Hello! I've had this 18-month-old female BP for 3 weeks now, and she hasnt eaten yet. I've been talking to her original owner a lot because he has 15+ very healthy ball pythons that are all great weights, great sheds and I can tell he cares a lot about the snakes which is why we keep in touch. He has given me so much great advice about everything BP related that I never found online when I did the many hours of research before even getting a tank, but I still wanted to get some more opinions so I can keep this beautiful snake healthy.

This snake was fed 4 weeks ago with the previous owner and shed the next week - the day before I got her. I gave her 2 weeks of space to let her get settled in, and once I started to see her exploring the tank at night, I tried her with a rat, and she... did not care. I was moving the rat (which was fully defrosted and warmed up with warm water) around with tongs, and after 10 minutes, I left the rat in the tank with her. She would come out of her hide to sniff it several times, but every time, she went back to her hide.

A week later, I tried giving her a rat again, and she had the same reaction, but this time when I went back to check later I found her lying ontop of the rat (picture above). The previous owner said this meant she was interested in the food and isn't too nervous to feed because she is resting out in the open of the tank with the rat. He suggested that perhaps I needed to start handling her so to help stimulate an appetite so I did this for 20 minutes 3 days in a row before I noticed she now doesn't come out of her hides at night so I think ive actually stressed her out more. I tried giving her a rat last night after not handling her for a few days, and I didn't even see her come out of her hide.

Her body language is very relaxed when I do handle her, after the initial minute of her staying balled up until I move her in my hands. Her tongue flicks out, she will explore whatever sofa we are on, she will come back towards me when I put her down, she will wrap around my neck, arms and waist and she will rest her head in my neck and my lap.

The previous owner also suggested putting her in the bathtub with an inch of warm water to stimulate appetite. I did this for about 10 minutes, and she seemed to enjoy.

She has a bioactive enclosure, which is 22-25°C at night and 28-34°C during the day. Her humidity ranges from 60-70%, which I know isn't the best it could be, but I'm still working on that too. I don't know her weight, but this snake is thick as hell and has clearly been feeding well so far in her life, so I've been assured she won't waste away into nothing anytime soon.

I'm sorry for the novel of a post, just a new and concerned owner who wants her unit of a snake to keep her heavyweight title ✊️

I’ve had her for about a month now and she’s been eating great so I think she’s content overall, but it makes me feel so bad to see her scared like that even temporarily :(

I’ve never seen her ball up and she’s never hissed or tried to strike at me, she just freezes up for a second and starts breathing heavily when I go into her enclosure or first pick her up.

She calms down after a minute or two and starts flicking her tongue, exploring, etc. so I’m not sure if this is just normal juvenile nerves or a sign that I should put her back and try again another day.

Just showing off our regal, newest girl Rice Krispie out exploring the grass. She’s a big girl at 2300g, so we are working on her weight a little bit. She was surrendered/sold to the pet store we got her from so unfortunately we don’t have a lot of information on her. But she is beautiful, majestic, and so sweet.

Sadly he's no longer in my care so this was a flash to the past but his eyes were something else?

I try to change my snakes water every few days and if I don't do it my parents change it but I've been noticing a thin layer of I don't even know what floating on top, any ideas what it is?

He’s an Enchi Asphalt Yellow Belly from Ghost Constrictors. They were an AMAZING company to deal with and I highly recommend them!

Both running a 150 watt che, basking spot is 31c, warm ambient high 20s, gradient down to mid 20s on cool side - both running a 6% Forest UVB, humidity around 80%!

Both tanks are on a mix of coco chips, fibre and biolofe tropical soil mix!

Taken last night, just added water bowls on the warm end and a hide (have more stuff I’m adding to the tanks but they’re at a different house and will be moving last of the decor over with the snakes on the weekend!

I have a ball python and am seeing a lot of different opinions on substrate! I’m currently using cocoa chips but it doesn’t seem to be good for humidity, the water just seems to sit at the bottom of the vivarium. I’ve seen some people who recommend a mix of top soil, cocoa chips, play sand and sphagnum moss. I want to know if that would require a clean up crew and drainage layer and if it would help with humidity.

I'm looking to buy a ball python at some point in the future. What tips do I have to keep in mind when caring for a ball python?

Got him a new water dish today and he absolutely loves it

I had just handled my 11-year-old ball python ( new to me; I've had her about 3 weeks now ), and 20 minutes after, I came up to her enclosure, didn't open it at all, just came and looked at her. She saw me and jolted super hard back into her hide. I feel terrible about it. Did I just damage the trust I have been building with her?

First time BP owner here. I’ve had my girl Janie for a few months now and shes doing great aside from being quite introverted. One thing I’ve noticed though is that when she gets defensive in the “S” shape, she has a very very slight wobble. I mean maybe no more than maybe 3-5 mm slowly side to side only from the neck onwards. I know extreme wobbles can mean neurological issues but shes a red stripe morph and comes from good husbandry, she also only wobbled when defensive. I don’t know if the intensity of the wobbling is decided by the intensity of the neurological issues but I don’t think theres many ways she could have issues if I’m being honest. Is it something else, normal, or does my girl just have a very small amount of the ‘tism in her?

