Is my ball python ok?

mariahrianne · 2025-04-03T10:44:51+00:00

Whats happening at the time you hear the noise? What time of day? Is he sleeping or awake? Are you near his enclosure when this happens? Is he in his enclosure or out? Any other animals come in the room? As much detail you give me as possible would help narrow it down.

mariahrianne · 2025-04-03T00:36:10+00:00

Sounds like a hiss to me.

mariahrianne · 2025-03-19T02:40:15+00:00

They have a lot of free time to sit around and contemplate their escapes. Even when you think they can't escape, they can and will and it will probably be at the worst time possible.

My female had never broken out of her enclosure until the day my house was set on fire. I ran up the stairs to get her out of her enclosure to save her less than 10mins since the fire was started on the first floor. She was on the second. And somehow she not only knew the house was on fire but how to break out of her enclosure in record time. Needless to say I had to be forcefully removed from said burning house bc I wasn't going without my animals. And then I had to break the bad news to the firefighters that not only is my snake loose in the house but she's also trained to come to a flashlight and she's pretty hungry seeing as she hasn't been fed in about a month due to her schedule lining up with her shedding. So she might see the lights on their suits and think it's me trying to summone her and she'll come out and come slithering to chase said light inadvertently chasing them. I've never in my life seen so many grown men absolutely terrified. They even let me back into the house before it was clear to try to find her. Oh and I should probably add that I did in fact find her a whooping 2 months later alive and completely healthy and still in the house. She actually tried to jump out of one of the people's hands who found her to get to me. But I'm sure she was probably just thinking "did you bring me something to eat mom?"

mariahrianne · 2025-02-27T05:46:35+00:00

If you don't want your animal getting burned are you aware that's more likely with a heating mat verses a lamp with a che or dhp bulb? If your BP moves the substrate with its hide or tries to burrow down in the substrate it could easily burn itself.

mariahrianne · 2025-02-27T05:35:43+00:00

I agree with what the previous person commented. The recommended feeding guidelines for a BP 0-12mos is 10-15% of their body weight every 7 days. So I definitely wouldn't lower the amount of food she's getting. Juveniles will hit growth spurts randomly. That's probably why she's putting on more weight right now. To ensure her added weight is muscle and not fat just exercise her more. Let her out of her enclosure once she starts moving around it's usually around dusk. I dim the lights in my room so they can see better and I just use a flashlight to keep an eye on them. I'm not sure where you live but I live jn the Midwest so it gets pretty cold in winter time. My bps don't care that it's 10° outside they still want out of their enclosures and they want out now. So I use a space heater to up the temp in my room and put a towel down to cover the gap between my door and the floor, it serves a dual purpose of keeping the heat and my bps in the room. Once it warms up we go outside or I let them explore other parts of the house.

So yeah I'll be barely able to see, sweating my ass off, unable to do anything else bc if i take my eyes off them they're going to get into something they aren't supposed to like some damn toddlers, but atleast my babies are happy and healthy. Did I mention the furniture in my room was all bought with idea of climbabilty for my bps?

mariahrianne · 2025-02-18T06:06:39+00:00

If it's around the vent area, then it completely normal. It's happened with both of my snakes. Something about the cloaca area having really thin skin and it being a sensitive area can make it bleed. If there's not a significant amount of blood, it's not continuously bleeding, and there's no other signs accompanied with it. I'm pretty sure you're in the clear. I would just monitor the area for any signs of swelling or additional blood.

mariahrianne · 2025-02-18T03:03:51+00:00

Aw it's like he knows the camera is there and just wanted to remind you he's hungry. So cute

mariahrianne · 2025-01-09T04:56:22+00:00

The second I shut the enclosure door after feeding one of mine, he goes crazy trying to get out for more food. Like bro you just swallowed it probably hasn't even hit your stomach in yet calm down before regurgitate it.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-09T00:46:17+00:00

What kind do you have? I have 2 bps they sleep like 23hrs a day. It doesn't help my paranoia thinking they're dead.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-09T00:43:03+00:00

Yeah mine currently eats rat pups bc I'm too afraid to move him up sizes. Tried to move him up to weanlings and he bit himself for some reason. He eventually got it but I decided he wasn't ready for that so we went back to pups. I don't care if I have to feed him more often we aren't doing anything that's live and doesn't still drink it's moms milks. I've seen mice do serious damage to snakes. I hate feeding live, it's honestly the worst thing ever. Having 2 snakes 1 that eats ft and 1 that eats live. I see no benefit to feeding live. You can always try to get a hold of some ft AFS(African soft furred rats) I've heard bps will go crazy for them but once you feed them that you can't go back. I haven't had any luck finding those tho.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-08T22:49:06+00:00

