Time to bombard the ball page with my odd, yet logical(sp?) questions (please go easy on the "read the archives" - I have)
The first one is a variation on a theme - the longer I have my ball, the more I think she(that's question #2) is w/c ...
It's right at 38", physically looks to have a good weight(no real way of weighing him/her), hasn't noticably lost any weight dince I got it last Sept. from a customer, who claimed to be moving.
Tank is a 40 gallon(36*18), with 2 hides, and a warm end setting around 88-90 and the cool end near 82-84. Humidity stays around 50-55%.
The last time s/he ate between Thanksgiving day and tonight was on Feb. 6th, and that was when I'd gotten so frustrated I bought a button quail, which was devoured. tried a rat put 5 minutes later, no dice. I've tried every color of mice/rats known to science, and am now the owner of two gerbils a co-worker of mine offered. I keep reading mixed reviews about weather or not going off-feed is normal, and just want to know two things:
#1 - is this average? The snake's a bit over 2 years old, could hormones starting to kick in be to blame?
#2 - how baddly do you think I screwed myself giving him/her a quail?? A lot of nights are spent watching it cruise the tank as if it's starving, so I go out to the shed, grab a mouse, walk back in, whack it, and stick in in only to be greeted by it(deceased rodent) in the morning!! Not to insult anyone on this forum, but this is why MY snake of choice(when my money was involved) was a Dumeril's boa...such a headache from such a beauty of an animal(she's either hypo or the pastels, certainly not normal looking...too beigey looking, and not really black at all either; vet calls it hypomelanistic)
Now, for round two:
I've been told that there's a way of applying force to the tail of a snake that'll allow you to determine gender without probing or popping - something about if you feel from the anus down, and feel two stretched-rubberband-type things, then it's a boy...any validity on that???
Thanks for answering the ever-so-repeated question!!
Kim & crew
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the crew:
1.0 Dumeril's boa (Ivan)
0.0.1 Ball Python, hypo (Nikkomis)
1.0 viper boa (named him Dante)
1 Shar-pei (Sable)
1 wookie(half old english, half giant schnauzer: Gus)
1 cat goddess (Graycee)
too many "breed-my-feeders" mice/rats
1 dumbo rat (Boopsy)
1 very understanding husband, who only claims the dogs
