Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The pet store near my home is selling this ball python. He or she is about two feet long and weighs 425 grams. I think she's beautiful, and she seems to like me. She has some nicks along her body. One spot near her tail appears to be covered with a little spot of bubble gum, but it doesn't come off with gentle rubbing. I'd really like my second ball python to be a male, and if I knew this one were a male, I'd already have him at home. I don't plan to breed for a while, but if I decided to breed someday, it would be nice to have both male and female already. Even if she's a female, I'm attracted to her enough that she might be worth getting.

I had planned to wait until my little girl was at least a year old to prove to myself that I can keep these guys alive, but I feel pretty good about how my little girl is doing. I think I could make another of these guys happy and healthy.

At first, I was certain that she was a pastel. Now, I think she's just a very light-colored normal. All of the aliens on this side of her body have only one eye. She has a few two-eyed aliens on the side that's hidden. She has a few flames but fewer than my other girl has. This picture captures the blushing pretty well. Her head is very light with the light color bleeding towards her body. She's a little pricey if she's a normal, but she's exceptionally pretty.

I'm also struggling to get my spare cage to regulate temperature properly. It's jumping quite a bit, but I have a lamp dimmer that I will use to try to establish some control. If the cage had gone to the right temperature immediately, I'd probably have this one at home already. Outfitting a cage as a quarantine cage means that I'll use newspaper and non-organic hides instead of my usual assortment of every piece of furniture that I can find. Does anyone have tips for using newspaper and keeping the temperature over the heater from getting too high? Bark substrates don't seem to heat up as much as the newspaper does. (I'm very thankful that everyone sold me on the idea of getting a temperature gun. My PE-2 from Pro-Exotics has had quite a workout since I saw her last night.)

Thanks,

Bill

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

She looks like a pretty normal to me. Any history on her? CB, WC ? Hows she eating? Since she is handleable I would guess she is a CB but the nicks on her body would tell me she is probably a live feeder - are you ready to go there (LOL).

If she is not too expensive - go with your heart - you can make it work!
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

6.34.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.4 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.0 Lizards of unknown origin

Thanks for the comments.

She came from a breeder in Texas, but he didn't tell me who the breeder is. The guy who runs the store went over this weekend to get a bunch of snakes, and she's one of the ones he got. He said that conditions there were much better than what he's used to seeing, but they just put two balls into each of two bags for him. He brought the four of them home and dumped them in a 20 gallon long.

Again, she'd be a pricey normal, but she's very pretty. If I could know that she were a he, I'd certainly be interested. (If I could get my spare aquarium working, I'd be even more interested.)

A part of me is also driven by the fact that my California Kingsnake is the only snake that's ever left that shop alive. Technically, their two balls left alive. One died at the vet's place within a week and the other died the day he was purchased. They're getting much better at their husbandry, but they don't do everything that I'd try to do. They are better than most places about having people clean their hands before handling the snakes.

I'm tempted to ask them to separate her for me for a few days and then let me try to feed her a f/t rat. They know me well enough that there's an even chance that they'd allow me to try that experiment. If she took the rat, I'd buy her. If not, I'm not sure what I'd do. My little girl started as a live feeder and converted fairly easily. On the other hand, she was much smaller when I got her.

A funny story about the whole thing is that one of the ladies at the store wouldn't have anything to do with snakes when she started work there. I came in one time and told her that I'd been by many times to look at and play with their snakes. She said that I was welcome to mess with them but that she wouldn't come near. I'd get each snake from its cage and ask her to change water while I held the snakes. If she was there alone, she wouldn't get near enough the snakes to change their water. One of the snakes that they brought back from Texas is a four and a half foot boa constrictor. She's become quick friends with the boa and will readily get him out of the cage to carry around. She doesn't hesitate to open cages and change water now. There's only one gopher snake that she doesn't like to handle.

Thanks,

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

Bill, I think she or he is quite nice. Is there anyway of having the animal sexed? If it came from a breeder down in Texas, I would assume it was a male. I only sell males to the pet store I do business with, but they know that I only sell them males and I mark the containers as well.

All of my ball pythons and my Angolans are on paper. I stopped using mulch over a year ago. If you have a thermostat set up to regulate the temps, have the temp on the warm side between 85 and 90 ... young balls do better with lower than 95 temps on the hot spot, at least that is what I have found. All my babies and yearlings are under 90 degrees and they do wonderfully. The room they are in has an ambient temp of between 79 - 83 degrees depending on the time of year. But on average my ambient temp in the baby room is 80 degrees.

If you have the temp for the hot spot at say 90 degrees, take a reading with your temp gun and see what it is and then see what it is with say 6 layers of paper over it. If it is between 85 and 90 I would say that is great. If it flucuates a wee bit it should be fine. You will probably want to take readings over a 24 hour period to see if the temps flucuate too much for your liking.