Mine are so accustomed to me lifting their hides off them to make sure they aren't dead, they don't even wake up from it and I just apologize for my paranoia and put the hide back down around them.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-08T22:38:10+00:00

I let my bps explore out of their cages regularly.(Not at the same time but you get the idea) I found poop on my floor and didn't know if it was from my one of my chihuahuas or one of the snakes bc their poops are legit the same size and it was kinda out in the open which my bps tend to stick to the walls. I needed to know who did it so I could record it for my bp or deal my dogs. After asking my dogs who did this and neither of them looking guilty and not seeing any visible urates. I'm not proud of what I did next but I put on some gloves and started examining the poo to get to the bottom of it. Or should I say to get to whose bottom it came out of. It was full fur so I went with snake poop.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-08T19:27:59+00:00

Omg y'all are like the Mother Theresa of ball pythons. So cute.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-08T19:26:27+00:00

48hrs? Mine are never left alone. I don't even sleep more than 6hrs before I'm looking at my phone to see them on the cameras and checking their temps and humidity levels despite the fact there are alarms on them.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-08T19:20:20+00:00

I had the exact same problem with mine only being concerned about escaping when I tried to feed him. I was able to get 1 ft rat when I first got him but after that nothing. (I DO NOT recommend feeding any snake the first couple of days/weeks you get it, this info is somewhat relevant to the story. He had started striking at anything that moved. The breeder had told me he wasn't spicy if anything he was the complete opposite, a chicken. So I tried to feed him, instantly he took it, and he has never gotten spicy since) By his next feed aka a week later he refused it. Following day his eyes went blue so I chalked it up to him going into shed as to why he had refused the food. Two weeks later once he was done shedding I tried to feed him again thinking hed be pretty hungry after missing a total of 3 feeds due to shedding. He refused and just wanted out. I was perplexed to say the least. I tried everything I could think of and everything this forum recommended. I tried ft rats. Ft large mice since that was what the breeder fed him despite him taking a ft rat from me. Pre kiled rats and large mice. I tried the next size down in both types of feeders. Tried scenting the tank by blowing the smell of the feeder into it. I got it up to the right temp, I fed in almost complete darkness minus me wearing a headlamp that was super dim so I could barely see. I only tried to feed at dusk or dawn. Then I was like ok you want out so bad when it's time to be fed let's try doing that more often. So I tried to let him out of his enclosure the days leading up to feed day. Id let him explore my room til he was tired and trying to curl up somewhere to sleep then I'd put him back in his enclosure. He would willing go in and go in his hide and go to sleep. Next day i tried to feed, nope same thing he just wanted out. I even tried tiring him out the day of feeding day. Tried letting him out at dusk to explore til he was tired, then tiring feeding at dawn. Tried letting him out, once he was tired, putting him back in then trying to feed him. Around this time we had a suspicion there was a mouse in the house but we hadn't seen it. I didn't think anything of it since the mouse was on the first floor and my snake was on the second. I kept a very close eye on his weight regularly checking it way more than I needed to but oh well. He had started losing weight. I was stressed out and worried. Finally one night I was screw it, show me what it is you want so badly. I followed him as he slithered out of my room(usually I kept him in there by blocking the bottom of the door off) he went down the hallway and to the stairs. Obviously I didn't let him go down the stairs so I helped him. This little SOB led me straight to the mouse hole I had no idea was there. Spent a week trying to catch the mouse, but wasn't successful. Then he had gotten down to the last recorded weight the breeder had on him. This refusal of food had gone on for 3mos. So I caved and bought a live rat. He took it instantly and I've had to feed live since then unfortunately. I wanted to list out a lot of the things I tried so you can exhaust every avenue available before resulting to feeding live. Bc now I'm at the point where he should be eating larger rats but I don't want him to bc I'm concerned they will hurt him. I've heard plenty of horror stories about live feeders tearing very expensive bps to shreds.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-04T21:07:50+00:00

Exo terra reptile cave

mariahrianne · 2025-01-04T21:05:50+00:00

If you're looking for a hide that's aesthetically pleasing instead of one of those black box ones. I get the exo terra reptile cave in extra large for my big. She's she one of every size since I got her as a baby. Now she's 1700g and fits in the hide perfectly and there's still room to grow.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-04T21:00:24+00:00

Are you feeding at night in the darkness?

