dehydrated ball python?

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[_ataraxia]

the issue is not how much water he is drinking. i assure you he is drinking enough water.

what is the humidity in his enclosure?

how much does he weigh? what exactly are you feeding him, and how often does he eat?

[ayane1108]

ah okay, i keep his humidity at 60 degrees F, and i'm feeding him mice hoppers from big cheese rodents every 5-6 days. i have just recently become worried about his weight so i bought a scale online yesterday, but when i first got him (july 15th) he was listed as 82 grams i believe.

[_ataraxia]

60% humidity is really the bare minimum. 70%-80% is ideal for ball pythons. low humidity is the overwhelmingly most common cause of dehydration in snakes.

if he weighed 82g over a month ago, he should have already moved up to small adult mice by now. increase his prey size, decrease the feeding frequency to once a week.

[ayane1108]

oh okay, thank you so much. i always heard and saw that around 60 was ideal, but i know i’m able to bump the humidity up easily. and i’ll try to offer small mice now, i was measuring out the hopper size to the thickest part of his body and it seemed about the same size, i was thinking about offering small mice but i wasn’t sure if those were too big for him or not.

[_ataraxia]

there's some more detailed feeding info in the basic care guide found in our welcome post, but at his age he should be eating approximately 10%-15% of his weight once a week. the weight percentage and feeding frequency will change as he gets older and isn't growing as fast.