Ball Python Caresheet Acclimation When you get your Ball Python you should quarantine it from any other herps for 60-90 days before introducing them into the same room as your other herps. You should do this in case it has disease or parasites so your other herps don't get it. You should also leave your newly aquired BP for a week before handling, feeding, etc. The only thing you should do is change the water every day. Housing A BP will thrive in a 36x12 tank (30 gallon) with a sliding, screened, and locking top. You need to make sure that the enclosure is escape proof. You need to have a substrate that is easily cleaned and so you can monitor your BP easily. The best substrate all around is probaly newspaper. Also paper towels, fir bark chips, cypress bark, and aspen shavings. DO NOT use cedar because it is toxic to all snakes and will kill your BP, also NEVER use sand or sand like substrates, it is very dry and will dry out your snake and can cause impactions if swallowed. Inside the enclosure other than substrate you need a water bowl, just large enough to soak in. Also a hide on either side of your enclosure, one on the cool side and one on the warm side. A rock or wood log piece should also be in the enclosure to help in the process of shedding. Humidity and Shedding The humidity in your BP's enclosure should be around 60% to allow your BP to shed properly. If your enclosure stays lower than this you can mist the cage to highten the humidity of the enclosure. A trick I find works well is when your BP is in shed mist then and put a damp paper towel in each of it's hides, this allows them to shed perfectly every time. If your BP does not shed all of its skin dampen a rough towel, with the towel in hand let your BP crawl through it, this should take of the skin. Another method to help BP's in shedding is to give them baths in plain water, put something in the tub for it to climb on that's just breaking the waters surface in case it gets tired. Let it swim for about half an hour then let it crawl through a rough towel. After a shed make sure the tail tip and the eye caps come off, if they don't you can use the damp towel technique. If this method does not work a dab ob mineral oil on the eye cap or tail tip does the trick well. Heating/Lighting To heat your enclosure you should have a heat source that can give a hot spot of 90-95 degrees farenheight. A dome light with an aluminum reflector works well for this, or you can use a UTH (Under Tank Heat). A regulator should be used in conjunction with these to maintain perfect heat of 88 degrees on the warm side and 83 in cool side during day with hot spot in the day. At night the heat should drop about five degrees on either side with the hot spot at 88-90 degrees. You can use a dome light to light the enclosure in the day and a red light at night so it doesn't disturb day/night cycles. You don't need to have sun light for your BP because they are nocturnal and get all nourishment needed from the food it eats. You should also have a thermometer on each side of the enclosure to help maintain perfect conditions. Feeding You should feed your BP in a seperate container, such as a plastic tub, this lets your snake to get used to feeding only in that. This allows you to be able to reach in its enclosure without it thinking it is food so it will not bite. Frozen/thawed are preferred by most to feed to their snakes, this is because the prey will not turn on your snake and attack in self protection. If attacked your BP could get scared of its prey and go off feeding, also if left alone with a prey item large and strong enough, and the BP does not want to eat, you might end up with something other than your snake to take care of. You can feed live prey but it is better for the snake and you if you feed f/t because it's also cheaper, you can buy in bulk, and you can refreeze refused food. Rats are probally the best food for your snake, even though mice are used just as much, rats have higher nutrition and gets your BP larger, stronger, and healthier faster than if on mice. Rats also come in a larger range in sizes so you don't have to feed many prey items instead of one at a time. You can feed hatchlings every 5-7 days with one prey item as large as the largest part of the snakes body. As they get older you can offer food less frequently, about every ten days. As adults you can also offer food that is smaller in size but more frequently (about every five days) if you would like. BP's are notorious for going off feed for short or long periods of time, so don't get worried if your BP does, they can go months without food, but don't let them loose to much weight. |
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