Reptile & Amphibian Forums

*Proud newbie parent here*

Nice looking ball. Are those fake rocks?
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1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

Yep. It's a fake rock anchoring down a fake plant. He likes to curl up in the plant & sun himself. When he gets bigger, the plant/rock will go into the tortoise cage.

I tried keeping fake plants in with my balls...my baby kept climbing to the top of them, trying to get comfy, and then falling off with a very loud THUMP.

He is a pretty boy and his setup looks like it's pretty too

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 neurotic mouse (Cute Girl Mousey)
1.0 escape artist mouse (Jesusmouse)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

The Saddest Mouse

This is just a "regular" ball, right?

When will I know the sex? Is it better for the snake to offer up a mate, or not?

Is there a place I can go to reference all the lingo & abbreviations used on this forum? I have a lot to learn. Tx.

A normal or wildtype, yep. (to be honest they're my favorites )

You can know the sex pretty much by either probing or popping, both of which I recommend you convince a more experienced herper to do for you.
Probing = very thin metal rod gently pushed from the vent to the end of the tail to see how deep it goes. It goes noticeably deeper (5-7 scales) in males than in females (3 scales or less).
Popping = using your hands to evert the hemipenes (if present), and tends to work best on young snakes. With either one it's easy to hurt the snake if you're not entirely sure what you're doing, which is why it's usually better to see another herper do it before you try.

The snakes won't really care either way if they have a mate or not. Lots of pet snakes go their whole lives without ever gettin in the sack, as it were. You still might have to deal with the snake going off feed during "breeding season", but that doesn't mean it's gotta make babies.

For lingo: Try the NERD website - just google NERD ball pythons and you'll get the site. It's thorough and easy to understand, which is pretty handy.

Otherwise...just keep reading! If you have a question, ask it! (kinda like in school when the teacher says always ask a question if you've got one, someone else is probably wondering the exact same thing)

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 neurotic mouse (Cute Girl Mousey)
1.0 escape artist mouse (Jesusmouse)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

The Saddest Mouse