This is my first time owning a reptile, i am going shopping for my ball python tomorrow. Wondering what i should get him(or her) and I'm having trouble getting the temp to what i need

Any recommendations? I put hvac tape on top and using ceramic heat emitter and deep heat projector atm

Does anyone else’s snake literally make you watch them eat? This is my first snake and I’ve only had him about 5 weeks so the first couple feedings I’d watch since at first he was on live mice and I think it’s pretty cool. Now we’ve been switching him to f/t and the first he dropped, not unexpected. Then the next week he took a small f/t (I think it was a fuzzy iirc, he’s 100g). The next week he dropped his mouse after striking. Last week he ate his mouse with me watching just fine (I figured out to make the mouse “struggle” and he’s much more into it).
This week he struck and wrapped his mouse, I made it struggle, then walked away for 15 minutes or so since supposedly they like privacy. I came back to check on him and he’s sitting at his door waiting. I see he dropped his mouse and left it where it was to sit at the door. I scolded him, “who’s a bad snake” lol and THEN while I stood there watching him he slithered over and swallows the mouse. Weird thing is he also kept like looking at me as if to make sure I’m watching then when he got it down he came right back to the door.
He’s such a strange little dude I don’t expect this to be normal for them at all but curious if anyone else’s does this. I’ll also keep observing and see if he continues to do this.
Pic of Dr. Gregory House for attn

This is my girl ash, she is 4 months old and I love her. I have had her for going on 6 weeks and I know about not handling for the first week or 2 but I did add some decor as those 2 weeks went by. She had her first shed with me on 9/12/26. I am starting to worry because at week 2 I offered her a mouse and she dropped it almost immediately and has been showing no interest in food at all. She hasn’t really lost any weight but the breeder I bought her from told me she was eating without a problem. Am I worried for a good reason or am I just worried for no reason?

After an unfortunate and upsetting short life corn snake (he had a birth defect died after a few days 🥲🥲) I got my boy Monty from the Expo! He’s been home a week and a half!

My Ball Python Cookie is definitely going through a shed cycle but on the side of her body a few days ago I noticed a pink looks like raw skin like wound. Today I noticed the area got darker I can't tell if it's a healing wound, scale rot or something else. She is super white but right now she looks pink with a brownish tint I'm thinking because of the shed cycle. I did setup a vet appointment but it's a week from today and I'm concerned that's a long wait to get this checked out.

Back story I did make a rookie mistake by putting black duct tape to hold a shirt I was wearing to get her use to my scent I did remove it because it smeared all over her I used olive oil and I was able to get most of it off and that's when I noticed a pink patch now turned brown.

Attached pictures when I first noticed the pink spot and pictures now when it's brownish. Please any help I would really appreciate it. My 7 years old daughter is freaking out worried about her.

She is not showing any bad signs not lethargic, she is acting normal and hydrated. I did buy povidoneiodine solution to bath her in it in case it's an infection but didn't go through with it because I noticed her eyes blued and I didn't want to stress her out.

I took a lot of y’all’s advice for keeping the humidity in Vegas ! I did a aprox 50/50 of soaked coco chip and repti soil with moss scattered around in the soil. Added WAY more substrate so there’s more humidity being held in the soil. Put leaf litter over top so he’s not sitting on just wet soil .Added the hvac tape to the top. Humidity is already on the rise in his enclosure and I’m sure it’ll still be a constant battle but this is the first step. Also another update for anyone who read the last post, he ate on Monday ! Didn’t have to do any tap dancing or anything the SECOND I presented the f/t mouse in his enclosure he took it! Very happy about that . Again thanks to everyone for the tips

My pookie girl arrived today!!!! She went straight to her hide after this pic but I’m sure she was traumatized from her shipment. I love her so much!! Meet Fig 💚🤎 born on July 25, 2026

I’ve noticed that these past weeks he’s not once went back inside his hides. Even if I handle him for a bit and let him back inside, he immediately goes to the back of the tank where he’s hidden(his hides hide him from all sides besides the entrance and cover a lot). Before this behavior he ONLY hid in his cold hide and wouldn’t leave. But after I picked him up and discovered he had mites(currently trying to treat soon), and gave him a little bath. But after that he didn’t keep his usual habits and started hanging in the back of the tank in the open.

I’m worried something’s wrong! Could it be the mites that are causing this? (Is there anything I should look on him for, weird coloring or anything).
He lives in a glass tank, 40 gallon, I try to keep the temp at 88-89.

Temps in my area dropped to the low 50’s and I incorrectly thought I was prepared. Yesterday, I set my house heater to 75 checked that enclosure temps were just fine and called it a night. Today I woke up to my house freezing. It was 68F . The heater was still on—but it wasn’t heating anymore. Though I had a 50 watt CHE running the whole night, temperatures on the cool side plummeted to 67F. The hot side was at 80F. In a panic I covered 80% of the screen lid with foil tape, turned on my fireplace and covered the enclosure with blankets. I also bought a 4x2x2 PVC enclosure from DubiaRoaches on the spot. I definitely learned my lesson about glass. Cool side is now at 71F and the hot side is at 90F. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to maintain the heat inside while I wait for the new enclosure & maintenance to fix my heater .

A closer look at his pattern too!
We just moved, hence the paper towel - still need to put his coconut husk back in.

This room is a bit colder so I used aluminum foil tape to insulate the back and top panel of the terrarium and it raised the inside temp between 5-10°! And the humidity sticks around better too. Do you guys think he looks skinny?