Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know if this has already been done on here or not, but I was just curious how everyone on here got started with BPs? How long you've been interested, When you got your first one, How many you have now, and whatever else you'd like to say concerning your interest in BPs. Me personally, I've always had an interest in owning a snake or snakes but for a long time I actually owned tarantulas instead. I ended up getting a very bad allergy to the tarantulas so I sold them. After that I decided to get a snake but I wasn't sure what to get. I never even heard of ball pythons until I started doing research on what I wanted to get that would be a relatively calm snake and one that wouldn't get too big. Instead of getting a corn snake like most people told me to get as a first snake, I got my ball python on April 2nd and haven't regretted a minute of it! I know most people probably would say that snakes don't have a personality but they might not say that if they saw mine! A very calm and active snake and the best pet I've ever owned, by far! Anyway, if anyone on here wants to share a little background about themselves and their BPs feel free. Thanks!

.....i came out with a lovely baby BP.

I had kept Garters as a kid and had always wanted to delve into the world of Boids but my parents would never let me have any 'big ' snakes. Anyway round about the time i got on the net ( 1997 ) i found myself going on alot of snake sites and reading up on Boas and Pythons. Then one day i just went to my my local bird/rep store to get some parrot food for my African Grey. I'd always have a look in the Rep section just to see the animals and noticed some baby BP's. To cut this story short i ended up buying one and have never looked back!

Ade.

Well, I've loved snakes since I was 4 or 5 years old. I have that from my father. He also likes reptiles very much but has never had them. But my mother hates reptiles so of course I couldn't have one.
When I was 16 I went to an Argarian school where they also had reptiles. Besides the lessons I was before and after schooltime always busy with the aminals. I took care of one of the schools horses so spend much after-school time there. Therefore I was a lot around the terrariums too. And we also had a BP. I named her Kaa and checked on her every day. And still my parents would not let me have a reptile.
When I was 22 I got married and left home. This was my chance!!! But my husband didn't like reptiles either. I got permission to take some lizards after a short period but snakes would not come into our home! Untill last fall. I finally got permission to have a snake (cried my eyes out from happiness). And two weeks later I got my Monty Python. I had done a lot of research in the past years (and that were many years!) so was fully ready to keep a snake.
And since a few weeks I have 2 BP. Got a little CB female (born March 24th 2003).
Naara.net

Hi. My name is Caroline and am new to the Kingsnake forum. I have always loved snakes. Unfortunately my Dad did not like them and would not let me get any while I was growing up(even with help from my Mom). Then I got married and he did not like smakes either. So got rid of him and now I have a great boyfriend and two gorgeous ball pythons that we will be breeding next season.

Well, that is my story in a nut shell.

Well I can't say that i grew up intresting in reptile, i never thought my life would turn out the way it has. I basically woke up one morning with this idea of looking into getting a snake for our apartment, now i was lucky enough to have a boyfriend who supported my ideas no matter how little i knew about what i was getting myself into. We went around to local pet stores and started doing reasearch. Now at the time, being a girl i was scared of anything over two feet and thought that would be tooooo big and i would never want to handle it. We started looking into Corn snakes and in fact the first Ball python i say was just a little over 3 feet and i turned and ran away from its cage saying it was just to big. Now my boyfriend loved balls from the get go. He really liked the shape of the heads, which explains why he loves our boas now. So we looked into both balls and corns, but i finally came face to face with Larry... He was about 5 months old and was the "left overs" from the large import of balls which the store had recieved in mid-summer. he balled up in my hand and that was it, we took him home. Since then we have purchase many other snakes but Larry will always hold a special place in my heart. I am expecting the arrival of my 100% het for albinos anytime this month and look forward to my new breeding project. To date i have One White Lipped Python, 2 Hogg Island Boas , 2 normal Ball Pythons , and 2 100% hets .. But thats our story... I remember when we first had Larry every little thing had to be perfect, he had a new cage and new everything before he needed it, we spoiled him rotten but hey he deserves it..

Sincerely,
Rose and Steve

I'm a big king/corn person, and nearly all of my snakes died in a terrible accident involving a space heater and a failed thermostat. So it's just me, my Mex. black king (literally the nicest, hardiest snake you'll ever meet), and enough room to hold 10 snakes. I had to get SOMETHING, right?

The petstore had BP babies, which they usually don't. Plus, barring something expensive (I'm a poor man), a BP is one of the only pythons that will live in roughly the same size tanks as my king(s) (there will be more).

After kings, corns, and *shudder* garters, I must say that I can understand the appeal of the boid world. Very mellow (well, my friend downstairs has a JCP, so maybe not always mellow), very enjoyable snakes to work with.

This was just 3 days ago As commonplace as it is to all of you, I had/have year-old kings unable to eat adult mice, and my BP (Isabella) just wolfed down a f/t rat pup. I'm amazed.

