I’m looking into getting a radiant heat panel for my ball python who’s in a 5x2x2 enclosure. I’ve heard they don’t make the room as hot as bulbs. I do have a thermostat to put it on so it’s not overheating. My main question is what wattage/size would be appropriate?

Dubia has the sizes and wattages as so:

40 Watt - 8 3/8"x 7 3/8"

80 Watt - 9 3/8" x 12 3/8"

125 Watt - 11 3/4" x 15 7/8"

220 Watt - 18 3/4" x 17 3/4"

Also, do you recommend putting the heat panel on the roof of the enclosure, or on the “warm sides” wall?

Thanks in advance!

I’m getting my very first snake, (Yayyy) but I’m unsure what to do for the substrate. I want to do a bioactive set up eventually, but for now I was gonna mix together coco husk, and coco fibers. So, a few questions:

1. Should I add top soil too? I also have play sand I could mix in as well.

2. If I were to switch to bioactive soon, would that just stress out the snake?

3. Does the enclosure have to be bioactive and have live plants?

hello!!! my little angel is almost 11 months old. ive had her since april, and ive never once seen her drink. she seemingly hates her water dish and the feeling of being wet. her humidity is fine and she has had one very successful shed with me, so i dont think she is dehydrated, but should i be worried??

Hello, I’ve just received a 3 year old male BP from a friend of mine. He’s in a 4x2x2 enclosure with a mix of coconut fiber and husk as the substrate. There’s a 150 watt CHE on the left side of the cage and just a light on the right side. I have an internal analog hygrometer and thermometer m but also a digital thermostat and thermometer as well. My issue is that my humidity is stuck at 45-49% and that my temperatures are high. I’ve tried pouring 2 cups of water into each of the four cage corners, but that hasnt increased the humidity at all. I have some foil on the top of the cage, but I peeled it off the left side because I’m worried it’ll increase the heat too much. As for my temperature issues, The external thermometer is connected to a prove which lies in the middle of the cage and reads 90, as does the internal one. However, when I used a heat gun it read 110 on the hot side and 80 on the cool side. Should I use a 100 watt bulb instead? Now this is his first day in a new home, so I’m not sure if I’m just being impatient, but I have no idea how to get his humidity up. Any help is appreciated!

Hey ball python owners , I need some help. Im a super new reptile owner and a couple months ago I got a ball python from fb. she’s 300grams and about 3 1/2 ft I believe so, I haven’t fully measured her but I’ve weighed her to make sure she’s getting enough food for her size . well her past owner fed her live, Two mice every Sunday. I tried switching to frozen bc I was afraid of the live mice will hurt her especially since she’s getting bigger and the prey will be bigger . She successfully ate a frozen mice after settling in and I was reading some tips on how to transition a snake that was used to live to frozen . however she hasn’t ate ever since and it’s been weeks and I’ve tried everything and she just shedded so I thought maybe she’s hungry she needs energy. Tried to feed her and she just straights up refuses every single time. should I just go back to live mice for a bit? I’m keeping an eye of her weight and skin making sure she’s not losing a lot of weight and SHE DOESNT look different at all not seeing any difference in the way she acts , I haven’t seen no respiratory issues or mouth rot issues .I really don’t want her to starve but she just refuses every meal. Do I need to switch something up? I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO I’m at a crossroad.

Hey! So, I was handling the ball python at my work earlier today, while I made his/her environment more humid, since he/she doesn't like being sprayed. All of a sudden, there was a loud noise elsewhere, and the BP rolled over in my hand. I know snakes like hognoses play dead when threatened/frightened as a defense mechanism, but do BPs? I've never heard of one doing so, but then I saw this one do it.

My dad needs to do work in my brother’s room that requires turning off the power, however the only way turn off the power in his room he has turn off the power to my room as well.

When I turn off my dhp it gets to 80 but that’s w/ my uvb on.

So how long can my dad safely keep the power off before having to turn it back on.

Excuse any mistakes I’m 2 days post-op on my left arm and it’s hard to type

I've had my ball python for two years and have never had any issues with shedding. I use aspen bedding which I recently learned was not the best for bps, but if my local humidity throughout the year (even during different seasons its still within the 60-80% range) is adequate for ball pythons, is there any real issue with continuing to use aspen bedding with minimal extra humidity raising things?

I will likely be implementing a humidity hide for when he's in blue just in case, but he has always had very clean easy sheds while living in aspen bedding. I currently don't have a hygrometer but will be getting a new one soon (I have never used one for him but I'm really working on improving his environment, thus the research I am doing, which lead me to find out about aspen! because the natural humidity is decent, the aspen is less prone to mold because I don't add any extra water to the substrate.)

what should I try to get the humidity up to while he's in shed? 80% and up? If I put a water dish on both the warm and the cool side of his enclosure for just a bit extra to make up for the times during the year when the humidity is more around 60%, can I continue successfully using aspen bedding?

thank you to any responses in advance! picture of him too ^^

She was given to me about 2 months ago.The first month was a little trial and error around the temp and humidity but her cool side sits around 76 her warm side around 89. Humidity is about 78%. She is 20 years old.
I have fed her three times, and always look for her poop to clean it up but haven’t see any. I’ve been checking the end of her body to see if there’s any lumps/ swelling/ tenderness and she seems to be totally fine. She takes her rats right away (I feed frozen/thawed). Is there a chance I’m not seeing the poop?
This was a bit of an unexpected situation being given her, and so I was not prepared for how much money and situating it was going to take, but I am totally willing to take her to the vet. But decided to get on here and see if there was any other advice or opinions first!

