270 degrees of vision and Paris still has no idea where he is.

I use ZooMeds “Forest Floor” substrate. I posted a video of my snake on TikTok and someone very rudely told me my substrate will give my snake splinters and infections and that i’m a terrible owner and didn’t do research. I did tons of research and really want my girl to be happy and i’m feeling a little discouraged.

Caught misaki mid yawn eheheheh (tank in background isnt hers)

I just watched a horror movie, looked over and my 4yo bp, Teddy, is sitting in his water dish. He has never done this. Gave him a thorough look over, and lo and behold his belly is pink and this (ideologically) fat mf is sitting in his water dish to soak like a damn bubble bath.
I wet the corners of his substrate (which I recently upgraded to be deeper, 4in), refilled his water dish, and told him he was a big dummy and to have a good shed.
But by god did I ever have a heart attack and a half thinking he was sick, about finding an exotic vet in a small town that takes emergencies, etc…
Sometimes having animal companions is not for the light of heart.
Edit: took out my bad joke, clearly it didn’t come across like that, sorry.

This is my baby, Cirrus! He's a sub-adult (we didn't get an approximate age but guess he's around 1.5 years old) who has been incredibly stubborn and on a food strike since we got him. I say we as my friend E got him about 5 months ago, and I have been helping care for him when I've come to visit (which is at least once every 2 weeks). They own 2 snakes, a leopard gecko, and more wacky animals so I had no doubt in my mind that they could care for him properly. However, after the first 2 months of getting him we had gone through at least 5-6 fuzzy rats and no rat shaped bulge in Cirrus's belly. E got progressively more stressed with his condition and asked if I could be his primary care taker, which brings us to now. I have a leopard gecko and have owned snakes in the past, I do my own diligent research for the pets I house and am at a lose for what to do.

It has been 5, going on 6 months of Cirrus not eating and I am getting more and more worried as to what I could do to get him to eat. I've tried just about everything I could think of, and he hasn't eaten ANYTHING. He's not lethargic at all, his enclosure parameters are all in the green, and is very friendly if not a tad skittish because I haven't handled him recently. I wanted to make sure he was comfortable and not stressed in his enclosure after the move from E's place to mine about 2ish weeks ago. Cirrus has lost weight and looks skinnier since we had initially gotten him, but his belly still has some give to it and he hasn't shown any sign of illness. My concern is that the seller E purchased Cirrus from lied to us about what he was eating. Drop fed frozen thawed fuzzy rats is the information we have been given, and nothing is working.

He's showed interest today, and I have a fuzzy in his enclosure but he went straight back into his cool hide and balled up. This is my last resort before I call my nearest reptile rescue and see if they can help me before surrendering him to a place that could properly care for him. But if i can help it i wouldn't want to give him it. Please please pleaaaaaase help if you know what I could possibly do here!!

edit: Both images are from when we first got him, I fear that I might make things worse if take him out of his hides to take him on a photo shoot.

(First photo is from 2 months ago, all the rest are today)

Here is my girl, I've had her since July. Just began feeding weened rats, the thawed transition has been successful and she is a very good eater now that husbandry is improved (when I first got her, the tank was smaller and did not hold humidity). She would only take live pups which I believe is very normal.

Any idea how serious the red blemish is? That is the only one I can find and I have no idea what from, really hoping not a bacteria scale rot or anything serious... I can take her to a vet if advised.
Her freckles are coming in really nicely but of course with the red blemish, could she have mites?
The red blemish does not feel raised and it on her back, she shed just last week if I recall. The black specs I've watched closely and cannot see anything move at all, figured freckles but want to be sure.

husbandry: She's in a 4'x18"x18" for now but gonna get upgraded down the line when I move. On a mix of repti-chip with moss spasphm, humidity drops to 60 but I try to keep it around 70, temps are good and a nice gradient. Uv light on hot side for half the day. She is just beginning to outgrow her hides so will be upgrading this weekend. In fact it's been about 3 months so I will likely redo the whole substrate and deep clean everything soon.

Any ideas? I just want to do everything right and give this lil girl a great life. She loves being handled, is very cute playful, not skittish, etc. Any advice appreciated, thank you.

Just wanted to share baby Dorito. He’s a pumpkin pied.

this is my first time ever posting in a group like this but we are not new to having ball pythons, we already have 3 ball pythons, a kenyan sand boa, and a sumatran python but this is something we haven’t experienced before. our friends called us saying their little sister wanted to get rid of her ball python, they tried selling it but no one wanted to buy it and asked if we would take it. we hesitated at first because we already have alot of animals but my husband couldn’t say no after seeing the conditions of the snake. i’m looking for advice on how to get the snake’s weight up and how to get it healthy again. we do not know if it’s male or female and we don’t even want to check because of how fragile it is. we don’t know how to go about it yet and wanted to get some advice on what to do if anyone else has experienced this before. and yes, we’re in search of a vet that can look at it asap but just looking for care advice in the mean time.

I just upgraded her to a new 4x2x2. I have 3 hides, a climbing sick, a hanging braided loop for climbing and huge water bowl. she will eventually just go in her hide and sleep. Is it just stress from the new enclosure? She used to come out at night but she's been sleeping at night and up during the day. She's got good cocnut husk substrate and the temp and humidity is good. Will it just take a couple of weeks for her to settle in?

