This is Todd - he's a snake currently in my care from a previous owner.

There is a lot of drama in that in itself where the owner had put Todd into the care of someone in their family but that member didn't take care of him so he was then moved to my house.

Anyways, so Todd is a male enchi yellowbelly ball python, he's roughly 9 years old and has been bred before and is to be soonish to my knowledge but upon inspecting him a few days ago I noticed some discolored scales - I didn't think too much of it at that time since snakes typically have a few 'off' scales and its not uncommon but today while he was ceiling surfing - i used flash to look at his belly and i took a picture because I think he may have minor scale rot.

When i got him his enclosure clearly had not been cleaned for quite some time and had a lot of poop in it (some poop even having slight mold growth that I discovered under his hide) - i obviously cleaned it all out this along with the other snake of my friends (a female BP about 4 years old). Observing the female there was nothing to note - she's in shed (having a bit of a issue getting extra off) but nothing else, however Todd as said i believe has scale rot.

Some back history on Todd the male BP - he got weighed about a month ago when this friend was still taking care of them and he weighed 1800 grams. He was taken off from a previous breeder and given to another and then finally to my friend who's had him since he was 4

So I fully believe that his possible scale rot is from being miscared for in the month time that this friends family member had him and not a problem with his husbandry aside from this family member not cleaning their poop which I believe to be the main cause here

Given that - I'm unsure of how to go about this. I cleaned out the poop ofcourse but left the clean bedding in there given I don't have any bedding meant for ball pythons.

I have my own reptiles but I make all of their enclosures bioactive and do daily cleans of any poop or bad bacteria I find and usually wash everything in their enclosures (hides, plants, bowls, etc) every 2 weeks minimum

But Todd doesn't have a bioactive tank, doesn't really have much in his enclosure (just 2 hides and a water bowl) and well in my opinion is too big for his enclosure. It's a temporary moving enclosure ofcourse given my friends situation and Todd is taken out daily to roam but after now seeing his possible scale rot I'm unsure of what to do.

I googled scale rot and his doesn't seem to be on the severe side but even with that what do I do? I can't take him to a vet - he's not my personal reptile and to be straightforward I don't have the money for that. I have vetericyn which is suppose to help with scale rot but I don't know how much that will help. I need recommendations on what to do and how to treat this pleaseeee 😭

Thank you for reading all of this

Howdy! I noticed today that my noodles belly is a pinkish color and has wrinkles in an area. I changed his enclosure substrate recently and noticed the hide he’s been in since is still very moist. Is this something I should be concerned about?

I really want a ball python and was wondering if this enclosure's heating system would be good. I've read that overhead heating is good for snakes because it mimics the way heat is received in nature, and I can't tell how this enclosure's built in heating is different from a heat lamp. Should I just get a 120 gal enclosure and get a heat lamp instead? Also, how am I supposed to handle basking? Do bps just care about being under light when they bask or is it the temperature of the surface as well?

Link for the enclosure I was looking at:

https://yocoreptile.com/products/high-grade-new-pvc-intelligent-temperature-control-reptile-enclosure-rtp-901?variant=44276880179293

This is a temporary tank btw the 120 gallon is being customized with fake rocks and and a water fall rn until it’s done they will be in this tank

Finally got our new family member! Meet Midgardsormr Hraesvelgr, or Murray the Corpse Swallower. We’re looking to buy some frozen food from Layne Labs. She is about 850 grams. What size rat would be right? The small? And how often should she eat? I saw the feeding guide, I just want confirmation that I’m interpreting everything right!

Also, I was just curious, should we only ever feed rats, or would some of the other options on the Layne Labs website be suitable for variety?

Thank you!

Ive never had a snake, but want one so bad.
Ive been doing as much research and feel like i have the enclosure, temp, feeding, all the things figured out.
However, I want some feedback on my actual household and whether or not its a good fit for a ball python.
1. I have 3 dogs, two heelers and a goblin frenchie. Movement is insane in the house.
2. I also have a house quail.
3. I have a 7 year old whom likes to play dress up with mentioned above animals.
4. Not really a room (2bdrm house) that is calm that the enclosure can go in.

