Jones. wrote:Hiya! I couldn’t resist and finally bought a banana ball python, I purchased him at two years old and he was placed in a soft bag in order for me to bring him home. I using a heat mat connected to a thermostat that’s placing it consistently in the 29-30c heat range and buried under a good layer of hemp substrate but I will be moving him to aspen at the next clean, I don’t have a way to measure humidity but he has a very large water bowl that’s constantly full and I spray his viv twice a day for extra water. I brought him home yesterday and so far he’s had a good explore and sleeps happily under his hide, I had a little bit of tail thumping when I tried to take a photo of him but that’s relatively expected.
Overall I was wondering how long do you think I should leave him in total before handling? Currently he’s had a full day to get used to his tank and I’ve seen answers ranging from a day to two weeks. I’ve also had people say that I should feed him first before handling him, however with my corn I waited 3 days and fed him the week after and he has a massive attitude but I think that’s just him.
As well as this (sorry I have a lot of questions lmao) when I held him in the store he seemed super relaxed and happily coiled around my arm, but I am a little worried regarding handling. I’m a pretty short person and his viv is sat on top of my chest of drawers, I’m worried regarding his viv being in open view of my door so the comings and goings of people have a possibility to stress him out, would this have a large effect on him or would he help him become accustomed to humans? As well as this, since the viv is relatively high up it is at arm length for me, meaning I have to pick him up by going straight for him rather than from above, I’m a little worried this could cause him to strike.
Any advice would be great and I’ll try and post pictures once he’s settled in a little, different morphs of ball python are relatively hard to come by where I live without a two hour drive, and I’ve always wanted a banana ball python so finding him at my local store was pretty lucky. Im either naming him Mars or Bowser and I’m so excited to start handling him, I love how relaxed they are.
Congrats on your new noodle!
You want your heat pad and probe in this order from top to bottom: Substrate, glass, probe, heat pad. You want the heat pad under the glass, and the probe sandwitched inbetween. You also want the hotspot set to about 90f, or 32c. You will also want to account for the heat that might be lost through the glass.
You need a temp gun to measure the surface temp. You want to measure it on the surface of the glass, not the substrate, as the snaje will move the substrate to get to the heat.
You also want a thermometer/hygrometer. A thermostat can not be in place of a thermometer. I use this one;
https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-02067M-T ... rite+probe
AcuRite is a trusted and accurate brand. This particular one you place on the cool side and put the probe on the hot side, monitoring both cool and hot temps as well as humidity. You need to measure humidity, especially in a tank, or your snake might end up with stuck shed.
Do not handle him for a week, then do not handle him until he's eaten once. Make sure not to handle him within 48 hours of him eating, or he could regurgitate.
Cover 3 of the 4 sides of the tank with paper or something similar. I use black card. This will make him feel more secure as he isn't being watched from every angle.
When going to pick him up, speak softly so he knows you're there. I would tap around his environment a little bit as you near him so he knows you're going to physically touch him. If he's in his hide, tap the hide a few times, lift it up once, then tap it again and lift it then scoop him out. Eventually he might assosiate this tapping with handling, and I would think it snaps them out of food mode. You want to make sure he knows what to expect. Ball pythons usually prefer curling up defensively to striking.
I wish you good luck and a happy 20+ years with your ball python!