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To me that snake looks very dehydrated, and both snakes (Jennifer and Kyle) look underweight. Ball pythons are not supposed to be slender snakes. Kyle is very underweight for his length as well.
The fact that you do not even know what the temperatures and humidity are in the cage is worrisome as well. What research did you do prior to buying these animals? A cursory Google search on ball pythons will tell you the temperature and humidity range you NEED to keep them at, as well as proper food sizes. A ball python is a constrictor and can swallow prey far larger than non-constricting snakes can. This is because of the structure of the jaw. There is no solid joint, only ligaments and muscle connecting the bottom jaw to the upper, and there is a separate bone for the left and right sides of the bottom jaw as well. This allows the snake to appear to dislocate its jaw and take down food much larger than the head of the snake. You should be feeding a single food item that is slightly larger than the girth of the snake at its widest point.
Also, housing them together is NOT a good idea. The reason Jennifer is more active with Kyle in there is she is stressed. If they are always together, it's because they are both trying to be in the optimal spot in the cage. Its a form of competition for resources. Snakes are not social creatures. With the exception of a few colubrids and crotalids that hibernate in large communal dens, snakes will not live near other snakes in the wild. Housing two together increases stress for both animals, weakens their immune systems and leads to health problems.
Please separate them into individual enclosures, and please please do more research on these snakes.
yes they are kept in the same enclousure. Jenhifer got more active once kyle got in there. they are almost inseperable. nothing i ever read before i got her said that they needed large amounts of humididty, well heat side and cool side should be at correct temperatures like i said we keep the aprt around 80 since we recieve everyone elses heat below us. and the heat lamp is intended for desert animals so the temp is about 120 i do believe two inches from the source then drops to about 95-100 six to seven inches away which should but gound level 90-95 the ground is actually pretty warm to the touch. we will mist the cage more and move the water bowl to the hot side so we can keep the humidity up.
curious why would kyle be just fine in the same conditions but jenifer having all of these issues
You're a ball of horrible husbandry issues. Worst part it isn't even just one snake it's two.
1. Do not keep together. The normal is stressed out and that's why she's active. Nothing to do with having a friend who's "inseperable". You only offer one cool side and one hot side. They compete for it so that's why you think it's "snuggling".
2. Use a heatmat and not that light. It's drying out the enclosure with FAR too high of temps that you're not really sure of. Use a thermostat in conjunction with it.
3. You didn't read much of anything if you didn't see they need about an average of 55-60% humidity. Do better research.
4. The normal isn't too bad of weight loss but the spider is. Who cares how long it takes a snake to swallow a piece of food? I've got ball pythons that take hours. They are just slow. Feed them hopper sized mice or rat fuzzies.
curious why would kyle be just fine in the same conditions but jenifer having all of these issues
She may have been having health issues when you got her, and you've had her on a pretty minimal diet since August. Snakes should be eating prey that's 1.25-1.5 times their girth at the widest point. Don't worry about how thin her neck looks, it will stretch.
What is Kyle eating? Hopefully not the same diet. Don't worry about how long it takes them to swallow the prey, 20 minutes is nothing.
On the humidity, what are you using for substrate? We found it easiest to keep the humidity up when using cypress mulch. Aspen and newspaper/paper towels dry out very quickly. I tried Reptibark once and while it's better than aspen for maintaining humidity, it's also very dusty so I don't use it any more.
If you have an open-top tank cover it as much as possible with aluminum foil, or make a plexiglass top and drill some ventilation holes in it. This will help maintain the humidity.
I would also use an under-tank heater instead of a light for heat, BP's don't really like direct bright light as they're primarily a nocturnal animal. Direct lights are also very drying (hence the term desert light).
I also wouldn't house them together. They each need their own space and while it's rare, BP's have gone cannibal. They're not social snakes and really only get together in nature to mate. Plus, if either gets sick (or is sick) you're guaranteeing the other one will pick it up.
There are awesome care sheets for all sorts of herps at CARESHEETS
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I buy the kid a pony, she asks for a snake! If only I'd known...
okay so that means i got both snakes with issue i bought kyle from a breeder and they said he was just fine I did not get the cream of the crop when i got these snakes did i . but i can power feed them to bulk them up. as i said temperature should be just fine i have a low cage with a strong heat lamp. as for humidity i can start misting the cage and move the watering dish and we will pick up a hydro meeter as well, I have a mesh top so do you guys have any suggestions on how to keep the humididty inside the cage.everything i read online is something different one person says cage should never go over 90 because it increases their metabolism and that they have healthier snakes at between 80-87 the some people say you need to keep the tank's hot side in the 90s i am hearing differences on the size of the food some people say the food should be the size of the widest part of the body and some people are saying it should be almost twice the size of the snake i have also read that it should be a little bit smaller then the size of the body to make eat regualrly, I have also heard that your better off feeding them several smaller mice then feeding them one rat. i read that they live just fine on mice then i read they need to be on rats not mice. then i see snakes that live in worse conditions then what my two are at and thrive and become huge. also some sites never mention humididty some people say its safe to use a heat rock while other swear up and down that it is not suppose to be used. i have read that they can be housed together as long as you feed them seperatly, they say it is not recomended but you can, sometimes on a rare occasion one will try and eat the other.
so with all these different instructions, ideas, and ways people raise these snakes raised how am i suppose to know which one is the fore sure correct way.