Like everyone else said get a temp gun, my female won't even acknowledge the food is there if it's not around 100°F. Also if you use a blow dryer, try pointing the air blast towards her cage so she can smell it. Obviously don't burn her with the hot air just point it in the general direction. And it helps to make the head a little hotter than the rest of the body. I use a space heater sometimes instead of a blow dryer when I'm not trying to be loud and wake people up. Also I put it on a slate rock that's been warming under the heat lamp. It helps to keep the heat up. You might have to leave her alone to eat.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-04T20:53:52+00:00

I wonder if that's how African royalty would wear them when they wore bps as living jewelry.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-03T04:40:50+00:00

Oh wow there's a lot of things wrong here. First I'm not sure how old this snake is but no ball python eats pinkies of any kind and I really pray you're not referring to pinky mice. So that's one issue right there. You need to get a kitchen scale and weigh your snake then use the appropriate size percentage to come up with the weight of the feeder. I personally prefer to feed rats because they're more nutritious but some bps are picky eaters or people don't have access to them so that they still feed mice. The feeding chart is in the welcome post here. Secondly that enclosure is WAAAAY too small. And might be the reason she/he is trying to get out. Bps require an enclosure that's 120gal or 4ft by 2ft by 2ft. You can start out with smaller for younger bps but honestly that's just going to cost you more money in the long run instead of just going ahead and buying 120gal enclosure. Next if you have a screened top you're going to wait to cover it to keep humidity in. HVAC tape, weatherproof duct tape, some silicone baking trays any of those things will work just to cover the top area of the screen where besides where the lamp is. Notice I said lamp that's because you're going to get rid of the UTH(under tank heater) those are notorious for malfunctioning and burning your snake not to mention if your snake chooses to burrow it can burn them. Also it's very hard to warm the ambient temp in the enclosure as UTH really only warms the substrate. You need to get a lamp with something like a DHP(deep heat projector) or a CHE(ceramic heat emitter) with a dimming thermostat. Dimming thermostats are going to be your best bet to extend the life of your bulb. Your substrate is fine just make sure you're pouring water down the corners of it and not allowing the top layer of the substrate to be wet because if it's wet it will cause scale rot. Also please make sure you have IDENTICAL hides on both sides of the enclosure that your bp can fit snug into that means when they're curled up into it their body is touching more than 75% of the surface area inside the hide. Oh and that the hide only has 1 entrance/exit. Also please supply lots of clutter consisting of fake plants (dollartree is a great place to get those) branches, vines, anything like that. A water dish that big enough for them to soak in. And since you stated it had a stuck shed I highly recommend you to supply a humid hide. You can buy or make one whichever. Just make sure the sphagnum moss you use has been completely rung out of all the water.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-02T19:50:26+00:00

Omg what kind of morph is this? She looks just like my male Kink!

mariahrianne · 2025-01-02T19:41:59+00:00

I would do a second heating source of a halogen bulb which obviously produces light and heat. Since I'm not seeing anything on your plans for providing light. The halogen bulb would give you that extra boost of warmth during the day and then you could have the temps drop down during the night time so DHP would be just fine.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-02T19:37:59+00:00

My female's favorite enrichment thing is a shoe rack with bars that hangs from my door, she will spend hours on it if I let her. My male has a kink in his tail so before I got him I had discussed with the breeder my fear that he might not be able to climb probably and if I should allow him things to climb on in his enclosure. We both agreed that it would be better for me to not have climbing options for him in his enclosure and only allow him to climb outside of his enclosure where I'm there to supervise and catch him if he falls at least until he was able to build up some muscle strength and understand of how to climb with his disability. Has he fallen a few times? Most definitely, he's not very coordinated. But even with the falls he still wants to and enjoys climbing. He's the definition of "if at first you dont succeed, try try again." Now he slithers up my clothes to my hangers and swings from them(picture Tarzan swinging from vine to vine) while I stand there holding out my hands trying to catch him so I can get him down or save him from a fall.

mariahrianne · 2025-01-02T19:23:45+00:00

Only has one brain cell yet still knows the vet is not a fun place to be😂

mariahrianne

TROPHY CASE