Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently was allowed by a local importer to sort through a lot of 1,500 imported CH baby ball pythons. I purchased a couple of the snakes that I thought looked different than my normals, but I'm not absolutely sure what they are. I will be posting them in the hope that someone can help me out with identifying what they may be. I have attached a picture of one of them with one of my normals. This one has an extremely light head as you can see from the photo. The light mark extends down the neck a ways. Additionally, it lacks the black that is usually on the front of the face. Its "lips" are almost arange. It is also somewhat lighter than my normals in coloration. I can send additional pictures if anyone needs them to make a determination. Any opinions on what this may be would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! -David

Looks like yet more normals to me!

Thanks for the info. I'm new at ball pythons. My other morphs are all obvious ones (albinos and pieds) that I bought from established breeders, so these harder to ID ones are still a little foreign to me. Thanks for the input! -David

I just picked up a light colored one (particularly on the head) too. Probably just normal variation. Does yours have a normal belly pattern?

So where did they get 1,500 ch this time of year? This wasn't Extreme Reptiles was it? How much does yours weigh?

The thing is that the African babies mainly hatch in April. However all the sudden some pet stores are showing up with large lots of hatchling sized babies that they apparently paid $20 or less for. Could these be 6 or 7 month old imports that have hardly gained any weight? I had some small hatchlings so I guess it's conceivable that these could be that old and just now reaching big hatchling weight.

Hmm, I don't know. I was told they were babies, but that's entirely possible. They're eating great for me now, but who knows? Anyway, thanks for the reply. I'm new at this stuff, so info from experienced people is always helpful! Thanks again! -David

even though they have not gained much weight the balls are still probrably alright as long as they were purchased by the store as feeders it isn't untill in a couple of months from know that you should be weary of the bottom of the barrel syndrome

Cool, thanks for the info. I'm not worried about them. The snakes I purchased are all eating like little monsters, so I figure they are ok. Anyway, thanks for the info!

Mine weighed 82 grams but was very thin showing skin wrinkles on her sides in the last 1/2 of the snake. She snatched up a small mouse hopper and it made a pretty good lump. I'm guessing these guys couldn't have been feed more than once every month or two to keep them this size so don't overload their digestive systems with too much too quick. Given her appetite I was tempted to offer another feeder but knew better. It takes a lot of energy to get their digestive system primed for a big meal so thin animals should be started slowly on small meals. The shock of a big meal can literally kill a week animal.

Gotcha, I've been feeding them a fuzzie or a hopper every 7-10 days since I picked them up. Does that seem too often, or do you think I should slow it down even more?

Glad you asked.

I just meant give them small meals the first meal or two. I suppose you can go too small and it not even be big enough to replace the energy it takes to digest. For some reason I hear a lot of people underestimating the correct meal size for ball pythons and giving them pinkies and the like.

Unless your babies are runt hatchlings they can for sure take hopper mice (i.e. small weanling mice). Yours sound like they should be ready for small adult mice by now or maybe even try fuzzy rats.

Thanks for the quick response. That's good info. I've definitely struggled with trying to figure out what the proper meal size is for different size ball pythons, so that helps. Thanks

David, no disrespect intended but I have to ask...you said you're still figuring out what size prey to feed your BP's, and asking questions regarding obviously wild-type animals (normals)and you're self admittedly "new" to all this, but your "other morphs" are Pieds and Albinos???? Must be nice to jump in the fire that quickly Got any pics you can post of those????
Take care!!
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No disrespect taken. My other animals are all hets purchased from Ralph Davis and Peter Kahl. My pied hets came from Peter Kahl, and my albino hets came from Ralph Davis. Perhaps I overstated my "newness" to the herp community. This is my first stab at wild-type animals, but I've been working with other snakes for a little while. I am pretty new to the whole BP morph thing though. Before recently, I only worked with normal animals (mainly colubrids) simply because I enjoyed working with them - no intention of making a fortune or turning the herp community upsid-down with a polka-dotted, het for feathers, tucks you into bed at night and sings you gently to sleep BP morph . However, I recently decided to try to start working with BP morphs, so I purchased my hets. I hope that clarifies things a bit. Thanks again for your thoughts! -David

Now Now Troy, I see where this is going!!!!LOL, what's been goin on?

Steve Doss

I have bought yearlings that were just a little bigger than babies. They are bought by the tens of thousands by places like gourmet rodent, mark bell, etc and maintenance fed once eveery two weeks. They do not gor wmuch but keep their weight, and arent starved skinny. I bought about 20 of these and have them ranging from 400-700 grams within a 3-4 months. They are fine and healthy and I started by pounding them right away as soon as i got them.
maintenance feeding them does not harm the animal, they just dont grow as quickly as others.
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

Bush Babies which are small but still have a little growth, I have seen some very late hatchers that were caught that were the size of hachtlings from april/may
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"Quality isn't Quality without customer service so I guess I sell quality"

That's one of the reasons I wish I could trace them down. If they where actually loose in the wild for 6 months I will be even more careful with mine (of course coming through your average pet store or distributor might be just as likely to lead to contamination).

Anyone ever heard of an "Extreme Reptiles" out of Florida?

>Anyone ever heard of an "Extreme Reptiles" out of Florida?

Yes, why?
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Chad Bachman