Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I heard they grow bigger than most "normal" balls.
Is this true?

If they are captive hatched, could I expect feeding issues?

I was thinking about picking up a few Ghana females this year.
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-Man fears the beast in the Wolf because he does not understand the beast within himself.

There are some sellers out there that swear that the Ghana babies are better and bigger babies but I do not agree with them. I personally have imported (which we are no longer importing) a couple thousand balls from Both Ghana and Togo (as well as smaller numbers from Benin) and really have seen no difference between them. We had babies from both countries be larger and smaller than others. We imported more Yellow Bellies, Ghost, and a few others morphs from Togo than from Ghana. If the babies are early in the season we rarely ever had any feeding problems (some would take an extra week or 2 but rarely did we get any non-feeders. Babies from both countries (as well as from Benin) are good if you get them early in the season and get them from a reputable importer or seller.
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Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
www.rkreptiles.com
www.rkreptiles.net
www.oldworldchameleons.com
www.ballpythonmorphs.net
www.beardedragons.com

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An old article I've been reading in 'reptile hobbyist' magazine about the ball pythons in ghana explains that most of the adult ball pythons they encountered were larger than what they had been told was the 'maximum' (they were told around 50" at the time of the expedition. They said the maximums they recorded were 68" (5', 8" for males, and 74" (6', 2" for females, though there was an exporter or someone around there that had a female that was 78" long. They recorded weights of up to 7.9 pounds.

I don't support the wild capture of reptiles and other exotic animals for most species (since we have such good captive breeding programs now), but I assume that ball pythons, even captive bred, originating from the region may grow a little larger than those that come from other areas. However, my opinion is based on an article written 8 years ago about a study in Ghana, and not firsthand experience.

I was actually talking about the same topic this morning I have never heard anyone say it, but I did notice it with my CH Ghana female, she seems to grow faster and has a bigger more robust build then other balls I have on the same feeding schedule and age. I also noticed the scales on Ghana's look to be more "beaded" then other balls.

Devon