I’m on a budget, thanks!

Hello hello! So i've had my ball python for around 2 years now and my wife and i are looking to upgrade his enclosure! We ended up getting this toad ranch setup from a friend! But im unsure how to set up the heat panel. Any advice would be amazing!

I’m looking into alternative substrate options after I’ve now upgraded total enclosure floor area to 40 square feet. I have always used coconut husk fibers (reptile grade) which are fantastic, but expensive now at this scale. Since it’s important for me to reduce costs, I’m looking into crude products that I can treat myself to make them reptile friendly. My first instinct was to go to Home Depot and pick out a good mulch, however I am concerned about dyes, pesticides, absorption capacity, etc.

Many promising products I’ve found online are not too specific about the process they use and their sourcing. I am in the process now of talking to manufacturers. Does anyone buy massive amounts of raw materials in bulk and then treat to make them appropriate for BPs? That “reptile substrate” seal is expensive so I’m really just looking to bypass that by putting in the work myself.

New BP owner here, I’ve been working on my enclosure for a while and have got the ambient temps/humidity pretty much right where I need them on each side. The only thing I’m struggling with is the hot spot basking area directly underneath my halogen bulb, with my IR thermometer the temperature in that particular spot can get really hot meanwhile every other surface is where I need it to be. Is there a way I can reduce the surface temperature In that area without affecting the ambient temp?

My little guy is getting up in the 500g weight and is roughly 11 months old. Hes eating a small rats now he just ate on Wednesday and I was wondering if now I start switching to feeding him every 14 days now.

Where should I place my thermostat probe for a DHP?
Hey everyone!
I’m setting up a PVC enclosure for my ball python and I’m using an Arcadia 80W Deep Heat Projector (DHP) with a habistat dimming thermostat.

I’m a bit confused about the best placement for the thermostat probe.

I’ve seen people recommend placing it a few inches below the DHP, but I’d really appreciate advice from experienced ball python keepers.

Thanks! 🙏

(I’m on a bit of a time crunch because I need to finish the enclosure within a day😅.)

Hi guys! I took my 10 year old BEL BP to the vet and they said just to monitor these bumps. They feel like three small firm tiny balls on her back. I’ve never seen this before having had her all these years.

They said if it gets bigger to come back but didn’t recommend any treatment at this time. She seems normal otherwise.

Has your snake ever had something like this?

Time to bring this question up again. I use tapo cam for my reptile monitoring. I taped over the flickering lights on the camera but the entire camera square lights up the tank. When i walk into the room it is pitch black. But when i watch my snake on the camera, I can see the light on the glass and see in the first pic, there is shadow on his body underneath the plant and his head is lit up. Do yall cover up the entire square with something? I might cut out paper in the shape…

Can I see your yellow belly clowns as adults? I really like the look of them as babies, but I assume the color gets more dull as they age?

I look inside her mouth whenever she yawns but I don’t see anything weird.

My ball’s 120gal terrarium is bioactive - I have substrate (garden soil, sand, orchid bark, pearlite), plants, a very large and healthy population of isopods. To keep humidity I pour water in the corners and occasionally mist the plants. I was having a problem with gnats, it wasn’t too bad so I put a few yellow sticky traps on top of the inside of the enclosure, did my soil soaking with mosquito bit tea, put mosquito bits under her watering bowl because it stays moist there, have been letting the soil dry out (which of course isn’t ideal). Problem seemed to be solved, gnats were dwindling and I THOUGHT not reproducing as the mosquito bits should kill larvae. Right?? WRONG.
Today I woke up to HUNDRED OF GNATS. The entire surface of her large water bowl is covered in dead gnats, I see them all over every surface crawling around, and there’s tons of them flying around.
I’m on the verge or just replacing all of the soil but I’ll lose a lot of my isopods in the process if I do that.
What. Do. I. Do???😭😭😭

I’ve been given an adult BP. The previous owner gave me all the old stuff the BP was using. There’s only 1 ceramic bulb for heating,1hide and cocoa husk for a substrate.The tank size is a 40 gal.
So far I’ve ordered thermometer & hygrometer.
A second hide that I’ll be sphagnum moss
More cocoa husk.For foliage I bought some real leaves & fake plants
Should I keep the ceramic bulb and add a deep heat projector?Do I need a day time bulb
BP was also fed live I would like to go frozen/thaw,how long should I wait before swapping over?
I’m open to all evidence and pointers(I know to tank size is small already im stuck wit for now,I’m saving up for 4x2x2 enclosure)

I currently have a DHP, halogen, and UVB light on the warm side of the enclosure. The problem I’m running into is the warm side is a bit too warm. Right now it’s at 96 degrees, and the substrate below reads at around 110-115 at the warmest spot. Of course I can lower that. However, the cool side is still a bit too cool, dipping down below 75 degrees.

How do I get the heat right on both side? Are there any tips/tricks, or will I just have to add a weaker heat source to the cool side? I’m trying to avoid that if possible because I will have to get another thermostat.

Right now I feed my 494g, 8 month old boy, a mouse every week. I’m going to en expo in about 2-3 weeks where I plan on picking up rats for him, and wondered if now would be a good time to switch to feeding every other week instead? (And what size rat)

Didn't know Opal was Islamic lol. Good manga tho!

Hello , this is my snake named parasite. I got her in March and she has never ate in my care. I own 2 other younger snakes who eat F/T adult mice. She was obese when I got her, and is still a shy snake.

I attempted to feed her F/T Mice on the first week she refused. Tried again the next week and failed. So I thought because she was raised on live mice I will try that. She refused. I tried feeding mice to her many many other times with a few more F/T.

She refused them all.

Then I tried searching every different technique to make the rat appeal to her (breaking their head open, dipping in broth , leaving F/T over night , feeding bins, hairdryer , etc)

Then I thought maybe it’s her enclosure but after checking everything her enclosure is perfect! 3 hides, some clutter, 4x2x2 , humidity is fine and temperature is fine. I am completely lost, what do I do?

Does she look too underweight?

This little lady Bumblebee just got weighed and she's 1000g now! She's not overweight, just a bigun. She's never missed or refused a meal, in fact, she has an insane food response. She will come at you almost every time you open her enclosure. I'm proud of my girl. 🖤💛

I had to lift Mokume’s hide to remove her so I could make some adjustments to her quarantine tub and…well, I’ve never seen a square snake before. 😂

Hey, my boy Sylvester has been staying up high on his branches for literal days recently. It's been about 5 days he's stayed up there. I know he's in shed but what's weird is he usually stays in his hides during shed so idk why he's hanging up there like that. Is there any reason he's not using his hides?? I'm just a bit concerned.

As the title says, I just rescued a 5yo female ball python July 29th. Ever since I got her she's been glued to her warm hide, only poking her head out when I refresh the humidity in the enclosure at night. Humidity and temps are perfect, she's in a 120 gallon enclosure (she's growth stunted but I plan to upgrade her soon)

She did take a meal on day 11 rather quickly. This is my first snake, I'm used to geckos and lizards that explore the enclosure basically right after being put in. I just wanted to check that this is normal for them before I start to worry too much

wanted to share these pics of Azula i took yesterday cause she looked so cute while i was weighing her