As far as people not answering your questions, it seemed to me that people made a reasonable attempt to answer your questions with the information provided and the experience that they have. Yes, I have had rats and mice bleed from the nose when thawed, and it doesn't harm the snake any or indicate that the rat is bad-it usually indicates some type of physical trauma at the time of the rats death. As for the smell, you said that you thaw them in hot water inside a plastic bag. I do this too, and the rats stink when I open the bag. I imagine it is a result of the rats sort of stewing in their own stink with no ventilation. If nothing else, it gets the attention of all the snakes in the room when I open the bag.



The morphs you were comparing are in no way similar the way that butters and lessers are. You breed a normal to a normal, no matter how pretty, you get a normal. A yellowbelly to a yellowbelly will produce ivories. You breed a pied to a ringer and you're getting het pieds. You breed a ghost to a caramel and you're getting all double hets. lesser to a lesser is a BEL. Butter to a butter is a BEL. Butter to a lesser is a BEL. I am not entirely convinced that they are or are not the same morph. They appear slightly different to me, but it could very well be a matter of bloodlines. I call my butter a butter because that's what he was sold to me as, and thats what his offspring will be called. I'm sure I could pass him off as a lesser if I wanted to, but I won't.

And, while I don't agree with everything pitoon says...hell, I don't agree with everything all the time, period-he has a pretty respectable amount of knowledge about ball pythons.

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