• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

few questions...

N

newtosnakes

New member
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
41
Location
Central Florida
Hey everyone, as you can tell by my name im new to snakes. I have been researching ball pythons for about 2 months and finally decided I was brave enough to give it a shot. I have spent a lot of money on getting the tank perfect and trying to make it as comfortable as I can for the snake. I got the snake last Friday which was the 28th of January and so far so good! About 5 minutes after I put him in the tank he was flicking his tongue and moving all over the tank. He drank a lot of water and then soaked for a little bit and then he went into his hide after that. Im pretty sure he is in good health from what I can see and judging by how he has been acting (seems comfortable). I put my hand into the tank on Saturday to clean his waterbowl and he went into his hide, but that was the only time and ever since then when I put my hand in to clean the water he will come out to me and crawl up my arm and wrap around my hand. I have been taking him out since he has been doing that, is there anything wrong with that? I mean, he seems comfortable enough to approach me so does that mean its ok to take him out and handle him even though he hasnt had about 10 days to get used to the tank? Also, if he is for some reason comfortable already, should I try to feed him? And finally, my last question; On the warm side of my tank the highest the temp. gets is 89 degrees and the basking spot is 92 degrees and on the cool side its about 78 degrees. I know they need a warmer climate, but he spends a lot of his time in the hide on the cool side of the tank and he also spends a lot of time in the hide on the cool side of the tank. So my question is, do you think its too hot on one side or do you think he just prefers to be a little cooler? Alright, ill quit being anooying for now...haha...thanks everyone for any input you might have for me! I really appreciate it!
 
If he's comfortable being handled then doing so daily, or even a few times a day is fine.

You might want to put another hide on the warm side to see if it's just the "out of site" thing that has him in the hide or if he really doesn't like the other side of the tank. Get a temp gun so you know exactly how hot the hot spot is or put a thermometer there.

If you feed and he eats give him at least two days before you hold him again. Try feeding him what the store you got him from used unless they feed live. I would recommend NOT feeding live if at all possible.

If you can post a pic. It's always nice to see what's been done for a new snake.
 
UH OH...I have another question. When I got the snake out, I moved the hide and then changed the water in the water bowl. Is it bad that I moved the hide to a different place? Will it affect the snake getting used to its new surroundings? Thanks!

P.S. - I will have a picture of my tank uploaded tommorow!
 
Regarding the temps... if the snake is spending most of all of it's time on the cool side, that's a good indicator that the temps are too high. Try lowering them by a few degrees and see what happens. Your snake knows what he/she likes better than any book. lol
 
Sorry I forgot to answer the other question. Moving a hide a few inches isn't likely to cause any confusion, but rearranging the whole tank might.

Looking forward to the pics!
 
Back
Top