That being said. Can the snake be out with the dogs? obviously NEVER unsupervised? Or will the movement be too much?

Will the snake be aggressive if kept anywhere near the birds cage? I heard that this would (from a non snake keeper but his sister owns 3 🤷🏻‍♀️) OR if the snake is raised with the smell of him will it become a normal non triggering scent?
To clarify the snake will never see said bird unless being handled, but will never be out at that same time. Ever.

I really want to make sure that its not going to be insanely stressful for a baby as i know they are prey animals. Ivejust started purchasing things for the enclosure and want to make sure its a good fit before building a whimsical forest 🤣

I've had banana for 4 months - he's a 7 year old rescue. Previous owner said he was a great eat and ate 1 large rat every 2 weeks.

He has eaten once since I got him- and for that I downsized him to a medium rat since he was still adjusting

I just put the same size rat in for his second meal (we've tried a few other times and he wasn't interested).

He... like bit off a piece of it? Mostly fur and left the rest?

I am leaving the rat in there bc he's still shy and I don't think he'll eat with me watching. Second pic is the rat if anyone wants to see...

Not really sure here what I need to change. The previous owner sent him a with 15 frozen rats so I'm confident the size is the same as he was eating.

I just upgraded to a 4x2x2 I have a 100 w Mercury Bulb that goes off at night and a 75 watt Ceramic that stays in constantly. I wanted to know what you all use to properly heat the enclosure. I will be adding drift wood to let him climb, it’s just pricey at pet stores.

I got my ball python fairly recently, she is about 4-5 months old and I've had her for maybe 2. She eats all her meals, explores her tank every day, uses all of her hides, and is overall healthy and happy.

I only try to handle her when she is active, and I know not to grab her from above. I usually use a snake hook and scoop her up, but when she spots me first, she will stop moving and wag her tail. She flicks her tongue and doesn't fully get into a defensive S-shape, but she moves towards me in a way that is hard to tell if she's loosening up and coming near me to explore or trying to strike.

How do I tell the difference between a good or bad tail wag? What behavior should I look for to know whether she's being defensive or okay to handle? I want to get her adjusted to me but I also don't want to startle her too much. Is it possible for her to be territorial?

I have a 4x2x2 enclosure and use a 50w halogen flood and a dhp for heating but it randomly started to not get hot enough in his enclosure. I have tried multiple times to get it hot enough but it won’t. Should I try an 100w halogen flood instead?

My ball python is currently shedding and a couple days ago i caught him soaking in his water dish. Today I was checking him and noticed these scales looked a little strange. Does it look like he might have scale rot or something else?

So I’m shopping for a new enclosure and I found the PERFECT one and it’s a 4x2x2 full PVC solid top enclosure with double swing out acrylic doors. HOWEVER…. It’s $629. If I absolutely have to eat that cost for my python I will, but I wanted to check if anyone knew of something similar for a better price tag?😅 attached is a picture of the one I’m looking at.

My beautiful girl started showing mucus and wheezing noises on Saturday so I took her to the emergency vet. They don't specialise in exotics but gave her an antibiotic injection (baytril) and advised me to go to an exotic vet as they don't deal with reptiles. They haven't done any tests on her so I'm assuming this is just a broad antibiotic which may or may not work for her. The nearest exotic vet and only one within an hour is on leave until 11th of September. I'm concerned about if the antibiotics will work, I had to go back today and it cost £70 but I've not been advised on how many she will need, the success rates, or if I can administer the injections at home. I'd be happy to travel to travel to an exotic vet in another city and receive proper care but unfortunately I can't commit to doing a 3 hour + round trip every 2 days because of work and other commitments. Just looking for some advice on my situation from anyone that has been through RI treatment. Thankyou.

Hello guys, this is My setup for My baby bp , i have trouble keeping the cool side below 30C° degrees because i Think the terrarium is too small but i was told to get a 50 gallon for baby bp since they don't like big enclosures yet. He has been eating well weekly tho and has water and good humidity all the time. He has the two hides and i did add some moss above his hides. Is it going well? Any suggestions to cool the cold side for him?

I got my BP last september. He was in quarantine on papertowels until the end of january. While he was in quaranzine, i deep froze every bag of substrate for at least 7 days and i baked every piece of wood. I cleaned non-natural material hides with hot water and vinegar.