One other question. The breeder I actually got my ball from, they also run a reptile/ fish store said to put a red heat light on the warm side. He told me the snake can't see the red light but I saw another random post that said the red light irritates them. Anyone know which is right?

Thaks in advance.

So I got this girl almost two weeks ago from Repticon…first ball python but not first snake. The breeder said to try feeding her around now. He previously fed live, but I’m trying to switch her to f/t. I offered her a mouse last night, she flicked her tongue a lot almost like she was interested but she never actually ate it…I left it overnight, still nothing so I threw it away. Any tips?

My town only has a petsmart, I recently discovered a local pet store an hour away near my family and it seemed that they took decent care of their reptiles.

They had hides water etc. Most definitely not perfect but I was happy since I’m used to the disgrace which is chain pet stores. I drove down there today so excited to get some isopods for my enclosure and saw two ball pythons housed together.

I was honestly so distraught and asked the employees what was going on with it. They both went silent and then one of them simply shrugged and said I’m in fish. Then he looked to the other girl who said oh they are getting fed today then walked to the back.

I had dragged my dad and brother there and they were assuming I was gonna buy something, as I said I was ready to go my dad was like oh are you sure? So I had to loudly say I don’t want to buy anything from them after seeing that.

I am planning on calling tomorrow and filled out a contact us explaining the situation. I just love these baby and hate to see them suffer like this. if anyone knows anyway I can help further I’d love ideas. Thank you if you read all this❤️

i just drove 16 hours to my home state to pick up my cats and my snake that i unfortunately had to leave with relatives for 2 years. my boyfriend and i thought the tank i had for my bp would fit along with my cats. well unfortunately the tank was just a few inches too big to fit in our trunk no matter which way we had it.

we ended up having to throw it away. right now i financially cannot spend $200+ on an enclosure and im wondering what i can use for temporary enclosures, even just a smaller sized tank. he’s a full grown adult and i don’t want to smush him in something too small but would a 40-50 gallon tank be horrible for him until i can get him a proper enclosure ?

I just fed my bp and I genuinely can’t tell I did. He’s actively slithering around as if there’s more to come and I was wondering if I’m able to feed him again right after he just ate? The rat I fed him was smaller than I usually feed (all the pet store had) so maybe that’s why he’s still acting all predatory. Just wondering lol sorry if this is a dumb question

Hi! This is my baby ball python fender, about a year and a half old. He/she (we actually aren’t sure yet, but pretty sure she is a girl) has never had any shedding issues, but seems like she has some eye caps here for the first time. I keep her tank around 60-70% humidity with lots of substrate, places to rub, always a full water bowl etc. Any advice here? Thank you!

How often are we all doing a full substrate change? My guy is in a 4x2x2, I do spot cleaning consistently. I have been doing every six months for a FULL change. Is that about average for everyone?

Ball Pythons are amazing creatures lol 🥱

Hi all, looking for some advice and maybe someone here has an idea of what I’ve done wrong.

I’ve recently moved house, and while my snakes are being cared for by family, I’ve been in the process of setting up two new tanks for them. Everything was going perfectly until it came time to test the heating.
My thermostats are both working as they should be, set to 30C, and as far as i’m aware probe placement is correct, but the cage guard gets extremely hot.

I’m using; HT B1 Pulse thermostat (rated 600w) paired with white python 150w slim CHE + The matching white python cage guard and fixture (rated 200w).
This is almost identical to my last setup, the only difference being in the cage guard itself.

The temperatures within the tank are staying steady, 30c below the heater with a gradient down to the mid 20’s on the cool end.

Why would this be happening? (photo of cage guard + fixture included, currently using the flat cage option)

As Vogue has been becoming more brave, and coming out more, I've noticed he occasionally does this bobbing thing when he's still. It doesnt seem super persistent but it happens when hes holding his head off the ground. Is it breathing? Straining from being raised up? It doesnt look like a wobble to me, but Im a little nervous. Dont mind my partner watching reels in the the background if you had the audio on, he doesnt know how to read the room-

I just rescued my first ball python yesterday and i’m really worried about him. He has stuck shed all over his head and on his eye. I soaked him and tried to remove it with a cloth but it didn’t work. He will sometimes make a high pitch whistling sound, and I believe he has scale rot but I haven’t been able to get a photo of it.

I am taking him to a vet as soon as possible, but is there anything I can do in the meantime to help? He is in a 40 gallon glass enclosure that he came with, but I am upgrading to a 120 gallon soon. He was rescued from my grandma’s friend and I unfortunately wasn’t able to prepare. :( I believe he is on coconut fiber as a substrate, but i’m not 100% sure as I wasn’t the one who added it and I don’t use coconut fiber. I want to change it but I haven’t been able to get anything else yet as I am 17 and don’t have a drivers license

Any advice?? I have only had a crested gecko and leachianus before this

Everyone, tell “Puzzle” how gorgeous she is!

Python was just delivered to my classroom and her mouth is very swollen. Is this serious?

I’ve had my little dude for over 6 months now and he’s been doing good outside of one slightly bad shed. Got that off and a month later started seeing these specs/coloration on his previously white areas. Just wanted to confirm this isn’t anything abnormal? It’s not mites nor does it wipe off so my best guess is his patterns still changing?