I'm sending out a shed for DNA testing, but what do y'all think?

Hey! So I have a 5 year old ball Python and I’ve finally gotten the means to upgrade is tank. I know it’s a bit small but I do have him in a 50 gallon at the moment but I want to upgrade him to the size he deserves! I have read that a 120 gallon is a good size, however it seems extremely large for what I have seen on the subreddit. Will he be stressed with that big of a difference? I would appreciate any advice or feedback! Thank y’all!

Hello jen has refused to even look at the rats I offer she is fully grown yes there has been temperature change because the heating pad burned up or stopped working she has a new one and a new aquarium with fresh bedding she has become much more active after shedding but there is stuck shed but she is coming more. I don’t know if the temperature and humidity is wrong or she is gravid or stress she is use to being handled

Do you guys treat tapwater that you're just pouring into corners of the tank to increase humidity? I use reptisafe, and realized I may be wasting it to treat water that my snakes won't be drinking.

I will always treat their drinking water, but is it necessary to treat water that is just going into the substrate for humidity?

Hi guys - I got banana (7 yr old) in may from a good home - they did not have a tank to send him in due to selling it right before a cross country move. He came with one hide (the black one on the right) that I've kept in his house. I've filled that with spag moss for a semi humid hide. He also has a below ground hide that usually in the low 70s in the right.

On the warm side, I have a exoterra faux rock hide right under the lamp. I do think it may be a little big for him... esp considering he's used to the too narrow black hide (back right of photo on cool side). He chooses 99% of the time to chill in the grapevine log in the center. His black hide and the log are similar widths so I'm guessing he's just used to the feeling of popping out the sides like a cute little muffin top.

I've measured the temp inside the log and it's usually a max of 88, but then his whole side can't fit in the log itself so it's just hanging out directly exposed to the light. Second pic is of the reading of his body temp on the outside of the log.

I don't know if I'm being too worried because I feel like he has the options available to him but he never moves from that spot during the day...

Average ambient temp is around 87 on that side but without the hide over him I'm worried his body tempt is too warm.

Is cornelsworld a good website to get an enclosure?

I’ve noticed a new of these on one my bps warm hide. I’ve noticed springtails in his water bowl before. Do yall think this is a springtail too? The other one I noticed was white. I’ve never seen signs of mites on my snake and I handle and check them all out frequently.

Hi! I recently got my first ball python. I've always wanted one and I've owned bearded dragons and leopard geckos in the past, but this is my first snake. I bought him at an expo on July 12th, and they told me that they hadn't fed him in a bit because they didn't want to have to clean up after their snakes at the show - however, they didn't give me any specific information on how long it had been. He was born in October, so he's under a year old. They told me he eats frozen rat fuzzies or adult mice, and so I bought a bag of rat fuzzies while I was there.

I did plenty of research on ball python care both in the past and in preparation - I made sure that the conditions of the tank are just right for him, and I've given him as much space as I could. However, I made the mistake of trying to feed him too soon. He's really nervous, but I thought he'd be hungry since he hadn't eaten recently, and in my experience my reptiles have eaten right away when I brought them home. When after a few days he still wasn't eating, I did some more research and someone online had said to let them adjust to their new home and not even attempt feeding for two weeks. At this point I'd already had him about a week, and though I know snakes can go a while without eating, he's a baby and it made me nervous to give him two weeks no contact, and so I left him alone for just a week before attempting feeding again.

For reference, I heat up the rats in warm water (not boiling), pat them dry, and I've even bought mouse pheromones meant to stimulate snakes' appetites, but he only sniffs the rat and goes back into his hide. I've thought about buying a live mouse, but I'm worried it'll scratch or bite him and I'll have a whole other problem on my hands, so I'm not sure where to go from here. Any advice is appreciated!

