Hi !! New here.

[ferguson95521]

Hi !

I am new here. Last week my husband got a Ball Python for my birthday. Her name is Calypso Akina Malakena Ra. I let my kids name her. LOL. She is a year and a half and almost 5 feet long. I grew up with reptiles along with the standard pets (cats, dogs, rats, guinea pigs, fish,etc). My hubby and I feel that it is important for our kids to be exposed to other types of pets than cats and dogs.

We have had Calypso for about a week now. She was raised around young childern, so they don't seem to upset her. Her first night there, we put her into a larger enclosure. She came in a 40 gal tank, but we wanted her to have more space and privacy. Her new enclosure is 4 feet tall by 6 feet long by 4 feet deep. My husband took off the lock that was on there (our kids are 5 and 3 and did not want them to have free access to her) and put on better more secure locks that now have padlocks also.

She really seems to like it as she has much more room to move. We have limited her holding time until she gets to know us and gets comfortable with us. I held her the first night that we had her (after the kids went to bed so it was quiet). When I would try to put her back into her cage, she would climb out before I could close the door. The lady that we got her from says that she was feeding her once every 2 months because she 'took her time eating' !! UGH! That's not okay !

On Friday night, I was holding her and examining her from afar. I noticed the eye caps on her eyes and the opaque color on some of the scales as if she was going to shed. She crawled up the sleeve of my shirt and was happy just sitting in my shirt. She stayed there for at least an hour. As I went to slowly pull her out to put her away, she attacked my shirt and balled up around my arm.

I got my shirt off with her wrapped on my arm actually coiling up and a good grip on my shirt. I slowly carried her over to the enclosure making sure not to let her think that I was fighting her. I laid my arm into her enclosure with her on it and I laid down on the floor right next to it. I was trying to let her know that I am not food and I won't struggle. I was talking to her as I was laying there telling her that I understood that she is hungry and moody. LOL. Sure enough within 2 minutes she let go of me. She went under her driftwood as I closed her door. When my husband came home a bit later, I told him about it. I understood why she did what she did and I can't be upset with her for it. I should of read her body language better and seen the signs of shedding before holding her.

When he went to look at her, she shed all of her skin off and was a DIFFERENT snake. She came right out of the cage before he got it open all of the way. We made sure to lock up the critters before she ever comes out that way she has our full attention. She came into the living room with my husband. I was sitting on the couch eating ice cream and she hooked her tail around my ankle. She would explore around me, but would not leave my ankle. LOL. Needless to say, we have now developed a great bond.

I emailed the lady that we got her from to inquire when she last fed her. We noticied that she was 'hunting' and was showing signs of being hungry. She said that she fed her last over a month ago !!! Needless to say, we went that night and got her food! She happily ate and is a happy little snake now ! LOL.

Like I said, I am a semi - newbie at this.

[Will0W783]

Aren't snakes great? I'm glad she seems to be doing well for you, but watch your humidity levels in a cage that large. I don't recommend keeping adult balls in anything larger than 4'x2'x2', but if she is not stressed and the humidity is 40-60%, higher when she's shedding, you're alright. BTW, talking calmly or any way to snakes will not help; they have no external ears and cannot hear sounds. They can sense vibrations, but that is all. She eventually let go of your arm because she couldn't get it down..lol, not because you'd calmed her. How large is she? To me, feeding once a month is not enough. Some people give a very large meal once a month, but I feel feeding smaller meals every other week or even every week keeps their systems more regular. For comparison, my adult ball pythons get a medium rat (frozen/thawed) every other week, and that seems to do them just fine. What are you currently feeding? What are the temps in your enclosure?

[ferguson95521]

Hi !

Snakes are WONDERFUL ! My dad and I were just talking @ lunch about how our snakes were when we were younger.

My concern for the bigger cage was keeping the temp and humidity stable for her. So far, so good. I do have the smaller cage on stand-by for if the temp or the humidity goes down. The temps last night in her enclosure - Temp was 86 and I don't remeber what the humidity was. She is very laid back! My husband took her out of the big enclosure this afternoon so that he can clean it. So she is now in the smaller one. He says that he is going to leave her in there for a while until we get more stuff set up in the bigger one. The big enclosure does not have a heating system besides the light above. I would rather keep her in the smaller one that is set up for a snake and keep the rats (my girls want two rats to breed named Snake Food and Snake Bite) in the bigger enclosure. So for right now, she will be in the one that is actually set up for her.

She is 4 feet and 9 1/2 inches from end to end. The lady that we got her from (she is an IDIOT!) says that she was only feeding once every 2 months ! The reasoning for this? She "took too long to eat". When I asked her what was "too long" she said it took her 10 minutes to eat the rat !! So, we are going to plan on feeding once every 2 weeks for right now. She is eating medium rats right now. She is on live rats. We are going to wait until she gets used to her new surrondings, than transition over to f/t.

What kind of bedding would you suggest? The original bedding is very soft, almost like sand. She seems to like it, but my husband has this fake lawn stuff the lizards cage and was wanting to put that in hers.

So, with Bojangles (my husband's green iguana), he keeps the temp and humidity regulated by the light bulbs on the top of the enclosure (just like in Calypso's) and spraying down with water. It seems to me that would work for Calypso also.

Any ideas?? I have not had a snake in a few years so I am trying to job my memory on how we had the set up.

Thanks!