So I guess what got me into BP's was a bunch of empty tubs and a sale at the petstore...

After reading about how... badly some BP's are produced, with funky diseased exports and people passing off non-eating babies because you can't really tell, etc., I was scared at first. But I do trust this petstore (the owner's a family friend), and lo and behold, Isabella's nice, active, and eats just fine.

I currently keep one female ball python, and her story goes something like this. I have several friends who’ve had female iguanas. They raved about them. I had decided that I wanted a reptile, and began asking about green iguanas. Got a lot of feedback on some of their problems. I looked into Chinese water dragons, instead. I was pretty well set on them. So, my husband, who is a little boy at heart and was so geeked about getting a reptile, drove us out to the Swap Meet in Streamwood, IL.

As I wandered about for an hour, I looked at the dragons, and decided they were NOT CUTE! (I like cute animals, even if only *I* think they’re cute!) But, we did see a single ball python this guy Nick was selling. I kept looking at her, and noticed how freaking CUTE she was.

Now, I’ve held snakes when the “Creature Feature” came to my elementary school, but not in the last 15 years. Nick picks her up, and plops her down in my hands, and tells us that she’s captive bred, she looks great, good muscle tone, I am sold.

So, knowing that we need to have a home for her, we buy the ball python manual, and build a SWEET enclosure for her in one week’s time. Spending all our evenings checking temps, buying better UTHs, reading. One week later, we went back to the Swap. Nick remembered us, and asked if we were still interested in the snake. Heck yeah! So, Abigail came home to her palatial enclosure, and has eaten, shed, and been pretty content for the last 5 months.

My husband & I now have a ton of new “cute” animals to contend with. After Abby, then came a poison dart frog (Stink), then a bearded dragon (Boo), another dart frog (Tink), and I just got a new dart frog on Sunday (Ollie). (By the way, they are all adorable!)

~Maxwells

I had always wanted a snake since i was like 10, but my mom said no. So one day like 2 years ago I went to an expo and just bought a cal king. It was barely a foot long and my mom freaked out but it was the only way I could get one. I should have asked but the answer would have been no, so I just had to buy one. Here it is almost 2 years later, I have a black rat and a ball, my moms policy is hear no evil, see no evil ...somethin like that. She just never comes in my room. I liked my kingsnake but it was a little nippy and smaller than what i wanted. So i traded it and 30 dollars for and adult bp and it was worth it.

my parents are divorced and i live with my mom so i dont spend more than a week with my dad but back to how i got involved with ball pythons i went to his house far the weekend and there was this aquiarium and at first i didnt notice the snake but then i did i wasnt to keen on snakes, never being around them berofe (i was about 8) he took out a baby ball python. he still has him to the day his name is harley about 4'6'' pretty he looks almost pastel. but thats it now i have my own a girl 2'

Well I've been into Herps for 6 years now, (I mostly keep Lizards and Turtles though cuz my parents aren't crazy about snakes )
A few months after getting my first snake (a Corn) last summer, I liked snakes soooo much and I starting thinking about getting another snake (somthing a little bigger than a Corn.)
I read an article on BPs in an issue in Reptiles Mag, and started my Python reserch! After convinceing my parents that a Ball PYTHON isn't a huge, 12 foot, man-eating snake with gigantic Needles for fangs (lol...) I got a baby BP in October at a herp show. She's a beautiful cb female from Ben Seigal Reptiles, and she's quickly become one of my favorite herps (except for my Beardies that is ) and I plan to buy her a mate when she's old enough.

Her name is Smeagol, and here she is pretending to be a Cobra

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-Lauren

~ Lauren's Lizards ~

groups.yahoo.com/group/LaurensLizards

very nice shot !

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-Lauren

~ Lauren's Lizards ~

groups.yahoo.com/group/LaurensLizards

Was breeding giant pythons up until about 5 years ago (burms, retics, and rocks). Space became an issue, so I cleared out my inventory and focused on other things. I missed the guys so much that I just HAD TO get some more, only I didn't have the space for the big guys anymore...so I turned to the snake that I recommended to everyone left and right, but had mostly overlooked by and large. Long story short, I'd have been a lot better off if I would have just gone with the BP's to begin with!

i work at a vets office and last year during a winter storm when power was out a guy called and asked if he could board his 2 bp's at our clinic because he had no heat and was worried about them. the guy gave us fake name and info and never came back to reclaim his snakes. so after being at the clinic for three weeks it was decided that we should contact a retpile rescue to care for them and try to adopt them out. . ive always had a thing for reptiles and took them myself this was the start of my reptile collection. since then i have acquired 4 corn snake and just bought a dumerils boa and of course still have the 2 bps.

