my client has custody of a ball python from an on going divorce. it's the soon to be ex husband's, who does no husbandry at all. she is looking to rehome it as he can't have it where he lives and she's unable to care for it.
snakes are not my expertise but i'll do my best to help and any other questions i can field to my friend that is herpetologist and snake specific caretaker
she just shed (i don't see any stuck shed), she has a bowl of water(she likes to hide under it) it a dog bowl for water, and it's been literally months.
he wants to breed the bully mutt (she's a "pink nose") to another bully thing (supposedly with a vet's help which I call bullshit) to get a "purple nose"
MIND YOU: the dog is her Esa that's she's raised since a bottle baby and she's trying to train to be a service dog
and ball pythons OFTEN stop eating for MONTHS around fall. Don't freak at that one. Get water, safe heat, and a hide on warm and cool sides of the tank first
anyway yeah. Frozen/thawed. food will need to be hot. use water not a microwave. Use tongs. Do not stress it if it takes her... I don't know, anything less than 3 months to eat unless she's emaciated now. I know that sounds like a lot but even or snakes they're inicky and stress'll throw them but good
yes hello! chiming in to confirm that feeding a sm/md rat once per week is sufficient, especially if you're trying to transfer her from being live-fed. A few weeks, or even months, between feeds during a time of transitional stress is totally normal
I try to have two water sources in my vivs - one big enough for the snake to completely bathe/submerge itself, and a smaller one so there's always at least once drinking water source they haven't pooped in! this also helps maintain humidity.
there's a lot of back and forth about under-tank heating vs lamp heating. the heat mats can make it a little more difficult to gauge how hot the contact surface of the substrate actually is, but both are preferable to a HEAT ROCK HOLY SHIT
definitely pile on the cover. This poor girl is so exposed! but ball pythons typically like for their hides to be a little on the smaller side - if there's too much extra wiggle room, they don't feel secure (go figure)
oh, it might also be worth grabbing a bottle of reptile water conditioner, to help neutralize any chlorine or other additives in your water that may irritate snake skin. They're like $5 per bottle, and a bottle will last you at least a year!
if you live in an area with a reptile-focused STORE, sometimes you can buy fresh-killed feeder rats there. It helps the transition if they're getting something that was just alive like 20 minutes ago/is still pretty warm. Unfortunately I've only been that lucky in Florida.
Yeah, I use the X-large corner water bowl for soaking, and then just a small heavy ceramic dog bowl for drinking/humidity (since they can't easily flip those and usually won't try to squeeze in now that they're 5+ feet)
if no live feeders can be found ( I always suggest checking your local Facebook groups for reptiles for this ) you can buy the frozen store feeders and heat them as I suggested above.
I pulled the rat (in a sandwich bag)out of the hot water bath and took it to get room and toweled it dry a little over the terrarium to throw up some scent and she popped her head out. used a hair drier to dry it some and heat the skin up and she was like OH HUNT? HUNT! used the tongs to offer it by 'running' it on the substrate and she snatched it right up
how often however?
MIND YOU: the dog is her Esa that's she's raised since a bottle baby and she's trying to train to be a service dog