What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Who here owns a ball phyton?

  • Thread starter JMurphy97
  • Start date
I'm looking for anyone who owns or owned a ball phyton. I have some questions about heat, light, and the equipment used for them. If anyone could tell me what they use or used it would be great. Thanks in advance.
 
i know some stuff
temperature- 75-85* light not as important but just as long as you have these temps
and what do you mean by equipment? like in shelter?
bedding- wood chips, leaf litter, paper
shelter-hollowed logs, rocks or natural cork
kepp the enclosure dry but mist the snake every now and then
ask for more info
 
Boas and pythons have pretty much the same requirements such as lighting and heating. Right now I have mine in a 29 gallon with a zoo med 100 watt basking spot lamp on one side of the cage. This zoo med catalog has a chart of different reptiles and what you should use and all that. It says for boas and ball pythons to use a ceramic heat emitter or UTH heat pad for the daytime temp to be 82-92F. Now that's easy to do. But the thing is if it stays on 24 hours to keep it warm throughout the night how do you get it to cool down the couple degrees? I read that the temp needs to fall to about 70'sF or your animal will get heat stressed? So I'm asking what you use for your own.
 
haha i dont have one. i have a book on exotic pets that has stuff all about them though
smile_n_32.gif
 
I have a breeding pair.  never gotten the eggs to hatch yet, but they are a pair.  They need to have a water bowl big enough for the entire snake to get in.  I have a custom tank I made that has a big water spot with a filter for them to get in.  and they do get in it.  Then you need a place for them to hide.  It is where they will be most of the time.  and a place for them to climb when they feel like it.  Both of mine are full grown at about 4 to 4.5 feet each.  They are about 12 years old now or so.  Had them since about 94.  I have a heat rock for them to warm up on, but they are hardly ever on it.  Mine prefure to stay a little cooler.  The biggest thing is you need to set up different temp zones in the tank.  A warm section and a cooler section and let them regulate there temp.  You don't want the humidity to high.  Its not good for them.  The bigest thing is having a water bowl or some other feature they can totaly submerge themselves in.  It helps with shedding.  These are some great animals.  They are low mainanace and once you get them trained around people they are the friendliest out there too.  I just love mine and would never trade them for the world.  If you send me an email addy I can send you a picture of my setup.  Oh and as far as temps go.  Room temps are normaly fine.  I have a florecent light and an incondecent light set to timers with the heatrock on 24/7  Alot of times the incondecent light blows and I don;t knwo about it.  Just the florecent light on and they are fine.  Mine normaly stay hidden in thier spot until nightfall or they are hungery.
 
May want to check out this site too. It has alot of info on it about Ball pythons. http://www.anapsid.org/ball.html
 
You can send me pics at JMurphy97@sbcglobal.net. The only reason I have questions about all this is because I live in Wisconsin and they are by a window. It gets down to low 70's at night during the winter. I have a log for it to hide under and the water bowl. It is only about 25in. right as it is only about 9 weeks old. I love the thing, my girlfriend hates it. The only time I got bit was my mistake. I had it in the feeding tank and must of had the smell of the mouse on me and with my heat it just went at me. It was more shocking then painful but it's my fault. I can't wait until summer when I have run the neighborhood with it. And I can't wait for them pics of your set-up.
 
Well JM I just read some more info on BPs and it turns out I have been keeping mine wrong all along and I have had to adjust my husbandry of these animals. You do not want to se my setup because it was all wrong. Its now out on my front porch ready to be stripped down. The new things I have learned are you need at minimum two hides. One on the hot side and one on the cool side. the cool side should be in the low 80's and the hot side should be in the low 90's humidity should be 50 to 60% and when his eyes glass over for the impending shed you need to raise the humidity to about 70%. Do not increase the humidity to there the tank becomes darn. It can cause sores. Go to the site www.ball-pythons.net and read their caresheet on BP's. They will also give you a very inexpencive way to heat the tank and also setup. I just switched mine to tubs the sterilite kind you buy at walmart. I am ordering some stuff called flexwatt to heat it with. The tubs are easy to see through unlike I thought and work rather well. They say never use a heat rock and never let the temps get below 75. My snakes have loved it since I am giving them proper heating. Even though they are overe 12 years old they never got used to being too cold and I think they are liking it now. Also I had both of mind housed together. This is also not advised. they are solitary animals coming together to mate and then splitting again. so I will be seperating them once the flexwatt comes in with the thermastat to control it. right now I am using a heating pad set to low to give them the warmth under the tub so the pad doesn;t dirrectly touch the snakes. Go there and read up. Its very good info and I wish I knew this stuff a while ago. What I was doing worked and the snakes seemed fine, but with a baby I don't think they could stand the conditions I was giving. I think my snakes are chilling out now in the new warmth they are getting. Sorry for the misleading info. It was working for me, but again it wasn't optimal and I don't think will work with a youngster. Goodluck and if I can help anymore just let me know.
 
JM also the temp drop is not needed unless you are breeding BPs. If you keep the temps constant with the temp gradient for the snake to thermoregulate itself they will be fine. Oh never use ceder chips or pine ship as a substrate. Aspen is a good choice or even newpaper or paper towels. Just make sure you check out the site there is alot of good info there from alot of good breeders on the site.
 
  • #10
Yea I've been reading and I have a lot of info on them. I'd like to see the new set-up when you get it and I'll show you mine when I get all the plants in and everything.
 
Back
Top