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?

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?

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.

Before (left) after (right)
It’s hard to see the difference, but I swear it’s not the angle

He’s four years old, fully grown, I bought him off a breeder, completely healthy, just oddly small at the time

He’s a very picky eater, only ate white rats, and even then it was a 50/50 whether he’d eat it. Sometimes he’d spit it out after grabbing it, or just ignore it. I’d have to leave it in the tank, turn the lights off, and walk away, so I switched him to african soft furs, amazing. Up there pressing his nose to the mesh circle where they thaw the moment he smells them and wraps the moment he faces it.

But is it normal for them to get bigger?? After the first feeding on asf, his head seemed bigger, I just brushed it off as extra protein getting to him. Three feedings later, he’s huge?? (Not literally, just clearly more thick). He used to be insanely light, now I can actually feel him in my hand. Even my mom noticed without me saying anything.

I thought he was just weirdly small, like any animal having size differences (I have an abnormally giant female bp too, absolute unit), so I didn’t think anything of it, but I didn’t expect him to grow?? Is this normal? He gets fed every two weeks with one small asf.

Has this happened to anyone else?? Is he just weird or is this normal?

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?

reclaimed bricks and slabs were about as much as id spend on a medium resin hide.

gonna boil em probably get all of the life off it make sure theres no mites living in the crevaces

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!

It will be upgraded to a 55 when my snake gets older but I want to make sure I’m going in the right direction for the tank.

Any constructive criticism would be great! Just please be nice about it

Hi! I'm going to be getting a ball python in about a month when I'm done setting the enclosure up. I had one ten years ago who sadly passed away back then, and I decided to commit to another friend!

I'm still waiting on a underground warm hide to go under the basking rock, and waiting for the heat lamp and bulbs to come.

I won't be using a heating pad because my last was injured by one, so I wanted to do a basking rock instead.

This is a 75g tank, bedding is cypress, two cork hiding logs on the cool side(right), and some ghost wood for enrichment and decoration. I am also waiting for two more enrichment items to come.

I have a misting system in case spraying and the water dish isn't enough humidity, would that excessive?

Opinions, advice, critique welcome please!

Thanks!

someone he didn't know dared to say hello to him

this has been the scariest experience of his life. horrified, traumatised, trying to hide under his own body.

everyone tell hunter he's a brave boy lol

(+ a photo of his normal shenanigans to show he is a very happy boy normally!!)

Everyone please say hello to Butterscotch

Hes roughly a year old. I bought him at an expo around a year ago, I did ask for an age, the old lady said about a month old. I went about my day and told my friend who later said, "Isn't that a bit young to sale?" If I remeber correctly I weighed him after his initial two weeks and he was about 45 or 50 g. I don't know his real age, but he is about a year old now. Hes ~24 in and ~216g. However, he doesn't look underweight. He's on small/med adult mice, about to bump up to slightly larger now that hes over 200g. He should be roughly 400g. All of his parameters are met (his basking spot is 90F and I had just misted it). He eats frozen well (last ate 2 days ago, eats every week) and just gave me a solid shed about a week ago. Everything else is going fine, he's just not in the right weight range.

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 ✊️

Hi all, new ball python keeper here. Just looking for temp advice for my 8 weeks old ball python. I've set my thermostat at 33C and the probe is dangling in the mid section of the viv height. Humidity is around 75-80 when the doors are shut.

Hi there! I’ve had a bp for a few years now, but I just adopted this girl from someone downsizing their collection. She arrived today and when I was looking her over I noticed these small pink spots. Is this something to worry about? I’ve never had a snake with white scales before so I wasn’t sure if this was normal. Naturally a couple google searches scared me into thinking it’s the beginning of scale rot or some other horrible thing…but I don’t think it is. I don’t want to make an emergency vet appointment if this is something super simple and well known.

So I fully waterproofed my melanin Viv as was worried it wouldn't last, sealed all the gaps - put down uPVC sheeting on the floor and sealed that... Where does it bow?

Dead centre on the roof... The glass was basically hanging out I noticed today.

Quick fix with some weights to get it straight again and a PVC Viv ordered ... Early Christmas present for Belle I guess!

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.

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.

Snake tax^^ Yesterday I had a scare. I left for about an hour and came back to the probe having fallen off the basking spot and the tank at 100F warm side and 86F in the cool spots. Was so scared my boy was cooking :( I know tape or any adhesive shouldnt be used in an enclosure, so how should I secure the probe to make sure this doesn’t happen again? He pulls all suction cups off the walls by climbing. I have to leave my boy for two days for the first time this weekend and this incident has me stressed. Basking spot is on top of a flat-roofed hide

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

Hi all! I’d love some advice on handling this little guy. I’ve had him 3 weeks now and he’s eating, so I’ve been trying to start some handling.

I’m struggling on understanding when I’m pushing his boundaries too far, and when I’m doing it just enough to get him out of his comfort zone. So far, he hasn’t struck at me, but he definitely isn’t happy with handling. He will start balled up and breathing really heavy. Then he’ll usually poke his head out, but continue heavy breathing and stay frozen aside from tracking me with his head. He jerks away from any touch on his body, especially near the head.

Obviously I don’t want to get bit, but I’m not sure if I’m just being too cautious and reading too much into his body language. I don’t want to stress him out too much. Any tips on handling and body language are appreciated!

Photo is of him tracking me after I accidentally disturbed his sleep while going to check on the dampness in his humid hide. He had never gone in there before, so I think we were both surprised to see each other lol