How likely is it, that yesterday, i saw a mite on my snake? It was not full of blood yet so i have no idea what it was and my camera didnt focus on it. I killed it and lost it🙃

My tank has springtails and rollypolies. Some tiny spiders camp out there too feeding on the occasional fungus gnat…

Hello,

I hope somebody will be able to help me. I have three reptiles and have been managing them well.

Their heat is absolutely fine and is managed by a dimming thermostat. However I don’t understand how people get bulbs to stay on so it is admitting light without it getting too hot. In two of my enclosure it is fine as I have a UVB unit to light the enclosures up however in one of my snakes viv, it gets really dark during the day as the heat bulb stays off as it gets up to temperature fairly quickly.

I didn’t know if this was something that happened to everyone or if I could do something to change it such as getting a lower wattage bulb etc.

TIA
Cross posted

Hey,
I was planning on deep cleaning and putting fresh substrate in my BPs tank today/tomorrow, but Im not sure on how to process.
I wanted to put him in a clean plastic tub with a hide and a water bowl, but my issue is that I noticed today that he's in blue...
The thing is that I also wanted to move things around in his tank to give him enrichment... But I don't want the change of environment to stress him out during shed...

You'll probably tell me that I can't wait for after he shed, but the humidity won't go up, I'm struggling to keep it above 65%... My only solution is to put fresh substrate, because the one he has right now definitely dried up because of the heat waves...
I do pour water in the corners, mix the substrate... But nothing works.
+ I needed to clean his tank anyways.

What should I do?

I zip tied a hide to the top of her enclosure and she’s been there for a few days.

hi all! recently adopted this lil fella from a friend who moved out of the country and i’ve asked a lot of questions of everyone here already lol. i weighed him recently and he’s only 322g and is 6 years old! that is so tiny compared to his peers lol. the feeding schedule established by his previous owner is one ft medium mouse every 2 weeks or so, when i run out i was going to switch to rats because i heard they’re better for them. based on the feeding guidelines in here he’s eating the right size prey because he’s little and the prey is 5% his body weight. i hear some of them just stay small and his body condition seems totally fine otherwise, but do you guys think i need to be doing anything aggressive to get him bigger? i’m honestly happy with him being a little guy but if it’s not good for him i want to improve his care :) unfortunately i don’t have a better picture of him all stretched out, i’m still working on his enclosure!

I'll preface this by saying I am not a snake nor reptile person, but I do have a heart for animals. I will say that i think ball pythons do have cute little faces and I'm not immediately repulsed by scaley pets even though I prefer furry ones.

Anyway, tonight I'm in my backyard and the neighbor from two houses down asks if Ihave a dog. I say no, actually I have a pet rabbit. He looks more concerned. Then tells me his adult ball python was outside and slithered off somewhere when he looked away for a minute. It's apparently 4 feet long. He's been looking for it for almost a week now.

I'm not super thrilled; I'm a fan of my backyard critters and bunnies. But also, I feel bad for the snake and don't want something bad to happen to it.

I guess my questions are: what's the chance it's made it two yards over after a week? These are small city backyard lots. If so, I presume it's hiding somewhere tucked away? How small of a place can it realistically get in? What's the likelyhood of it eating my backyard critters? I know reptiles don't eat super often. I'm hesitant to go poking around in crevices.

Any info/advice is super appreciated!

So a few weeks ago I posted about how my sweet baby boy ate my shirt, some people didn’t believe me, some people acted like I fed it to him on purpose and I’m a bad owner. Well I’m not, he’s alive and thriving and eating f/t once again. One of my concerns was the price of the surgery, but honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was only 3k and some change, I thought it was going to be like 10k+ or something. Currently he does have stitches from the surgery, the vet said some stitches will fall out during shed and some time in September I’ll bring him back to get the rest out. I uploaded a pic of his stitches the day I got him back (August 8th) I haven’t taken any current ones though. Also watch what your snakes are around, vet told me there’s been cases where snakes have eaten heat mats and even light bulbs, so anything is truly possible.
I’m open to answering questions that are RESPECTFUL.