|
So a friend of mine was moving and I volunteered to take over ownership of his ball python, since he didn't know anyone else who was into herps and didn't feel comfortable giving her to someone on craigslist. Never done a snake before. Welp. No idea on the gender or age or anything, and its been hiding ever since I moved it in. I'm sure I'll learn plenty in the coming weeks, but a quick question: the only place I can fit the terrarium is right next to one of my tower speakers. I don't play music often, but how much will this piss off a snake? I should probably just rearrange my room, huh? I'm already warming up to the snake a lot, but not going to lie, I'm a bit sad that this will delay my ~pixie frog dreamz~ HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Feb 10, 2015 |
#
¿
Feb 10, 2015 04:16
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 04:37 |
|
|
yay, my python came out! she's incredibly docile and playful, easily one of the most hands-on HERPS I've owned. About how long should I let her play around outside of her terrarium? "she" is about 3ft long, still unsexed, and very active. Also apparently my landlord snapped a photo inside my bedroom window of the enclosure and they're arguing that their "no pets" policy extends to contained animals. I'm not really worried about it though, I have security footage of the landlord taking said photo and I'm already building a lawsuit (for many many other reasons) for when my lease is up anyways~ HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Feb 15, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2015 00:03
|
|
|
Hood Ornament posted:I'm pretty sure your landlord would win that one. Not really worried about it, without too much  I'm suing my landlord for unrelated reasons and I put my suit on hold on the basis of "I'll pay my rent on time, leave me alone until my lease is over and I'll drop my lawsuit" Big Centipede posted:I prefer coco for humidity and aesthetics. Paper is a good substrate though, but I only used it when I had 30 snakes. I was wondering the same, the previous owner of my python said I should change the substrate right away (it's full of sheddings) and gave me a bag of wood + paper substrate. I know nothing about snakes and I'm going to clean the substrate today. Should I use this stuff, or get some coco coir/eco earth, or something else? What temp/humidity range should I keep my enclosure at? Is tap water fine, or should I de-chlorinate it first? Any other water treatment I should bother with? Oh yeah, she stopped hanging out in the rock and she's really active now. She always hangs out on the side of the enclosure that's right by my laptop and stares at me :3 She's really friendly too. I really like snakes now. 
HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Feb 17, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 23:32
|
|
|
Hood Ornament posted:Temps of 80-85 with a hot spot of 90-94. I can tell your humidity is too low because of the stuck shed skin. Soak the snake in room-temp water for a bit and then rub with a wet paper towel to remove it. Humidity should be about 50% for ball pythons, if I recall. Thanks, I was wondering about that. How deep should the water be, or am I dumb for being worried about drowning my snake? My humidity is supposedly right at 50% but she's had the stuck shedded skin since I got her, so I'll get a new gauge. Anything wrong with ecoearth substrate? I've found it to be the easiest to manage humidity with in my experience with frogs but again I don't know snakes. HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Feb 17, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 23:39
|
|
|
Hood Ornament posted:Snakes are pretty good swimmers, I've let mine go in full bathtubs and let them screw around in there. Filling up a bathroom sink is a good option, as well. Cool I just used a big bowl and got most of the stuck shedding off. She has a bit left around her head, but she's pretty squirmy so it was hard to get those areas. I've noticed one of her eyes is silver while the other is black, which I understand to be part of the shedding process, but it's been like that for a few days. I'm assuming that's normal or taking care of my humidity problem would solve that yeah? (the sound snakes make while clearing their noses is  )Edit: just called my old roommate, and he has a bunch of my old terrariums sitting around in his garage... A few ~50 gal long tanks, and a 1.5x1.5x1.5ft square one.. My closet is pretty much empty right now.. Pretty tempted to get a pixie frog and some sort of a tree frog after I've gotten the hang of the whole snake thing first. HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Feb 18, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 00:01
|
|
|
Binary Logic posted:Check your local bylaws. Where I live: I'm not very worried about it, my lease is almost up and if my landlord pisses me off I have a pretty strong pending lawsuit with a p significant amount of damages that would surely cost my landlord her job and she knows it. I went over my lease and it said absolutely nothing about contained animals and only mentioned cats and dogs too. Worst case scenario I found a back-up home for the snake
HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Feb 18, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 01:33
|
|
|
Here's another good one: she hasn't shedded one of her eye caps, should I worry or do anything about it, or just try to do a better job than her previous owner with managing humidity and hope it solves itself the next shed cycle?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 13:57
|
|
|
Nerwign posted:My snake had this happen and my vet suggested (or was it my snake-lady friend...) anyway the recommendation is to get some towels and soak in warm water and put them in a tub or other place you can contain her and then put her in those with the towels over/around her loosely. Her movement through the towels and the extra humidity will likely get the eye cap to fall off. Thanks, I'll try that out. Also. had a friend show me how to sex the snake through the "popping" method and yep she's female.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2015 10:49
|
|
|
Hood Ornament posted:Don't gender 'pop' adult animals, you're really likely to injure them. Thanks, I had no idea, I just took someone's word who was like yep I know what I'm doing. Won't do it in the future. Luckily this snake is really loving docile and easy to handle.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2015 00:34
|
|
|
My snake made a new friend "Scamp" today! They're hugging! Best friends for life! Switched her substrate to eco-earth because I didn't like the lovely huge woodchips she came with & I was having a hard time managing the humidity. Went with it because I've used it for frogs a lot in the past & I have a pretty good sense of how long it retains moisture for. I'll report back with how she likes it & how easy it is to keep at 50% humidity. Right now I have a 1.5" thick tamped layer of it down, but I'm thinking about adding some loose substrate next time I take her out + when the humidity goes down. A quick search online reveals that a few people had concerns about their snake's ability to digest it, but I feed her in a separate container for behavior reasons & I specifically used to use the stuff because frogs digest it easily so who knows. Maybe snakes can't pass it and frogs can, maybe internet people are crazy. Worst case scenario I have 3 large empty terrariums and a few bricks of substrate, what can go wrong? Silver Nitrate posted:Ahhhh that's scary. I use Sani-chips, they are like little bitty squares of aspen. For my guys that need a little extra humidity, I sprinkle damp sphagnum moss on top. Kinda want to try this stuff out so my snake can burrow, I think she might like it more. How long does that stuff hold moisture for? Samila posted:I had a scary moment with my corn snake a few nights ago. I heard a strange thumping in one of my racks, so I checked it out and found my corn snake (who only goes in the rack when it's too cold for her to be in her big outdoor tank) thrashing around wildly with blood trickling from her mouth. I would play it on the safe side if my herp had a potential cut on their mouth. Just to be safe I would slightly up the temperature, do a warm pedialyte or at least warm water soak (ideally it would drink some,) minimize stress, and with mouth area wounds I would even do hydro-peroxide or another herp friendly disinfectant before I see symptoms. Usually they're fine without it, but it can get bad quick if they get infected and substrate is usually a bacteria shitshow. Preventative care is huge and $8 of poo poo you can buy at the grocery store can save you a $$$ exotic pets vet visit. HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Mar 7, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2015 08:28
|
|
|
Samila posted:Best description I've ever heard. Glad to hear your snake's doing well! Looks like eco earth works great for my climate (pacific NW) it's been sitting between 50-65% humidity since I changed the substrate and I haven't sprayed it once. Perfect! The cheap big wood chips + paper stuff the previous owner gave me was requiring daily maintenance. Sometimes its mildly annoying that there's a bit of substrate on the snake when I take her out of her enclosure but beyond that, no complaints.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2015 01:08
|
|
|
ZarathustraFollower posted:wood frogs I just caught one today on a demolition job and decided to make it a captive. Disturbed it in the middle of hunting a gigantic hobo spider and felt bad for ruining its meal, so it earned spoon-fed cricket meals for life courtesy of yours truly. Kind of a weird thing to keep captive, but I've always had the most fun with native species. Also caught a little what-i-think-is-a-tree-frog-or-chorus-frog of some sort the size of my pinkie nail and decided to keep it too. Haven't really for-sure identified them because they're both really stressed out at the moment, but I'm building terrariums tonight and I'll get to it in a couple weeks once they've chilled out and gotten used to their surroundings. Little guy's going to look pretty funny in my 2'x2'x2' cube tank. (and before anyone gets their panties in a knot over wild caught, yes I have a lot of experience with wc frogs and I've dealt with just about every health issue/behavior issue that comes with the territory, not my first rodeo..)
