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Tech Page |
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Dave’s World |
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On this page I am going to take a different approach to the husbandry side. Tons of sites will tell you all about the husbandry for ball pythons and a smaller number will tell you blood python husbandry. All the information about the hot spot temp of 90 degrees and cool side temp of around 80 degrees with a gradient and keeping humidity between 50% and 60% for ball pythons is important, but a lot of it can sound overwhelming to a first time beginner and it all leads to the question - how do I do that? On this page, I am going to tell you how we did it in the past and currently, what worked and what didn’t work, and most importantly what I would do for keeping an individual ball python or blood python today. I hope you find the information I present here useful, but please remember that many different methods exist and what works for one person, does not always work for another person.
I would also like to warn you that the cost of enclosures will generally cost more than a normal ball python. Also here at RadPythons we highly recommend you have an enclosure built before buying or taking delivery of your snake. |
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The material and tool lists below line up with the instructions outlined on this page for each enclosure with links on where to get them. |
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Poor Boy/Girls Set Up
Get the material listed at the right for building this type of enclosure. While other tubs will work, the tubs I have listed are a rough guide. For ball pythons, too much space can stress them out more than not enough. As far as water bowls go, we like the 4” for babies and juveniles then move up to a 7” for adults, but larger water dishes will increase humidity and smaller will reduce humidity. This is another control you can use to change humidity. As a smaller snake will not care if it can swim in the water bowl or not, some others may even enjoy that option!
1. First figure out how to arrange the flex watt on the bottom of the tub to give you from 1/3 coverage to 1/2 coverage of the bottom and outline its footprint on the tub. 2. Then use the Aluminum HVAC tape to securely tape the Thermometer and Thermostat probes to the tub. Their approximate location should be on the outside bottom of the tub in the approximate center of the area the flexwatt will be mounted. Secure the wires at the same time. 3. Again use the Aluminum HVAC tape to securely attach the Flexwatt onto the tub in the already outlined area. It should completely cover the probes already put in place. I cover all the flexwatt with aluminum tape and exceed the outer edge of the flexwatt by a minimum of 1”. 4. Now use the soldering iron to create some air holes on the opposite side of the tub from the side the flexwatt is mounted. At this time 4 to 8 holes should be enough. During testing or later you may decide you need more to help develop a good temperature gradient and if less are required you can put small pieces of tape over them. Also, if humidity is way too high ,you can add holes to reduce humidity. 5. Now you hold the lid on using the bungee cords, but make sure they are not so tight that they start to deform the shape of the tub with its lid on.
Hey you just built an enclosure. Now set it up with the water dish and add hides as you would like. I say use the newspaper as the substrate, but if you prefer dealing with the mess of cypress, aspen, or other substrates your more than welcome to. Since your thermostat does not have a digital reading if you used the one I recommended, you set up the thermostat using the rough dial settings then wait an hour or two and read the thermometer you attached beside to see the actual temp. Make adjustments in small increments and give it time to settle out. Once you get the hot spot set at around 90 degrees F then use any other thermostat to take readings on the cool side. Add or subtract holes to that side of the tub until a reading of approximately 80 degrees F is held constant. Again take small steps and let things settle. Once you have everything right let it sit for 24 hours then come back and take final readings. If all is good then it is ready for you to buy a snake!
When I wrote this on 7/1/2009 the cost of this enclosure was about $100.00. |
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Poor Boy/Girls Set UP Material: Tubs for Ball pythons 50 grams to 500 grams - Item 10008760 500 grams to 2000 grams - Item 10023020 Digital electronic Thermometer Pair of bungee cords - Get at Home Depot or Lowes News Paper - You may get this delivered to you daily! Aluminum HVAC tape - at your local Home Depot or Lowes Tools: Sharpie - Do I need to tell you where to get this? Soldering Pencil or Iron - for making holes in tub (Get this at Lowes, Home Depot, or radio shack (Does radio shack even exist any more? Lol))
For more success with this set up try keeping it in a warmer room in the house, but not in direct drafts from furnaces or air conditioning. |
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Ideal Display for Ball Python
This type of set up is designed for functionality with a decent appearance. No this enclosure will not match with your expensive finished wood type furniture, but it will go pretty decently with the solid black lamintated type furniture you get at Ikea, Wal-mart, and the like. (Hey I love shopping at Ikea! Maybe we should see if they could start carrying a line of reptile enclosure.) Get the material listed to the right under “ideal display for ball pythons. Hides will start with the smalls for a baby and go up as the ball python grows. No need to get larger until the snake sticks out from under the hide when balled up tightly in it. The enclosure has built in heat and will be large enough to house most ball pythons for their whole life, but some exceptionally large females may require you to increase size later, but reptile basics 36” long model would handle any ball python for their whole life. Only thing is the 36” long one would be too big for a baby and stress it out. Water dish is again 4” for babies and 7” for adults, but size can be increased to increase humidity if needed.
Step by step set up: 1. Put probe in pre-cut slot in bottom of enclosure make sure the sensor part is fully pushed up against the surface. 2. Tape probe in with Aluminum tape. (again make sure it is firmly against the bottom of the heating element and will not come off. A filler such as paper towel or something else can be used.) 3. Flip cage over and put down your choice of substrate. 4. Plug heating element into Thermostat. 5. Set thermostat to around 90 to 92 degrees 6. Put in Full water dish and both hides. One on cool side one on hot side. 7. Monitor temps for 24 hours A. Hot spot should be around 90 to 92 degrees B. Cool side air temp should be between 78 to 82 degrees C. Adjust Thermostat to get happy medium (Hot spot not to exceed 94 degrees, but the cool side air temp should hit a minimum of 75 degrees.) 8. Order your snake or put the one you already have in!
I love this set up for ball pythons. The Reptile basics cage with a quality proportional Thermostat makes this cage easy enough to set up that as long as you have arms and a little common sense you can not mess this one up. Total cost for this set up should come in around $300.00, but it is worth every single penny if you are keeping one ball python. |
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Ideal Display for Ball Pythons Material: 3. Water Bowl 4. Hides 5. Substrate - I would use blank news print or packing paper as we have found it to be the easiest to keep clean, but if you are looking for something for a more natural look you can use Aspen, cypress, or others. Stay away from Pine or Cedar bedding though as they are bad for most reptiles. 6. Aluminum HVAC tape - Home Depot or Lowes.
Tools: Scissors - Optional for cutting Aluminum HVAC tape, but it can be ripped!
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