Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I RECENTLY BOUGHT A FEW BALL PYTHONS AND ALSO A 4 DRAW RACK SYSTEM AND BESIDES THE EXCITEMENT OF WATCHING THEM EAT I RARELY PICK THEM UP. I TAKE GREAT CARE OF THEM FEEDING CLEANING. ETC. BUT I DONT REALLY TAKE THEM OUT OF THERE HOME REALLY. I AM LOOKING TO BREED THEM WHEN THEY ARE ABLE AND READY WHICH THEY ARE ONLY 250 GRAMS EACH. BUT MY QUESTION IS TO EVERYONE OUT THERE THATS COLLECTING THESE GREAT SNAKES DO YOU PLAY WITH THEM OFTEN OR JUST LET THEM BE IN THERE HABITAT AND WATCH THEM GROW?

THANKS AND ANY INPUT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.

I think if someone has a few snakes that they probably interact with them on a regular basis but the big boys can't possibly have the time to interact with their collections...but I bet they have their favorites they will hold from time to time.

I only have a handfull of BP's so I do get the chance to handle them often.
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Matt Lerer
'Ghi Reptiles'
'Ghi Arboreals'

I have 8 and counting.. and I try to take them out as much as possible. I work from home, so I ususally have a snake when I am working on the computer.

~Johnny

We try to take out our baby balls as much as we can and still get normal living done. With what we have and the fact that we both work full time ya it is fun lol
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2.2.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy
"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

i only have one and i treat her like a dog or cat. she is always around my neck or in my lap. to the point that my friends tell me i love her too much.

I intend to hold my ball python more often, but I find myself not having time to hold her more than a couple of times a week. She's okay with that level of attention, and I hope she won't be upset if it goes up later. When she's bigger, I'll be able to leave her around my shoulders without tying up a hand. Now, she's so small that I have to have a hand on her at all times to keep her from falling.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

Haha, yeah, there is some kind of an art to holding a snake and typing on the keyboard... Especially young curious ones..

~Johnny

Yep, I have to be careful because mine keeps putting her head between my thumb and the spacebar. Her other trick is to wrap around a finger so that it can't reach any keys.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

The balls can make it a little difficult to type, but the one that gives me the hardest time is my GTP. Kissy thinks fingers make nice branchesAnd then earlier Mom had one of the corns out that decided it couldn't wait till it got back in the cage:O

Nisa
(Who uses this as a chance to plug in a pic of one of her other babies.)

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3.2 Ball python (Hoss, Little Man, Adam, Helen, and the new girl who gets named when she eats)
1.1 Corn snakes (Orlando and Legolas)
0.1 King snake (Shide which sounds exactly like "she"
0.0.1 GTP (Kissy the Red)
1.1 Haitian Boa (Enkil and Akasha)

And bunches of furry pets

i try to handle all of mine as uch as i can, they love to come out and explore, or just get warmed up by my neck.

and as to making typing difficult, anyone else out there ever get put in a python armbar,ie tail firmly around your uper arm, and the head pulling against your fingers, or handcuffs, ie snake is wraped around one arm, then while you are typing decides to wrap around the other arm as well?

my biggest problem however is when they decide to ty to go through my glasses. i have one, every time he is out, he decides to go under my glasses, it just seems to be his favorite perch( of course this is a 3 ft, 1250 gram snake, so he doesnt fit that well...)

I look at my balls everyday as i go through them, and admire them, but i dont have the time to handle everyone. I do have my favorites and at the end of a long day of cleaning sometimes ill sit in my snake room and just play with a few for a little while. It becomes very difficult as your collection grows. alot of my big girls only get touched for cleaning or when we are feeling for folicules. Our big males get touched to be moved from one cage to another during breeding season. I try and hold alot of my CB babies when cleaning instead of putting them down so they are fairly solcialized when they go to there new homes, but that also proves difficult more then not. I started out with 4 balls when i was 14 and working at a local pet shop. Once i started seeing morphs years later things escalated into a full time job that my fiance and i live for everyday now. We have alot of work cut out for us this year we have over 90 big females breeding, so we will see what happens. Good luck in your future breeding, hopefully you can find as much happiness in this trade as we did...
Matt and Kim
NARC Reptiles

How long have you had this ball python. I hope to handle mine more often. I have a yearling.

So her feeding is not affected by the amount of handling? How often do you feed her?
Thanks.

Hi all... This has been a great string of messages. I do not yet have any reps but plan on getting my first ball late summer. Right now im researching everything that i can so im prepared when the time comes. Strings like this get me even more excited about having a python around! Thanks for the amusing readings!!

Mike