I worked in a Pet store....for my birthday asked dh for a mexican milk. He comes in to meet the snake (we had other colubrids at home) and looks at this 4 ft female BP. She is the problem child of the store. Hadn't eaten the whole 7 months she was there. WC. What she had going for her was that she was sweet and a sheer flirt. My dh says, what's this? I get her out and she is inside his shirt, up in his hair.......total slut. We get both snakes.
Month later she is settled. Trying everything with her and she finally takes a F/T gerbil late at night with all the lights out....for me. She only has eaten 4 months of the year for the nearly three years I have had her. And she went from 2.5 to 3.5 in the first year.
Then we get in a shipment of baby wc bps....covered in ticks. (high class place...note, I am a former employee) One is very goldy and has half gold eyes and I like. Take home, probe, thinking male, but I am new at probing then, not sure. But cool, eventually I will have a pair. He/it takes a month and a half to adjust and finally takes fuzzys(because of intimidation,not sheer size).......now, a year later is up to 40gram rat pups prekilled or F/T.
Then a freind says, gee, he has this male that is adult and wc and given to him because it wouldn't eat and all. He trys the gerbils after months all summer of not eating. It eats them and sometimes deigns to take scented rats. But he has other projects and offers me the big guy, "since you already have gerbils for Urbi"
So I have Bull. He does two things....eats gerbils (so far no luck with scenting yet this spring) breeds the heck out of Urbi this winter...and three.....poops! He is sweet too, and heavy as a tank. Was over 4 pounds last winter and haven't weighed him since he broke fasting/and breeding. But when I cleaned his cage he felt like iron.
So, I guess I am into BPs now. I don't see myself buying more....and certainly not the $$$$ morphs. But I won't be getting rid of these either.
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Sonya

WEEELLLLLLLL....I actually had gotten my FIRST ball about a little over a year ago, but my parents made me give it back after 2 days I asked my boyfriend at the time if I could keep it at his place but he said no, so I was out one snake and cage setup....luckily the pet store had a 3 day policy on animals so I got all my money back for it all.

First snake, take two...I got my first number 2 ball back in March. I went into the same pet store again and checked out their balls, the pet store employee took one out and I held him for a while. He wraped my wrist like a bracelet and stayed that way, it was SOOOO cute! I loved him and had to have him from that instance. His name is Zan.

I was hooked...I went to a reptile expo in Orlando and fell in love with another one. A female, one year old. She looked so perfect and the price was just right too. Bought her and have her now, Sagira.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Zoe
Zan's Den

I got into a petstore and see this cute little snake. Awww. I fall in love with BPs on sight. So, about a month later, I get my little male, Spooky. That was last January (2002).

Since then, I got 1.1 in July (but the female died this January - I cried so much), unknown in August, unknown in Feb (my V-day present to fill the empty cage left by my female), and a female last weekend. This weekend, I'm getting 1.1 from a friend in Chicago. Also, I got 1.1 snow corns, but, but surprise, they escaped.

So, I'll have 7. 3.2.2
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-Irish
My Snakes

I saw a picture of a pied and I was hooked.

Is it true Harry Potter got run over by a UPS truck?

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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

My father and i have always been into snakes and other reptiles( im a proud mom of: Daisy (norm ball),3 fbt's,1 chinesewater dagon,a pacman frog,fish tank and so much more to come) (the next reptile show is july 12th and ive been saving up),...so we went to the all maryland reptile show in havre de gace just to look around...and i seen this ball and i was like dad im getting her... and he was like jamie ill get u the snake u get the tank and all of the set up stuff... so i got her and he was like your moms gonna beat my ass... then i went to the pet product section of the show and got a tank and evrything else...when we came home my mom just looked at me and shook her head..." butch im gonna kick your ass!oh then daisy escaped my mom really didnt like that... it was about a month before we found her... my mom doesnt come in my room or near my snake...but i love m bal and i wouldnt trade her for the world... shes a bit spoiled but is there any other way to keep a pet but the spoiled way?

I have 3 sons, the oldest being 10, then 8 and 7 and a little girl 4. We love to hike and run around in the woods, catching and releasing all sorts of critters. Salamanders, brown snakes, garter snakes, frogs, etc. My oldest asked to keep one of the garters he caught. So.....we get this set up, with a lamp and a heat pad and everything else, and keep this wild caught garter snake for 2 years before it passes. (We have no idea how old it was, but it was approx 2 1/2 ft long) So after the snake dies, Mom is surprised that she MISSES THE SNAKE! We look into snakes, figuring on a corn or milk snake, and then I see the Ball Pythons. They are the puppy dogs of the snake world. We price them everywhere in Rhode Island, and end up getting ours at Regal Reptiles in Providence, an awesome place for anyone interested in Herps. He's at the age now where we need to move him up to a bigger cage, so we'll have this 10 gal tank empty..........I think I like Bearded Dragons.