hey guys today we're actually gonna do probably one of the very few times I'm going to do this
but a setup guide or a care guide essentially so I've kind of figured out that when people
very first get into snakes usually their first snake is going to be probably a ball python or
something like a corn snake or king snake this is what I'm gonna do is a setup guide for how
to do a baby ball python keeping in mind baby because it's gonna outgrow a ten gallon tank in
a 10 gallon tank properly to hopefully maintain humidity better because that's the number one
issue with baby ball pythons excluding feeding but if we can dial this in usually they're gonna
eat a little bit better so this is a how to setup guide to do your very first baby ball python setup
for under a hundred bucks with a ten gallon tank because that's kind of how a lot of people get
started so starting off with ten gallon tank you can normally pick them up between like five and
fifteen dollars brand new really any pet place anywhere a lot of places you can get them for
cheaper on Craigslist or used somewhere and if you do pick up one use just make sure you wash
it out really well with soap and water so from there on so here's the you know here's this use
ten gallon tank and then we have the lid so the biggest reason why that ball pythons have so many
problems with shedding is humidity and so what I did was we're gonna take something from the ground
up to help kind of keep that humidity in and so what I did here is I taped this all off with
metal aluminum tape which is something that once played for people who use racks and stuff like
that or do duct work this is that type of tape where it's resistant to mold to water it's metal
it's not conductive in that way it's not going to catch on fire other people and I would also maybe
want to say you could suggest this as a piece of glass or plexiglass or something that's going to
cover up about two-thirds of the lid so that we still have all this area for airflow so that way
it prevents stagnation but it will help keep the humidity in so here's to get started use your tent
thank here's this next up is we want to provide feet so here is a appropriate sized zoo Med heat
mat these things can work all right it's always a good idea to attach it to a thermostat but you
don't necessarily have to these things come in there adhesive on those backside and it'll stick
right to the bottom so we'll come over here and we'll put it under here and stick right there
because the lot of these tanks have that little rim it can sit right underneath just like that so
there's your heat tape your heat mat under there you don't want to have it all the way over all of
it over here kind of maybe on the warmer side so that way you have an area to provide a temperature
gradient so the hot side over here the cool side over here right so next up and by the way
so here sorry I didn't really mention this tool and a lot of the used ones they come with lids
and stuff like that if not you're buying brand new lid you can pick these up for between seven
and nine dollars I'm gonna say eight bucks the heat mats will vary in price depending on where
you're gonna get them if you're shopping around looking for the cheapest thing which is kind of
the point of this video just keep it under $100 this one goes for about $15 so the next up is
substrate so we're mostly talking about the baby ball python setup you can change it up
if you're doing in north american colubrid like a corn snake or something like that but a good
substrate is coconut or cypress mulch so you have a couple choices when it comes to that you can do
something like this which is this it's the chopped up kind of almost ground coconut husk they come in
dehydrated blocks you just add water to it it'll soak up and absorb it makes to her a little bit
Messier they can't burrow down as much because and kind of get packed it down a little bit the
other choice is something like this which is this chopped coconut mix which they also come in kind
of these dehydrated blocks but it breaks apart pretty well it isn't packed as easily so snakes
can burrow down in it and coconut and Cypress mulch holds humidity very well you can pick those
up depending on how big of a block you want for something like this it's about sevenish dollars
on Amazon or on chewie or something like that you want to give a good amount of it in here so that
way they have a good amount to burrow in and also the if you have a deep substrate layer that'll
also help full community in really well and the biggest thing you want to do whenever you're
doing this type of substrate coconut is you have to rehydrate it you want to add enough water to
where it's damp but if you squeeze it water's not going to come out and that's kind of the perfect
amount a lot of people ask well how much do I do it's you don't want it dripping sopping wet
because then that can lead to stagnation stuff here so here's the base set up so far so good
right alright so now we're gonna get to the next part when it comes to kind of monitoring heat and
stuff there are these type of things which are these kind of analog temperature and humidity
gauges I'm not necessarily the biggest fans of these because number one they come a the self
adhesion and stinky in the suction cups come off pretty easily as well as anytime you're dealing
with something analog it's not gonna be completely correct I would recommend something like this it's
a digital humidity and electronic probe so you don't have to get the combo but it does help when
you have humidity and thermometer probes in there and what's great about these is you can move these