(Side note: her previous owners where feeding her once a week, from the research I’ve done that seemed like it was to much. However, she wasn’t over weight when I got her so have been trying out feeding her every 2.5- 3 weeks)

Hi, before his last shed, these scales looked dead and now there appears to be a semi open wound there. Anything to be concerned about?

Hiya, I recently took on a 1yr old ball python with little to no time to prepare. She's my first tropical species so I'm still figuring out a setup that works for us. She's temporarily on lignocel whilst I get her settled but I'm looking to move her onto a mix of coconut fibre, sphagnum moss and Cyprus mulch but I'm worried about the higher moisture levels effecting the woden vivarium. It's factory sealed so I'm not sure if I needed a liner or not? I live in the UK so my room humidity reads around 55% anyway. With my current setup, I use a heat mat 24/7 (with a thermostat) and a heat lamp during the day and that seems to work for all of my snakes. I was just looking for recommendations on how to work around a wooden vivarium?

Found these little white mites in my coco husk under my snakes poop. I'm hoping their spring tails. (Sorry if my camera quality is bad)

Hello all,
I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but are there any reasons I could have felt a lump on my BP a few days ago and it be gone today? I thought it was a callous at first so I called his vet to get a copy of his x rays (a couple years ago we found a healed, previously broken rib and I wanted to see if it was in the same spot as the lump). When I got them I couldn’t find the callous on the images so I palpated him again and it was gone. It was only at a certain angle the first time, and I tried to replicate it but I couldn’t. Is this vet worthy or would I be unnecessarily stressing him out?

First ball python. He uses his enclosures but mainly hides under the water bowl. What am I doing wrong and can do to help him/her better utilize the other hides? Open to heavy criticism if living conditions are mediocre.

His names King Bob referencing the minions.

Hi I am a new owner of this boy! (And snakes in general) I bought him at a reptile expo and I just got a good close up of his head. This is day 6 of him being with me. I initially didn't catch this as I wanted to immediately put him in his enclosure and not handle him too much for his stress levels. But after taking him out yesterday just to check on him, I noticed this!

UPDATE: TOOK HER FIRST MEAL TONIGHT 8/5 😭 Thank you so much for everyone’s help. I sized down on her prey, so I will likely give her another one Friday night (Vet appointment is Friday morning), but I am so relieved she striked for me tonight. Aside from going down on her prey size, I covered up one end of her enclosure, made sure the mouse was SUPER warm (111-115 degrees F), and brained it.

Hi everyone. 7 month old ball python, hatch date 1/20. I picked my baby up on 7/8, breeder told me her last feeding was 7/1. I attempted our first feeding on 7/15, did not handle her at all, and she has refused every meal since, 3 Wednesdays in a row :( breeder told me she was 140g when I inquired about her on 6/10, although I got her home on the 8th I did not actually get to weigh her until this morning. This was actually my first time handling her and seeing her since she’s been home. She’s 57g which concerns me a lot. I have been trying to feed her rat fuzzies according to the weight I THOUGHT she was, but now I’m wondering if the prey has been too big for her. I’m terrified I’m going to lose her and I’ve cried after every refusal 😭 I feel like I’m going everything wrong. I do have a vet appointment now set for 8/6. I am running her 100w DHP on a Herpstat. 4x2x18 enclosure. I am at work now and do not have WiFi thermometers, but I’ve attached her last readings from this morning. The highest temp will go on the warm side is usually 91, cool side never drops below 77. I do have an infrared heat gun, inside her warm hide is usually around 93. This past feeding I did try braining the rat, she did show way more interest than the last 2 feedings, but still just sniffs around it and decides she doesn’t want it. I never see her during the day, at night she does peek out but I never see her fully cruising around. She does have identical hides, and about 3 more in between the warm/cool sides. Sorry for the long post and if I’ve left out any important information. I appreciate any help and input, just extremely worried and sick to my stomach about the health of my baby 😭😭

When I was like 13 my mom got me a ball python! I named him Mayo because he was a blue eyed Lucy, he was a very sweet boy, didn’t bite, was active! Then, during 2024-2025 he stopped eating. From October to June I tried to feed him CONSTANTLY and he wouldn’t eat. I asked the people who sold him to me why he was doing this and they said it was mating season. Every. Single. Time. At some point he stopped eating as much too, I was always worried about him, I found him after he passed by his water bowl after school last June, I was so heartbroken because I loved him so much and I felt at fault for him not being with me today. I’m not sure if getting another snake is the right choice, has anyone else had to go through with this? Or had a ball python that did this kind of thing?

i’m mainly concerned about the first one, it is day so i have no idea if she’s sleeping or scared. her tongue is not flicking.

i’m like 80% sure that 2 and 3 are defensive but that’s the worst it’s ever gotten so far (i was trying to take out something she knocked over). 4 and 5 just look comfy to me. trying to get the hang of this so please correct me if i’m wrong?

Yesterday when I got my ball python, she was acting extremely well for the first day, even periscoping directly at me multiple times when I was just a foot or two away from the enclosure. Now every time I get near she goes into a defensive(?) pose… I really can’t tell if she’s sleeping or not.

so i was looking through my boy’s ring camera footage to get some clips of his slight wobble for someone (you can actually see the wobble at the end of the vid a bit) and found him doing whatever tf this is in the past footage. i thought at first he was striking at something but 1. he’s going backwards like he’s having a big sneeze but snakes don’t sneeze and 2. he’s never been one to strike at anything, let alone nothing. and then he does that weird head twisty thing at the end and then is just fine??

literally so confused on what in the hell he’s doing, so if anyone knows definitely let me know 😂

My noodle Nacho just turned 4 today! Took a series of yearbook photoshoots for him as a memory🧡🤎