I use Freedom Breeder racks and the baby trays are 5 inches high, so I need hides that will fit into those trays. I also found that balls like hides that they just barely fit into, they like a tight fit So I went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of plastic flower pot saucers and cut a round hole on one edge to allow them to go in and out easily, although I think they would find a way under it without the opening. This was a few years ago, but I'm sure they still carry them. They suit the purpose, they give the animal a comfortable hide and you can sterilize them when cleaning them.

I also have some plastic children's cereal bowls that I bought at Walmart. I cut openings in the side and use these for balls that are too big for the plant saucers.

These are simple hides that you can use over and over and sterilize them whenever you like. They don't break your budget if you need dozens of them and you can get complimentary colors when buying the cereal bowls

When I put paper in my cages, I use several layers. I buy my paper at ULINE and I also have some newspaper that I get from friends ... HI Mike, Chrissy and Lou!!!
You will find that they will go under the paper and sometimes between the paper, so knowing the exact temp is difficult, but when you hit the tray with the gun you will at least know what the temp is when they lay under the paper, so you will know it isn't too hot.

I say go for it ... the animal is very pretty and I think you have already become attached to it, whether male or female, it would be a good buy because you don't seem to care about having to breed morphs, you just would like to someday breed for the fun and love of the animals.

All of this is just my opinion, I in no way am telling people how to care for their animals, this is just what works for me. This is the "gail disclaimer"

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gail

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I say go for it Bill. I think the dimmer switch will be fine. And it sounds like you have already made up your mind lol.

To Gail I love your "gail disclaimer" that made me lol I like it
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1.2.0 ball python (aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
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"

Well, the bad news is that the bill in the Louisiana House passed 95 to 0. We couldn't get even a single representative to vote for allowing people to keep ball pythons as pets. I won't stop fighting this one. There's still a chance that we can beat this one in the state senate. On the other hand, losing 95 to 0 isn't encouraging.

Part of me wants to buy every ball python that I can find between now and the time that this bill can reach the governor. That way, I can qualify for "previous" ownership of my snakes and keep them under the permit system. On the other hand, if they charge per snake for the permit, I may find myself having to get rid of my animals. Another frightening possibility is that if the bureaucrat inspecting my home doesn't like me, he could deny me a permit, and I'd have to get rid of both of the snakes that I have. Needless to say, I'm having a depressing evening.

As you can imagine, the folks on here will be the first to know if I get this snake.

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

Sorry to hear that Bill we (me & Chrissy) here in WA. will still try to help, by making phone calls if and when it is needed. Because I don't want to see somthing like that here. Or any where for that matter. Even though I don't live in LA. I feel like somone is taking away my rights.
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1.2.0 ball python (aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
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"

Thanks for your kind words. I hope that we can change some minds in the state senate. I obviously didn't have any influence over my representative, but I'm likely to have even less influence over my senator because he's in the opposite party. I'll still try to talk to him. When I closed on my house, he handled the closing, so he might remember me. I hope things will move slowly enough for me to do some writing on this issue. I'm not good at talking to people, so I prefer to write to my legislators. With the vote in the house, things happened too fast for me to write my objections.

Thanks,

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

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gail

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Thanks for the comments. Over the long term, I see myself keeping all of my snakes on bark. I like having them in display cages, and display cages just don't look good with newspaper. I also think that bark is more forgiving of slight temperature excursions. I just want to set up my quarantine cage with simple bedding to let me see things more easily.

I have ordered two extra Ranco thermostats when MGReptiles had them on sale. I bought my Johnson Controls thermostats from MGReptiles a few months ago, so I'm comfortable dealing with Matt. When they arrive, I'll feel pretty confident about setting up a quarantine cage. Until they arrive, I'm going to be worried about lining out the temperatures.

If you noticed my post to havic, you'll see that we lost 95 to 0 in the Louisiana House. I may post more about that issue on your site where I can say things that I shouldn't say here on KS.com.

Thanks,

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

Where your cages are for personal pleasure as well as a home for you snake, I agree, display cages look much better with a natural substrate such as bark.

I read your post above about the bill passing in LA today. I'm sorry to hear this news. I'll check my board for your post, and you've got mail

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gail

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The pet store owner said that two of his new ball pythons are females and two are males. When I talked to his assistant Sunday while she was talking on the phone, it was one male and three females. In either case, he forgot or never knew which was which. At this point, I'm not even certain that whoever sold them to him knew how to sex a snake. If I get this one, I'll get him/her to the vet sometime soon for sexing and other checking. The problem is always that I can't time a snake's defecation to have a fresh sample to take to the vet's office. When I took my first two snakes, I was able to soak my Cal King to get a sample and then left it in a bag next to his cage.

Anyway, at the rate I'm going, someone else will get that snake before I decide how to deal with the latest legislative setback.

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