Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well i bought a ball python at the Raleigh show on saturday along with a flying gecko and 4 D. auratus PDFs. i talked with the vendor and he said that he hadn't fed in about 2 weeks. i get all the animals home and they seem to acclimate fairly well. the gecko starts eating crickets the PDFs are gobbling down flies and the python seems comfortable in her 10 gal tank. i try to feed her a fuzzy the next day but she isn't interested at all, but i do find a tick on her and remove it while i'm taking her out of the feeding tank. Flash forward a few days and the gecko suddenly dies, one second he is fine and the next he's gone. i assume i just got a sick animal that looked ok but must have had an internal problem.

now yesterday i put a small full grown mouse in with the python and she tries to bite it but can't get her mouth on it enough latch on securely, so i feed the mouse to my copperhead instead and say i'll get a F/T fuzzy today. when i get back from class today the python is coild up dead under her heat lamp. my setup is a 10 gal tank with aspen bedding, a hide box and water bowl on one end and a 50w heat lamp on the other. the tank is directly adjacent to my copperheads tank. now should i assume that i just have horrible luck and got another sick animal or does it sound like she may have starved to death or something is wrong with my setup? (she was showing a few skin folds, but you couldn't really see here spine)

Sounds like you bought a sick, dehydrated imported animal. If this was the case, there most likely wasn't much you could have done to save it. Next time, try inspecting the animal closer before purchasing it. Ticks are a dead give away. No reputable breeder is going to allow ticks to infest their captive bred stock. Plus, the skin folds you noted were probably due to dehydration. Many imported/wild caught animals go through a lengthy shipping process and often need to be rehydrated upon arrival.

Buy captive bred animals. Sure you'll pay more, but generally it is worth it. And ask lots questions of the person who is selling you the animal next time. Don't be afraid to drill them, if they are reputable they will be able to answer your questions easily. If at any time, you don't feel comfortable with the replies you are getting walk away. It's that simple. As long as the cash is still in your pocket you have control. Once you give them the money, getting it back can get tricky.
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It's actually not that I love or even like snakes. I just hate rodents.

Sounds like you bought WC, and there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you know what you're getting in to. What concerns me more is the fact that you bring WC animals home and expose your whole collection to whatever diseases these WC may have.

Not trying to preach here, but, you didn't quarantine these animals? Then you took a food item out of the tank of the potentially sick python, after you said it had the prey in its mouth, and transferred it to your copperhead? Bad choices, you really need to keep new arrivals isolated for 2-3 months minimum before exposing them to your other animals.

Please consider this before your next purchase it will save you a lot of trouble, and possibly spare the life of an animal.
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Sam
Gecko Den
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yeah, i don't know what i was thinking. wasn't too bright of me.

I thing the 2-3 month quarantine is probably enough time, but I still seperate everything I get in, captive bred or not, for at least 4-6 months. It's a good idea to not feed prey items from one snake to another if you are not familiar with both of them, but we all still learn from day to day. Take care.

Brandon Osborne

Did you buy these animals from the same vendor or seperate ones? If one , who was it? I go to the Raleigh show every year and like to know who to stay away from. Sorry to hear this happened.

EP
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Occupants not paying rent:
16 eggs incubating
7 balls
2.2 corns(candy cane, creamsicle, ghost, normal)
1 pueblan milk
1 everglades rat
1 cal. king
1 gray band king
1 w. hognose
1 bearded dragon
2 fish
1 rat
1 mouse
5 cats