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
Big Centipede posted:I've never had an issue with people keeping common species that they've caught. Most of us have done it at some point. I'll post some in a few days probably. Tiny one's pretty chillax but the bigger one wasn't too amused about spending my whole work day in a gatorade bottle with dirt in the bottom. Leaving that one alone for a bit until I take pictures, identify their species, sex them etc. It's also kind of a pain to take pictures of the enclosures because they're both packed tightly in a dark closet until I reorganize my room and figure out what I'm going to do with them. Think I did a pretty alright job on the enclosures. Kind of rushed the little guy's (and it's comically huge, I ended up putting him in a 50gal long tank) but I put the big one in my cube tank and half-assedly emulated my last pacific chorus frog's enclosure in a dark closet. The last time I posted about a wc frog in here on a different account years ago, I caught a lot of hate for keeping it and didn't come back to PI for probably a year after a page or two of "you're going to kill it and now you can't let it out, good job idiot" posts so I was kind of expecting the same reaction. That frog ended up living for 3 years until I moved + couldn't keep her and left her in the care of a supposed HERP enthusiast I met online, who proceeded to kill her and my 7 other rana frogs in a mere half a year. I caught them all together before they even absorbed their tails, and some of them were up to 3-4" length by the time he took ownership  At least he gave me my terrariums back. The rana PI got mad at me about ended up growing quite a bit bigger than the internet claims they can, and she got big enough to eat pinkies, so I think I did pretty well all things considered. Actually have her preserved in alcohol+injected formeldehyde+glycerine in a jar on my desk, always staring at me, and yes it is very loving creepy. Speaking of, friendly reminder I hate crickets and everything to do with breeding them. Ugh. I was enjoying this whole "buy a mouse every couple weeks" snake deal. edit: the one i thought was a wood frog is actually a male pacific chorus frog, of course the most annoying native frog species/gender combination possible. Good thing I have a soft spot for these ones! My last one was a female, and it was pretty much silent save for making the cutest "I'm annoyed" squeaking noise whenever I tried to handle her. This male's loud and proud. Tinyfrog is really growing on me but I have no idea what I'm going to feed it, it's so small I feel like it could get seriously injured by cricket bites easily and may have trouble taking down even the smallest crickets. Might go try my luck at digging up some tiny worms. This one's obviously really young so it actually has hope for being trained to eat from a dish. HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 09:18 on Mar 19, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 08:11
|
|
|
Ok if this frog is going to annoy me at 1 in the morning with its calling, I'm going to annoy it with my camera and here's tinyfrog. tinyfrog was incredibly photogenic but my awful cellphone camera made every photo except this one blurry. this frog has a lot of personality for a frog. to think the other subcontractor I was working with caught this one because "it would be funny to feed it to your python"   Open to name ideas 
HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Mar 19, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 08:54
|
|
|
ZarathustraFollower posted:Petco sometimes carries fruit flies in tubes now too. They are lovely and overpriced, but when you need small feeders fast it can tide you over till you have something better in place. thanks, this might just be the way I'll go. i was really worried about it starving until I can figure something steady out.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2015 22:57
|
|
|
