few questions

[sjsexotics]

since I decided to go fro the ball pythons and keep my two and get another soon I need more info what is the best heat and best set up right now they are both in tubs with aspen beeding and hides and a water bowl do they nee moist hides like leos? and is just belly heat ok thats what they have now

plus your opinion live vs frozen I hate feeding live but my snakes are thin ( just got them ) and one will not eat frozen is it ok to go with live or should I wait and keep tryin frozen?

also should I stick with hoppers or can a ball go to a mouse

 

[WftRight]

If you talk to five ball python owners about these questions, you'll likely get six different opinions. I'll give you a few of them.

Some people hate aspen bedding, and others love aspen bedding. The most important thing is to keep any natural bedding clean. You don't want aspen, cypress, or any of the natural beddings to stay too damp for too long. Molds have grown under those conditions and killed ball pythons. You can wet the bedding for humidity, but there needs to be a dry cycle to keep mold from growing.

Most people like belly heat for a ball python, and many people use belly heat exclusively. I'm about to move a ball python to a cage where a heat emitter will give him heat from above, but my other two have been happy for a couple of years over belly heat.

They don't need a constantly moist hide as a leo does. In fact, ball pythons that lie in puddles for two long can develop severe cases of scale rot. If the water is at all warm, the situation is worse. You might give them a little more moisture in one hide or another when they are near shedding, but don't substitute a moist hide for any of their other hides.

Most of us who have just a few ball pythons that we keep as pets include hides in the cage. Some people can get away with just one or two hides. Others need multiple hides to give the animals plenty of choices. The big breeders that keep ball pythons in short tubs in breeding racks often don't use hides. A snake that isn't happy with his or her hides may refuse to eat.

If you "just got" the snakes, give them some time before trying to feed them. If they still won't take f/t, then you can think about live feeding. The only problem feeder that I've ever had wasn't much better on live than she was on f/t.

How big is your snake? How much does she/he weigh? The rule of thumb for snakes is that the snake can eat something about the diameter of the thickest part of the snake. Another rule of thumb is that a ball python can take a prey animal that is about 10 to 20 percent of its body weight. I've always avoided the upper end of this range and shorten the window to 10 to 15 percent of the body weight.


Bill

 

[sjsexotics]

thank you very much I know many people have different opinions I just kind wanted to make sure I do everything right they are both 1 or 2 months old and they pretty much have decided to only eat live cause they both eat live mice in two seconds today lol I never saw a snake eat so fast but I always believe in hides and I think they are pretty happy

 

[Starwild]

I'm still fairly new to ball pythons myself, but I've picked up that with bedding, the biggest rule is NO PINE, it can be harmful to your snake. But aspen should work as long as you're careful about mold. A lot of people seem to use it.

Here is a really good guide to getting your snakes to eat frozen/thawed--

http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ2.html#3

If you try all this and still can't get them to eat, then at least be careful when feeding live because it only takes a second for the mouse or rat to really hurt your snake. As for feeding size, even BP hatchlings can take hopper rats, so you could probably move them from mice to rats--it's usually cheaper, from what I've seen. Mine is about 8 months old and getting two weanling rats per feeding...I should've gotten small adult rats instead, it takes two of the weanling rats to give her a properly sized meal that's the same width as her body. When they're adults they can take medium-sized rats, a few very big BPs I've seen have been on large rats.

Looks like you're going to be in for a long haul, if your two little girls are only a few months old then it's going to be a while before they're breeding weight. I'm sure that if you do decide to breed them when they're 1500 grams, by then you'll know a lot about keeping them!

 

[ReptileMan27]

I would reccomend going with pre-killed if you are unable to get them to take F/T rodents.