Carissa I'm going to ask you to bear with me cause this might be a long post. I want to assure you we are all here to help you and your snakes. We want these guys to live the 20-40 years they are supposed to and we want you to be there with them.
Theres a lot that is going to have to be changed but it is for the better, not because we want you to or because we want to inconvience you its because these animals live a huge area that they have evolved to live perfectly in and we have to do our best to replicate that in basically a box.
First as others have stated you really have to separate them, Jen is not more active because she is happy, she is trying to find her own spot, her own territory without Kyle, her own heat and hides and cold without him being there. She is stressed and that is just making things worse.
Second you should get them on heat mats and thermostat, as stated that light is two hot and is drying out the air and humidity is very important. The thermostat is also very important, this will help take a lot of guess work out of your temps and will help maintain the perfect spot for both Kyle and Jen to be happy. In the wild they have so many places to choose from for heat and as I said we just have this box so we have to make sure they have that perfect spot.
These are the two bigs things I suggest you change asap, once they have they're own space and room, with the correct temps and humidity they will be off to a great start, then we can worry about food since we need proper temps to help them eat anyway.
As far as food size, I remember what it was like when I got my first BP, I remember freaking out watching him eat but honestly what people are saying is true, they really can eat something SO much bigger then they are. This is my baby Brood back when he was around 8-9 months old, its not the best video but I hope it helps you relax a bit about feeding, more so since i know he could eat larger then that.
For those who are going to tell me he can eat bigger because i know some will I just want to point out this video is from years ago when I first brought Brood home and was buying food from the pet store, I am aware he couldn have larger I simply wanted to post a video for Carissa so she could have an idea of what they can handle.
if i am useing repti bark would a heat pad even make it through the substrate i will up load a picture of the tank later so everyone can see it, along with the temp of the tank. and the humididty. once we get the rats breeding we will deffinatly be going to straight rats for now though i will just feed them the larger fuzzies or small mice. we can get them seperated too. just need to buy another cage.
Oh they guy that works at the pet store that we bought Jenny from said we should have never bought a snake from them. They said that the snakes there dont do well. of course he tells us this 8 months after we got her. i think she was in that store for just over a month.
as for humidity i can start misting the cage and move the watering dish and we will pick up a hydro meeter as well, I have a mesh top so do you guys have any suggestions on how to keep the humididty inside the cage.
Cover the top with foil, except for under the lamp for the hot side. Once you install an under-tank heater and you remove the lamp, you can use damp dishtowels instead (don't use dishtowels with the lamp, it's a fire hazard). Eventually you can make a plexiglass top for it.
IIRC from reptibark, it can stay pretty wet without concerns about mold. So, don't worry about over-misting. Once you use up the current supply (substrate should be spot-cleaned daily and changed monthly) I would still suggest switching to the cypress, my BP's all love it and even the adults will burrow in it like baby king snakes.
For water, provide two sources, a small dish on the cool side and a large, fairly shallow one on the warm side to help increase humidity and give your snakes a place to soak if they want.
You are right that there is a lot of conflicting information available, but if you take what is consistent about feeding you can see that the meals for Jennifer have been way too small. Look at the size of the fuzzy compared to her girth - and she is thin, no doubt about it - and that fuzzy is half her size at best. It's a snack or an hors d'ouvre, not a meal.
Kyle is doing better because you got him from a breeder who no doubt kept him in ideal conditions so she could get a good price for him. Jennifer is basically a "mutt", you got her from a chain store which may or may not have kept her in good conditions. It's very likely she got stressed there even if her husbandry was correct. So, I'm not surprised that Kyle is doing ok and she is not.
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I buy the kid a pony, she asks for a snake! If only I'd known...
okay so insure the correct temp, feed them bigger food, seperate them, and increase the humidity, i can do that. I hope this works i love my little snakes and i want them to be healthy. thank you everone for letting me know what i was doing wrong.
If you want to have the substrate deep then you could get a Radiant Heat Panel (RHP) instead of a under tank heater. They are a non light based heat emitter that does not dry the air out at all. They are very good units and last a long time. I think they run about $60 for the size you would need, so are a little more than an under tank heater, but then you dont have to worry about it having to heat through all your substrate.
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The plural of anecdote is not data
I have another question for every one How long should teh snakes be in shed for? first time jenny sheded it took her about three weeks to finish and did give her baths to soak finally i let her soak for about an hour instead of twenty or so min then i gently rubbed her to get the shed off since then she has only taken about a week to ten days her eye caps are always the last to go and she doesnt shed smoothly either she just has random pathces that come off. Kyle when he sheds his comes off in almost one setting he take about a week to fully come out of shed as well if i remember correctly.
my babies 
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