around in the aquarium so because there's this cute little wires you can put them in here and
you can move them around so the heat probe you can move it to the hot side the cool side and you can
figure out what the appropriate grading is if you need to change something up if you need to add an
additional heat source or something like that and the humidity you could put under you can put just
anywhere in the tank you can put it under there high it's on the hot of the cool side and that
way you can monitor how much the humidity actually is specifically where it is so you know they want
to give that humid hide it needs to be over sixty percent humidity you can put the probe that senses
humidity under there next up since we're talking about hives and humidity we're gonna talk about
hives so there this is a cheaper economic video so it's going to provide what the animal absolutely
needs to stay happy and healthy but it's not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing you
can absolutely go out go to your local reptile specialty store and get more natural as take
more visually appealing ones but it's gonna cost a little bit more but that is okay it's all up to
you it's the aesthetics of it this is just getting started once you have it this is the most economic
way and so I have found that like a dollar store like the Dollar Tree not sponsored by the dollar
if you don't have any sponsors but I have found that a lot of their products can work pretty well
so for instance this water dish I have a bigger one there so everything in the Dollar Tree is a
dollar they come in a couple different sizes I love these things I use these and almost all of
my enclosures either the naturalistic ones or the tubs just because of how great they are they're a
little bit heavier body than like the deli cups they don't get flipped over as well they come in
a variety of colors of us what you guys like the two different sizes make it great so for a big
ball python something like this you can machine wash them these things are awesome for this I
would always recommend right here kind of in the middle to where it's kind of on the hot and the
cools because if you have a warm it's gonna also give that a little bit of humidity but the water
also provides a nice spot for it to be to them and for the for the sinks to kind of cool off a little
bit so kind of right here in the middle next up are the hives so these came in a little four
pack of just cheap little bowls from the Dollar Tree as well and you can either cut them or use
a soldering iron so this is gonna give a little bit more of kind of like a handy you need to do
a little bit more work step but you know you I recommend doing a soldering iron if you have
something like that it gives it to where it's less likely to have a sharp edge and it might crack but
I've also done it with scissors and knives as well with other ones too so you were gonna want to put
one over here on the house on the cool side anyone I want to put one on the hot side that way the
snake can choose where he wants to be either hot or cold he doesn't have to sacrifice the comfort
of hide to go for what the proper temperature or humidity gradient is so we have the hides but we
also want to add a little extra humidity to that so for that we have Spagnam moss sphagnum Moss is
without a doubt one of if not the best substrate or medium you can use to add extra humidity it
holds humidity really well it doesn't really mold a whole lot and you come in mine in big blocks
a big block like this came from it was a really large block that we use for like orchids and stuff
like that but you can pick up smaller ones for about 10-12 dollars on online or different stores
and I did forget to mention that these humidity and temperature probes for these electric ones
they will go anywhere between like five and ten dollars for just a straight temperature one and if
you do this kind of combo one it'll bump it up a little bit between like ten and twenty dollars so
it just kind of depends on how economic you want to be shopping the same goes for the Spagnum Moss
is with the coconut you want to add water to it so where it's you know it's damp but it's not sopping
wet and your one I'm gonna put a little bit in here like this into both of those so that way
there's extra humidity in both of those and then we add for this next little part and for that is
we want to add a little bit of enrichment or stuff for the animals to actually interact with once
again these came from the Dollar Tree there is a wide variety of different ones like that some of
them kind of have like Styrofoam balls and stuff I would stay away from those but this is essentially
the exact same type of product that is sold at your local like big-box brick-and-mortar stores
or specialty stores but it's a dollar so we're trying to keep this economic you can absolutely
change this up later down the road but you know and we can you can trim this up I just kind of
kept left it whole just for ease and purposes something like that this big vine you can have
it drape around just like this and it'll interact with that and then you can also if you wanted to
add a climbing branch or something like that you can go pick those up kind of out out and about but
if you do find one try to remove as much of the bark as you can wash it with hot soapy water and
then put it in your oven at 200 degrees for about an hour to just kind of cook off and purr kind of
prevent any of that bacteria or anything that was growing out there with it if you and always
try to choose maybe something dead like a dead tree branch or dead piece of cactus or something
like that so last and so you know that's dollar store kind of type stuff and that's kind of what