Thanks for the fruit fly info everyone, fruit flies have always seemed like wizardry to me and it's really nice that you guys broke it down for me in a way that's easy to understand. Temporarily I'm just dusting crickets for the big frog, and doing the pet smart flies for the little guy (the culture is going shockingly well) because I don't want a bunch of crickets living inside my apartment (been there, not fun.) but once I get some spare time I'll be cleaning out the storage shed on my balcony, putting shelving in, and I'll use that space to grow + gut load crickets, flies, and probably start breeding my own mice for the snake. Also thanks to whoever told me that Pet Smart has fly cultures, that really saved my rear end in a pinch. Wasn't sure if little guy ate them the first time around, but tonight I just watched him eat at least 20 of them, and he took down a small cricket that I threw in for shits and giggles, I was worried it would be a bit big to fit in his mouth but I monitored him and he did fine. The python is taking out a large to very large mouse every week and seems to have no issues being hungry enough even though the internet says she should only need a medium if I feed that often, so hopefully she starts getting really big because she's a bit on the skinny side for her length. Previous owner was feeding her only every 15-30 days so I'm guessing she has plenty of room to grow with my improved diet e: noticed that the little frog's digging tunnels in the substrate and hiding in them, that one's new to me for a tree frog. Thought it may have escaped when feeding the other day when it went MIA for two nights, since its so tiny. probably going to redo that terrarium next time I get paid; I mostly made it out of stuff I've used for much larger frogs in the past & it only ever seems to hide in said tunnels, or underneath the large piece of driftwood in the middle of the tank. Haven't once seen it use the water dish or any of the hides yet. Also had to remove the driftwood (s)he came to know and love because it started growing fungus, despite having been baked before I put it in
HEY VAPER fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Mar 26, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2015 05:45
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 04:37 |
|
|
Updates: First fruit fly colony from petco is going strong, and the little frog eats pretty much all of them every time I dump them in his terrarium. Accidentally hosed his lid up, so now I need to find a new lid for a 40? gallon wide tank because he managed to escape while I was at work. Luckily he was just chilling next to his terrarium (its in a messy, packed full closet; surprised he didn't disappear in there for good.) Right now I just ghetto fixed it by covering the hole with tin foil and putting some weight over it, but it doesn't let enough light in + is a pain in the rear end. Fun. Bigger little frog sure is a jumper. Pretty much like clockwork when midnight rolls by he either starts croaking insanely loudly for an hour, or he tries his best to splat himself against the top of his enclosure. I reorganized it a bit to lessen the chances of him landing on something harmful, and I surrounded the top edge with those suction cup fake plant things to catch the majority of his leaps. Anyone know where I can get 1.5x1.5ft cork wall squares for him or something? He likes sitting on the walls, but I noticed that unlike some other tree frogs I've had, he has trouble not sliding down them. Also talked to a horticulturist/landscaper friend who was pretty interested in learning about terrarium type plants and offered to help me maintain them (we get together to smoke almost every night anyway) so in the somewhat near future I may start experimenting with live plants in my terrariums. Will definitely be starting off with an empty terrarium though. Might have to wait until my lease is up and I move into a bigger place in a few months though, I'm already testing the limits of my tiny apartment bedroom.. The python's been doing incredibly well. The previous owner was feeding her about the dead minimum, whereas I've been feeding her the largest mice I can get weekly. She's a big attention whore but luckily (almost) all of my friends have no problem handling her. Every time I have a guest over she periscopes, comes out of her hide, and slithers circles around the side of her terrarium closest to me. Still has yet to bite anyone too! The local pet store picked up on the fact that I'm using their mice as feeders, but they agreed not to ban me (store policy) in exchange for helping them cull the mice with behavioral issues. They don't even charge me half the time! I've been getting a lot of requests in real life to put her feedings on youtube if that's something goons are interested in too. By the way, I loving love snakes now, I'm probably going to be an animal hoarder when I move out of this apartment.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 10, 2015 03:05
|
|