My new ball python

[bigmoe192]

Hey everyone. I was just wondering if my setup is ok for my new snake. The temperature right now stays between 75 and 78 degrees. He has something to climb, and hide, with a water dish. I am going to be getting a heat pad for the tank so i know the snake will get warm. My friend said for right now it is ok for the snake cause you dont really need much. Also how do you know if the humidity is ok. I know when it starts to shed you should maybe make it a little bit more humid just to help a little. I have aspin chips, and I havent even fed him yet cause just got him and the guy said to feed him on thursday. Sorry for all the newb questions lol, i just dont want anything to go wrong.

[Lickeypie]

I keep my enclosure at about 77-85 degrees F and low to mid 70's at night. And make sure there are distinct warm and cool ends with hides at both ends. I have a tree "hut" hide on the cool end with a heat pad and on the hot end, where he has the option to bask, he has a plastic container with a hole cut in it, full of sphagnum moss (for humidity) which he can go into or hide under (he actually prefers hiding under it more than the wooden "hut"). :D

[valid]

I am not an expert on balls - but I would defiantly get a pad rather than an over head light. As far as humidity, even though they are not a high humidity snake it is good to keep up with the levels, especially during a shed. They have some fairly basic humidity meters at petsmart for 4-5 dollars.

[mykee]

"I keep my enclosure at about 77-85 degrees F and low to mid 70's at night."

Disregard the above advice; it is garbage.

Ambient air temp: 80-82 (24 hours a day)
Hot side temps: 90-95 (24 hours a dau)
Cool side: 80-ish (24 hours a day)
Humidity: 60% always, up to 80% during a shed.

[Lickeypie]

I wouldn't waste my money on one of the ones from petsmart, get a digital one from lowes (if you have a lowes in canada), i got a digital hygrometer/thermometer from lowes for $9.99 and it's better quality than that of (overpriced) petsmart.

[Lickeypie]

Disregard the above advice; it is garbage.

Ambient air temp: 80-82 (24 hours a day)
Hot side temps: 90-95 (24 hours a dau)
Cool side: 80-ish (24 hours a day)
Humidity: 60% always, up to 80% during a shed.


"garbage"- I'm getting really sick of the attitudes of people on this forum. Do you really need to belittle people to make yourself feel better? Grow up.

[valid]

For a basic humidity meter the petsmart ones work great. I am not saying you should sell your soul to the store - if you want to go ahead and buy one of the more expensive meters elsewhere go ahead, knock yourself out.

As far as the heated side of the tank I would expect 90s to be a more appropriate temp than 70s.

I have a tree "hut" hide on the cool end with a heat pad
you have a heat pad on the cool side of your set-up ... ?

[Hurrok]

Mykee is right, those are the correct temperatures, no need for a temperature drop either. There should only be one heat pad or one strip of tape for one side of the tank for the hot side which should be between 90-95 degrees like Mykee said. Nothing for heat on the other side.

I'd recommend getting a Thermostat to control how much heat is being radiated off your heat pad as well, as temps can get quite high and might end up being harmful to your BP.

I recommend getting one of these as they are cheap and do a good job:

Jumpstart Digital Thermostat for Heat Mats: Amazon.ca: Home & Kitchen (http://www.amazon.ca/Jumpstart-Digital-Thermostat-Heat-Mats/dp/B000NZZG3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363215387&sr=8-1)

Also if you are having issues with Humidity it may be due to your mesh lid. Just add a towel or even tinfoil to keep the humidity up :) Spray the tank when needed.

[Lickeypie]

I personally think there are many factors that you have to think about before bashing someone's post. First, I said that is how I keep MY enclosure. Obviously, we all live in different places. My house tends to be colder, so I keep a zoomed heatpad on the cool side. Why? I use an aspen/cypress mix (to help with humidity) and as we all know, it is much thicker than newspaper, therefore heat does not penetrate as easily. Still wonder why I use a heatpad on my cool end? Because if I didn't it would be a frozen end. I sure don't want a ball-python-popsicle

[valid]

I was not bashing just asking.if you are looking for everything to be offensive then it will be.

[Lickeypie]

my logic may seem strange at first, but it makes sense d:

[Chu'Wuti]

I personally think there are many factors that you have to think about before bashing someone's post. First, I said that is how I keep MY enclosure. Obviously, we all live in different places. My house tends to be colder, so I keep a zoomed heatpad on the cool side. Why? I use an aspen/cypress mix (to help with humidity) and as we all know, it is much thicker than newspaper, therefore heat does not penetrate as easily. Still wonder why I use a heatpad on my cool end? Because if I didn't it would be a frozen end. I sure don't want a ball-python-popsicle

You are absolutely correct that there are many factors to consider. One of the most important, especially in comparison to your local or household temperatures, is where the snake evolved; ball pythons (Python regius) evolved on African savannahs--in a tropical to subtropical climate--so it needs warmer temperatures than most colubrids, for example. If your house tends to be colder, as you state above, it's even more important to maintain the appropriate/warmer temps for a ball python, which Mykee provided.

It sounds like you're really trying to do that with two heat pads, but keep in mind that the ball python also needs to be able to regulate its temperature by moving to a cool spot if it gets too warm in the warm end.

It does seem you're trying to provide warm and cool ends, too, but I think we're confused by your statement that you're maintaining your BPs enclosure in the low to mid 70's at night, according to your earlier post, Lickeypie. Those temps are too low. While your BP won't obviously suffer (in fact, it will seem to be fine, low temps over the long term will be detrimental to its health, so Mykee is trying to help both you and the thread originator, BigMoe192, learn the appropriate temps.

Good luck, everyone!

[Lickeypie]

It does seem you're trying to provide warm and cool ends, too, but I think we're confused by your statement that you're maintaining your BPs enclosure in the , according to your earlier post, Lickeypie. Those temps are too low. While your BP won't obviously suffer (in fact, it will seem to be fine, low temps over the long term will be detrimental to its health, so Mykee is trying to help both you and the thread originator, BigMoe192, learn the appropriate temps.

Good luck, everyone!

I should have been more specific (I should have known that someone would have picked my post apart from the seams) but when I said that my temps were around 77-85, I meant centrally. But yeah, I guess you can expect people to rip apart your posts on this forum. Thanks for being helpful, Chu :)

And to Valid, I wouldn't want him to waste his money on the ones at petsmart, because I have one from petsmart and it broke almost instantly.

[mykee]

Lickey; if you stop passing on garbage info, I'll be nicer.
What you're doing is dangerous. I'm just being rude.

[Chu'Wuti]

If we're trying to help someone, it often become necessary to "pick [a] post apart from the seams" in order to understand everything we need to address. I'm sorry the corrections made you feel picked on, though.

Hang in there, everyone! Being respectful when we disagree can only help . . . even though I know some of us get really frustrated when we see the same mistakes over and over

Just saw you were posting while I was posting, Mykee . . . yeah, sometimes you are, but I feel your frustration; sometimes I have to really bite my tongue, like when an albino bull snake was brought to me for rehoming and it was so emaciated I couldn't begin to estimate when it last ate! But I haven't been dealing with stuff here as long as you have.

So again, I say, Hang in there, everyone!