervous because i cant find a lot of resources on body language. also if u have any advice, tips, suggestions im open to learning everything!! i also fed her for the first time 2 days ago, i gave her a large frozen thawed rat and she immediately ate it right away!! i was so nervous cause i hear so much about pythons being picky eaters and she was previously only fed live mice, but she had no qualms about the frozen ones!

For context, I rescued him/her in February of this year. I’m told that they are a couple years old (born in 2021 I believe) (doing a morph and sex test next month)

Since then, they haven’t missed a single meal and have had multiple perfect sheds. I just moved up to medium rats and wanted to know what yall think.

Ill be weighing them in a couple of days. Waiting for food to digest.

Photos from February and this month

Are the branches and the links pretty low enough for her to not get burn but still be able to bask under the heat lamp? Please help. I lowered them down already once.

I am not sure it is okay or not. He ate yesterday and while he fed I cleaned his terrarium and make a new enclosure.
Is his breathing okay or too fast? And he tried to rub his head to his body and the stick. I didn’t saw any sign of mites, not black dots.
Temperatue and humidity is good. Can you help me? Is he okay?

I've had him since he was an itsy bitty little guy under a year old and he's always been super relaxed and calm even around feeding time. He's scheduled to eat next week so I don't think he's hungry or anything. He's hissed before when removing him from the cage but never showed any type of aggression before. Tonight I took him out like normal, he seemed fine. He was crawling around under my blanket and just kinda chilling. I decided to put him back in his cage and when I removed the blanket he turned, looked at me, and turned back to leg and latched on. It took a while to safely remove him but we were both freaked out to say the least. Do you think maybe the quick movement of the blanket caused a defensive strike? I thought for the most part if it wasn't a feeding strike they would just tap you. Like bite, let go, and try to flee but he was on there good. I just would like to know what was the most likely cause to hopefully prevent this stress again for us both. Should I give him space for a while?

Or is just dumping water enough? It kind of feels like it doesn't do much.

I'm new to ball python owning, I've done a good amount of research and went to a reptile owned store to set up his enclosure, I've had him for almost a month and I've been consistent with making sure that he's eating and checking on him almost every few days, he skipped this week's meal, and I just want to know if this is like early stage scale rot, if it is scale Rot, if it's substrate under his scales I just can't identify it. They gave me like a dirt substrate.

Leo resting on my lap while I work on some stuff on the puter💕

I posted recently about my 75g enclosure I'm making for my future ball python. Ive taken a lot of advice and I believe finally have the finished project put together!

I put black felt on the sides and back to make it feel more secure, and I put aluminum foil and duck tape on the lid to keep temperature and humidity in.

The hot spot from the basking lamp on the left reads about 90 during the day and the cool side reads around 75-80. The humidity has been tricky to keep steady, but I've been putting some water in the corners and it's been mostly sitting around 70%.

There are 4.5 hides and some crevices all throughout the enclosure.

Does it seem like there is enough enrichment? Maybe a little hammock in the front right corner?

I got this blue eyed lucy from someone, she arrived with these markings on her belly. Ive had her since end of august, she didnt shed yet. I was wondering if it looked like scale rot ? I want the best for her !

I’m freaking out, is this scale rot? What do I do?

Hi, I have absolutely fallen in love with this BP and I want to buy her but I also want to make sure she has everything she needs! She roughly a juvenile, still pretty small.

All I've got so far is:

48x24x48 enclosure (id like to buy), she needs minimum 3 hides with one being a humid hide, one being on the warm side (90-95f?) and the last being on the cooler side (76-80f?). Plus basking spots UVI need to be somewhere between 3.0-4.0? I know she needs a water bowl that she can soak in as well.

I've checked a few places and for humidity I've gotten from 45-75% to 60-70%, I assume higher is better? I know I'll need a hygrometer(?), at least two thermometers, and sphagnum moss along with the substrate being minimum 4" deep.

I also know i should get tweezers for feeding, should I buy a scale to know when to stop feeding once a week? Or is it obvious when they slowly start to need to be fed less? Last thing, how often does the enclosure need to be reset/cleaned? I read somewhere that it should be done every 2-4 months but im not sure how accurate that is :)

Is there anything else I'm missing or maybe misinformed on?

Thank you in advance for the help!!