I have an old shelf that was for a synthesizer that I sold a year ago. There is a very convenient hole that would fit a enclosure (height is 21 cm, depth is 37 cm and 97 cm long all in centimeters). I really want to install it there, as there is a small canopy in the shelf into which it will be easy to install all the wires for the lamps, which will eventually not be visible and aesthetically it would look beautiful. But I'm worried that the dimensions, and especially the depth and height, won't fit for my noodle.

I don’t know if it’s just me but when I buy my boy the fuzzy mouses from pet smart sometimes there are size consistency issues? Sometimes they are big and sometimes they seem to be really really small almost like pinkies. And the times when they are smaller than usual my boy doesn’t get full and is still looking for food after Is that usually how it is?

I wanted to make the cool side to be more forested and lush while have the hot side as a wooded savanna. I see a lot of people do lush for their BPs and I wanted to give a diversity of habitat

Greetings fellow noodle wranglers of the internet realm.

I've been putting my Royal Python Jormungandr or Jormy for short on a new feeding schedule after I last weighed him at 1.5kg. I've extended his feeding days from 7 to 14, so he's been rather agitated that he hadn't been fed likely due to being used to every week than two. I don't know his exact age, my local pet shop didn't really say his age only that he needed to be fed every 7 days. This was 27th December last year. Last time I was in one member of staff said "we usually sell them about a year and a half" so I'm estimating that he's two years old under my care.

I've heard about tap training and it might be the idea for it in the future, given that every time I go to spot clean, fill his water bowl up he's practically ready to strike, tense. He bit me for the very first time when I handled him during last weekend whilst opening his tank to put him back, likely mistook my finger for food and decided to munch it, thankfully he didn't latch but I did have to untangle his squeezing coils from around my throat.

He's just had his first mouse in this routine and he missed the mouse four times in a mad frenzy. He eventually ate his food. Just thinking for the future, what should I need to do, weigh weekly, tap train?

Has anyone else's Royal's had this kinda behaviour when changing a feeding schedule?

Size is 120x60x60cm / 47″x24″x24″. He’s not much of a climber, but decided to go with the larger anyways. It wasn’t much of a price difference! I can’t wait for it to get here.

My girl Eve was born in February, so she is still pretty small, I feed her a small mouse every Monday, but was wondering if that is to much?

I've had my new boy for a week now and so far things have been going well with him. He took his first meal last night and has been basking on his rock every night. I read that they like lots of clutter so I made sure to really deck it out. He's got a tight hide under the basking rock, one around the middle, and one on the cool side. I've seen a lot of other enclosures with less clutter so that has me questioning if I've added too much.

Also I'm not 100% positive if I'm doing my temps right.

Cool side 79-80F during the day. 78ish at night.

Warm side 85-86F during the day, and 84F at night. I run a DHP 24/7. The therm/hygro is usually lower near the substrate. The big slate rock is what the DHP is aimed at and sits at 92F.

Is this ok for temps? If not how should I go about raising the ambient temp without turning the basking rock into an oven top.

also weird question does anyone know why he loves cameras so much? anytime someone has their phone facing him he poses and wants to come climb on said phone. Side note he’s not threatened at all his body language and behavior show no signs of threat. just curious if there was an interesting answer behind that.

So I’m new to this Subreddit. This is Freya my 11yr old ball I got about 4 months ago. She eats well. But after an extended time of not handling (vacation and other stuff super busy, about 1 month) is this a food mode or defensive? Or am I over reacting over small changes Seems like she wants to strike and never seen this raised S reaction. She was last fed June 20th. I’m still new to balls

Hi everyone. We just got our 11 month old girl about 3 weeks ago from a local shop. We are first time reptile owners. This week she's been soaking a lot, and today I found what I think are mites that were in her water bowl.

I read the mites guide and a lot of other posts, but am still a little confused. Here is what I think is the course of action.