you need if you have a climbing branch I have one over over off in another room and I forgot
to put that on here so there is that and then you have your little locking lids because snakes are
escape artists if you have something like this you can pick these up they have different types
you can put it like over here and that's why this works really great it'll still attach you can pick
those up for four or five dollars there are more expensive ones that are a little bit better in
that way you can this way so you can see with this tape this didn't prevent this lid from coming up
at all if you have a piece of plexiglass or glass put right here it also works as a bit of a weight
and then we left this open so that way not only can provide an airflow but if the room that you
have the that you have your little critter in is still a little cool or you want to give it UVB
light or a different light that way you can put on the heat bulb or add a light bulb here so because
this is metal it's an aluminum tape you don't have to worry about it melting at all so you can
put the little thing right here if you need that if you want to do daylight if you need the extra
heat source at all I personally would recommend a radiant heat panel or something like this ceramic
bulb these little heat fixtures you can pick up all over the place you can go for five seven
dollars brand-new for some of the bigger ones maybe twelve but and then these little guys you
can pick up between like five and fifteen dollars just depending on just like with the regular bulbs
to come in different lodges this is a hundred watt you can pick them up for fifty and seventy-five
they have a wide variety and ranges of different sizes and sicknesses and stuff like that so all in
all this whole setup assuming you didn't already have this ten gallon tank because that's kind of
what the reason why most people have these things because they already have one lying around all of
this grand total puts it around right at a hundred dollars which is a good little setup because a lot
of people have said well getting into reptiles it's a little expensive when you very first get
into it because you have to pay for all the setup and then after that it backs up a little bit so
here's a nice economic kind of inexpensive way to do your first setup with this it helps with
humidity and you have all these extra things to add so that way your baby Ball Python has
the perfect environment for it to live happily and healthily now that being said I understand
that a lot of people don't really like tubs and that you know there's a lot of things that have
been done correctly and not correctly with those plastic tubs but for a tub that's something like
this which is very near the size of this tank gallon tank and I actually found a better one to
use for this but with shipping and everything kind of crazy right now I everything's on backorder so
I couldn't order one in but these things are being made very clear and plastic insulates temperature
and humidity better than glass does so if you had an appropriate sized tub and this is a decent size
you could put a newborn ball python in here but they do make a lot larger ones they make ones
that are bigger than the size of the top of this table that we have you just drill in some air
holes here you don't never need an extra tank you don't ever really need this extra thing although
if you wanted to you absolutely could cut a little section and then glue in some screen here to add
UVB or if you wanted to add anything else in here and this will cut down on your cost because all
of this setup will cost a little bit less because you only need the one thing for this tub so maybe
I'll do a video about that later down the road to show up exactly hey here's this really cool
very economic way of doing it this way it's still aesthetically pleasing you already have it or we
can do this thing which these tubs are very inexpensive and it also you'll probably have
an easier time monitoring the health temperature and humidity in a tub something like this better
than you would this but here is a proper baby ball pythons setup with the 10 gallon tank to
alleviate and hopefully help with all of the humidity and temperature issues that come with
baby ball pythons hopefully this video is able to help you guys out I come to the conclusion that
you know this is something that a lot of people have going over the Facebook forums and groups
and stuff like that in and out of specialty stores that a 10 gallon tank a 20 gallon tank is kind of
what most people have when they're first getting started and then you graduate onto EXO terras and
tubs and stuff like that so here's a good way to do your very first ball python setup economically
under hundred dollars if you are able to guys please please please visit your special local
reptile stores put the money back into the Hobby into the community it helps out everybody it helps
the it helps the economy out it helps out the reptile community it helps out the Hobby and
it's a great that way you can put everything that you love back into the community that you love
once again hopefully you guys were able to enjoy this video hopefully it helped out give you some
ideas for the future like I said this tape works really well you can pick it up at any hardware
store online for like five to ten dollars if not just a little piece of plexiglass or glass really
helps with humidity please like and subscribe if you can't hit that Bell notification if possible
please spread your love of any of the things that you love animals reptiles whatever it is
let me know down in the comments if you have any further questions and I'll check you next time