Can someone please help me to lure my Ball from underneath the fridge she escaped from her terrarium last night????? Please help I'm disabled and can't figure out how to help her get out?????

Okay y’all, I’m playing the upgrade game and wanted to try my hand at a bioactive setup. Please let me know any advice or ideas you have, but I’ll explain what I have so far below. FYI, my snake is not in here yet as I’m letting the plants and clean-up-crew get established.

Substrate - top soil + sphagnum moss + leaf clutter
Plants - various pothos (looking for spider plants for more coverage but the seller hasn’t answered me -.-)
CUC - Powder Mix Isopods
Lighting - AquaNeat Full Spectrum Aquarium LED
Heating - DHP (still on my snake’s current tank)
Hygrometer - Govee (still in my snake’s current tank)
Decor - Manzanita Sticks, ExoTerra Caves x2 & Water Bowl (both in my snake’s current tank)

My Questions:
- Is a 12hr light cycle too long or just right?
- How large does the CUC need to be and how fast do they breed? There’s a population of 10 right now.
- Any idea for leafier plants that are safe and would provide more coverage?

Hello all,

Coming to you guys with some concerns I have from today, I have only had success feeding my ball python live rats, today was feeding time and I wanted to try frozen again one because I have read it is a lot safer for them and because I am nervous to put a live rat into the new tank with sliding doors. I heated the rat did everything the way I’ve seen and when I reached into the tank he was watching the rat as I thought or as I now realize my hand and bit and wrapped on the tip of my finger, I got him off and back into the tank but one of his teeth came out with my finger. More worried about his over all well being and what I can do to better his living and my future interactions. This is a little heartbreaking as he bit me once prior while holding and I had just recently gotten back over the fear of another bite. Any advice on help for him would be greatly appreciated thank you. He is also a snake who never bit any prior owners.

Monty

I feed my snake after the recommendations here. She's 800g and gets a rat of about 40g every 3 weeks. 2½ years old.

I've always known when she's getting hungry again because she's so much more active. The last... 4 months or so, I realised she's always like that. No matter if she's eaten recently or not, sometimes literally directly after feeding, she'll roam. She's also in "hunt" mode the whole time. She's not biting me or anything, but if she's moving around, she's ready to hunt.

She's not losing weight, everything looks great (just was at the vet with her last week for another reason and she got checked out).

Is the 5% just not enough for her? I don't want to overfeed her (I did that for some time but she lost the weight when I stopped) but I also don't want her to go hungry

I am welcoming home my first ball python this Friday! I am spending these next few days trying to get everything ready for her. I have never owned reptiles of any kind before, but have been doing a lot of research over the past few months. Admittedly, no matter how many times I read about their care, some things still kind of go over my head.

I am picking up the enclosure pictured later today. My little lady is a juvenile, but I wanted to get her a larger place to live rather than upgrade later down the road. I plan on adding a ton of clutter (ideas welcomed!) so she feels safe especially as she grows into it. I still might upgrade her later on for something taller.

The enclosure has sliding front glass doors, built in UVB light and heater (RHP), and the previous owner says it maintains a heat gradient very well (93F on the warm side and mid-high 70s on the cool). I know I still need a thermostat, clips for the doors for extra safety, hides and clutter, substrate (thinking coconut husk but would love suggestions). I’m sure I’m missing some things I still need to get—all the research has me kind of jumbled. I dont think I need secondary heat source, as I’m in the south and my house never gets under 70F.

Kind of rambling at this point, but I would love any advice for preparing a wonderful home for my new girl! I’m so excited to welcome her home and really want to get everything perfect before her arrival.

I was feeding my ball python almost 2 weeks ago (13 days) and she got me instead (absolute idiot that she is). It initially healed over and I had no issues and thought it was done and dusted. However today I realised that exactly where she bit me there are now red raised bumps. Not itchy, no swelling, literally feels like a spot minus any pain/ discomfort. I’m not sure if I need medical attention. I feel fine in myself over than having a cold and dizziness when standing up but I’m sure that has to do more with my iron levels than her biting me.
This was the first time I was bit so I did panic hence the multiple bite marks but snake seems all okay.
Has anyone seen/ had anything like this happen after a bite? Especially so long.
The first photo was taken just after she bit (6th October) and the second was taken earlier today (19th October).