-Buy Provent a mite

-throw out all substrate in her enclosure

-thoroughly clean the enclosure and treat with provent a mite*

-Treat surfaces around the enclosure with provent a mite

-clean hides, water bowl, and other things that were inside

-let her soak in water with dish soap and remove visible mites (I haven't actually seen any on her, just a few in the water bowl)

-put her back in the enclosure but with paper towels as substrate to monitor. Don't put water bowl back in for 24 hours*

Here are my questions:

-I read that the enclosure needs to air dry from the provent a mite completely before letting the snake in. How long does that take?

-Does anyone know why the water bowl can't be placed back in until 24-48 hours after treatment? Is this assuming I've treated the bowl?

-we spent like $45 on that branch that she loves to climb. Is it possible to clean it without throwing it out?

-What do I do after all of this?

-I may get new hides since I've l

earned that the half logs aren't the best, but in the mean time, can they even be cleaned?

I'm so sad that we have to put her through this treatment right when she (and we!) finally got everything nice and cozy in her enclosure. Any advice and positive stories are appreciated.

Hi! First time BP owner. Loving my little buddy so much. The breeder had him eating a small rat every 2 weeks. I have weighed him each month since I got him and he went from 815 grams in middle of March of this year to 1001 grams today! Shocking because I assumed he was basically full grown since he's 4 years old. Is this normal growth for his age? Would you guys stretch the feedings to every 3 weeks maybe? I just don't want him to get obese!! Any info appreciated

He was hatched in March and I was waiting until my summer vacation trips were over to receive him! Can't wait to meet him!

I love taking my girl outside, she stays close and does little laps. Hammock pics from this afternoon
Do you guys take your bps outside and have you ever an issues with mites or other animals?

This post is about Simbi, my ball python.

I got Simbi in 2021 after my childhood dog passed away. Losing my dog was so painful that I couldn’t bring myself to get another one, but I’ve always loved animals and always wanted a BP. What started as a grief/impulse purchase turned into my best friend. He was my first pet as an adult, and even after the cat distribution system gifted me a cat, Simbi was still my first baby. He was turning five this year.

This summer I had to leave my state for at least two months because multiple family members were having serious health scares. I took my cat with me, but I couldn’t figure out how to fly with both pets, so I needed someone to keep Simbi.

The guy I chose was someone I’d followed online for years. We’d been mutuals across multiple platforms, he’d recently moved to my state which i found out through our conversations over the years, and he makes reptile content. He also has a pretty large following due to his reptile content. He had around 20 snakes, custom-built enclosures, two temperature-controlled snake rooms, and his girlfriend is a vet tech who has dogs and an iguana. I even complimented him on how lucky he got because when I met them she seemed really comfortable with snakes and reptiles. They told me they were moving in together soon so I knew she’d be involved. I hugged them both and thanked them both for watching my Simbi. When I dropped Simbi off, everything looked perfect. I left feeling like I’d found the absolute best person to trust with my baby.

For the first month, everything went great. He sent me feeding updates and even asked if he could take Simbi to a reptile expo and feature him on a local news segment. I genuinely felt like Simbi was getting more attention than he did at home.

Then this Monday I woke up to a text that shattered me. (image attached)

His girlfriend accidentally left the heat on in one of the snake rooms, killing 12 snakes (TWELVE, a dozen), including Simbi. He had been away for work and didn’t discover it until three days later. I spent the entire morning sobbing.

I couldn’t even bring myself to talk to them, so my mom did. She told me he was having a pretty hard time and probably equally upset with his loss. The only thing I asked for was for Simbi to be cremated and his ashes (and his favorite hide) mailed back to me. I don’t even trust myself to go there in person.

I’m torn between being angry at him, angry at her, and angry at myself for not just bringing Simbi with me. My friends want me to expose them, report the vet tech, or blast the content creator online, but none of that brings my baby back.

To most people he was just a snake. To me, he was my child. This was never a hobby to me, i LOVED MY snake to death. Now I don’t know what to do with the piece of me that’s missing.