Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alot of the Gravid WC females I see are lighter in color. Is it the "glow" gravid females get, and if so, have you purhcased gravid females based on color, and been dissapointed by their "real" color after she laid?

Dave

Dave probably the wear and tear of the african terrain .

Derek

your thinking about gettin some wild caught gravids Dave. But thats just a guess.

Jeff

No, actually I am not. I am just curious though. Most of the WC gravid females I have seen have the gravid glow going on. I just wonder how many people get wc gravids based on their appearance, and once they lay, are they dissapointed in the look?

Would you buy one if you knew that the color or pattern for that fact was genetic and almost certain to reproduce itself?

I would not because the fact is, I do not have a quarantine site set up right now, because I have not needed one in awhile. I do not have access to ASF rats, hate giving shots to snakes...am no vet, and do a poor impersonation...the list of negatives far outweigh the possitives for me.

I have however purchased one CH female, based on her appearance. She was farmed, and shipped to the US BEFORE getting any food or African water...supposedly. I have never had any problems with her. She is being bred by a Cinn male right now.

I haven't tried a wild caught BP since the late 80's. I failed back then but luckily my friend Shawn had more patience and luck then I did. I don't support the taking of such females but I am often tempted by the challenge.

I have been tempted, but I am not the right one to care for the females once they have laid, and am man enough to admit it

Dave

dude,,, you have no clue what your talking about. you take the eggs away, wash the female and let her settle in a hide for 6 weeks and than offer weaned rats.

Gravids have a good success rate they are eager to feed once they lay and acclimate well.

I am glad you have had success with them.

Dave

Admittedly I do like looking at the WC girls when they come it - but for the most part you can really tell which are "glowing" and which just have nice color - I'd take a brightly colored girl over a "desert ghost" wannabe any day.

Then again the odd color/pattern on any WC ball would be questionable - just because we know other issues from malnutrition to egg stress can cause these. The fun part I guess is working towards finding out if it is genetic.

BTW - gunna have any embers for me this year?
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Tosha
JET Pythons

Let me try and answer your question, since... I actually keep and work with WC females. YES. If the female is light in color, and after she lays her clutch, sheds and becomes just another ball python in captivity, it will retain the color it was before it laid it's eggs. We are talking Color, not "glow".
I have a nice collection of "burgandy" balls, that are just as light and colorful now, as when I got them in gravid.
To this day, I can not believe the non-senses that goes on about WC's. I have a fairly large collection of them. I love them just as much as my CBB animals. They eat just as well, they bred, and are actually thriving in my care.
Sure, there are bad apples in any barrel. Recently I was vending at a "show" and I saw some TERRIBLE balls at more then one vendor's table... Skinny pastels, bubbles coming from the mouth of a spider yearling...
This is about "glow" and color, so I'll step down off my box, but I feel it is very rewarding to work with not only CB animals, but all the amazing animals that come in from Africa.
We just keep forgetting where all these morphs first came from...
If you would like to talk more about this topic, please feel free to email me....

And oh..... this came from a WC gravid female...

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Ron Billingsley
www.ronbillingsleyreptiles.com

Finally someone who speaks from experience.

Great, I am glad you posted. Does it really depend on who you get them from, or just your own experience? What percentage do you think lay and then thrive? What percentage do you think lay viable eggs?

While I am not a fan of taking wc and gravid animals out of the wild, I am glad to hear that they are not just throw away animals, and that some if not most actually thrive after they lay.

Do you have a big quarantine area, do you keep the WC's in the same snake room eventually? Are most of them free from ticks? Do you do any internal cleansing?

Dave

Great, I am glad you posted. Does it really depend on who you get them from, or just your own experience?

Why would it depend on where you got them? If an animal is... say a black back, would it not be a black back regardless from who you purchased it from.

What percentage do you think lay and then thrive? What percentage do you think lay viable eggs?

Well, I held back a nice number of females this past season, and only one did not lay. I kept it back, because I really like the snake, I felt follicles in her, but they never deveopled beyond that point. All the ones that were gravid, laid fertile clutches. And I had a high successful hatch rate.
I had every female settle down and started consuming live rats within weeks. Today, each one is still in my collection, eating just as much as the CBB animals.

Do you have a big quarantine area, do you keep the WC's in the same snake room eventually? Are most of them free from ticks? Do you do any internal cleansing?

I treat all the females for external parasites before I even bring them to my facilites. Then once here, they are treated again. WC ball pythons harbor ticks. I have never seen a mite on a WC animal. We can't say the same for CBB ones....
I do not treat any gravid for internal while they are gravid.
Once they lay eggs, and are eating I preform fecals on them.
And treat accordling.

I hope I answered all your questions. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Here is another baby produced by a WC gravid.... isn't it pretty?

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Ron Billingsley
www.ronbillingsleyreptiles.com

What I meant by "Does it depend on who you get them from?" was this, are there people who keep their gravids in better conditions than others, have you had good luck with dealer A but not dealer B? It seems like a person who has imported gravid females for years, might have better quality animals than someone just trying it out this year? That is a nice animal, but I have seen many CH that look exactly the same.

Dave