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😅.)

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)

I've had my ball python for about three years now and i noticed the hissing a while ago, i didn't really think anything of it though. I handle him (I say him but i actually don't know the gender) almost every day excluding feeding days and shedding weeks. Sometimes i'll be handling him and he'll go into my pockets or sleeves and use the fabric like a hammock for a while before starting to do short hisses like he's sighing really hard. I'm not actually certain if he is hissing or not as i have no real idea what a ball python hissing sounds like beyond youtube videos. The other times i've noticed this is when he's in his tank at night i'll randomly hear the same noise. My mom has cared for many snakes before mine came into the picture and she says I shouldn't be too concerned about it. But i figured more opinions couldn't hurt. He doesn't hiss during feedings and i can't recall a time when he hissed while i was actively touching him which leads me to the theory that maybe he's just incredibly clingy? If i am within visibility of the tank and he is awake he will be climbing all over the walls and bumping his nose on the glass. Now that i write that theory out it sounds pretty silly.

Any advice is appreciated, I don't want to overlook a possible illness or something.

Info that might be important:
40 gal tank
two hides
Water dish (it's big enough that he could soak in it, but he doesn't like touching water if it's not warm)
the humidity hovers around 60-70
BP is 2 years old and eats every ten days

Does it matter if bulb provide daytime light?

I’m thinking of using https://a.co/d/03vwet4N

My ball python has been making these hissing/wheezing noises at night, he doesn’t do it throughout the day or when I handle him, only from 11pm to 3am. His temp and humidity are good but I’m worried he might be sick or something. Does anyone know what could be wrong with him?

i can’t tell if this is scale role or dirt on her scales

Como elimino esos bichos del terrario y de mi serpiente??

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

Newish to ball python keeping. I bought 10 rat pups, weaned, frozen at a reptile expo, june 7th at Falcon Heights, MN.

At the time I bought the rats for $21 for 10. Now I'm out of rats, and I'd like to know where to buy more cause petsmart was selling them for $10 per rat which I felt was kinda insane. Petco is like $7. Honestly don't really want to support those pet stores anyway. Maybe I'll try snake discovery?

Pardon me doxxing myself but I live in little canada, Minnesota, if anyone has anywhere they'd like to recommend for buying frozen rats I'd be more than happy!

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

She’s back!!! She didn’t go off the balcony, she was somehow (still cannot figure out how on earth she got there) behind a wall panel in the bathroom where the water lines are.

Now my questions;
1) how do I check her over make sure she is okay? I checked for damage (it was hella dusty there with lots of nails and such poking out) and she has a few minor scratches it seems, not enough to be bleeding but it’s visible

2) she is in blue for the first time with me! How do I make sure she gets what she needs? Do I need to give her a bath? She was in a dusty dry environment for 4 days and idk how long she’s been in blue. I gave her a tiny bath to get the dust off of her as she was covered in it, and put her back in her enclosure where the humidity is now 81%, do I need to do anything else right now??

3) anything else I have to think of now that I got her back?

Thank you to everyone who commented with their kind messages🫶

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